1) All of a sudden, it was my last full day in Lisbon! And I still hadn’t seen one of the Big Sites, the Monastery of the Jeronimos. So that was going to have to be the plan regardless. After breakfast I found my way downhill to some muscular statuary and the metro to begin my journey.
Observe the muscularity.
2) Again, the miracle of Gyygle Maps + Exact Location got me mostly where I needed to go; I’ll spare you my typical confusion. But the train for the monastery was quite crowded.
2a) At the station at Belém, they didn’t mention that you had to walk on an overpass over a four-lane highway to leave the platform.
3) I got in the long-but-shorter line to see the interior of the church, and was pleased to recognize my guide from Wednesday, Fernando, walking by with his clients for the day. The church is very impressive, but the back was shrouded in scaffolding and construction noises. So I did not really get to be Up Close and Personal with Vasco da Gama.
4) Ye Ryck Styves in his guide had said that tickets could be bought at the next-door archeology museum . . . but it was closed indefinitely. IF YOU GO: There is now a temporary kiosk across the street, across a promenade from another ticket booth that has a small sign on it that said in Portuguese and English “We do not sell tickets to the monastery.”
4a) While I was waiting in the (short) line, I was approached by a bearded man with a woman in tow. “Do you speak English?” he asked. “Yes.” He then said they had two tickets but were in a rush to leave for the airport, and would I buy them. “I’m going to buy my ticket here,” I replied, looking down. In the words of the late Margo Channing, “What do you take me for? Little Nell from the country?!” One hears so much about pickpockets and other scams to fleece tourists . . . I’m not gonna fall for it.
5) Standing in line for 35 minutes (I timed it) between a German family in front of me and a gaggle of American women speaking in the “Like, y’know, omigod!” dialect. I was amused when one of them pulled out her Ryck Styves guide, identical to mine, to read aloud about the monastery. Just like Ruth Draper’s American tourist in her monologue “In a Church in Italy” (starts at 08:52.)
6) Finalmente, I made it past the staff checking tickets, and then through the entrance, up a very grand staircase, and the . . .
Another day, another staircase.
6a) . . . the main attraction, the cloisters of the Monastery of the Jeronimos. This space is a Portuguese National Treasure, make no mistake, as well as an Instagram Moment. Including me, about 90% of the visitors were engaged in taking selfies. But don’t be fooled — there was much to fascinate in the cloisters besides ourselves! Not only the carvings, but the proportions of the space - everything lent to the beauty of this enclosure.
Is this not majestic?!
7) The refectory is also open to the public, with its wainscoting of azulejos narrating Biblical stories.
8) I was out in approximately 25 minutes. But it was worth it.
9) Rain had begun, but I still sought out the Monument to the Discoverers, even if I contented myself with a selfie from a distance.
The church entrance via the bus parking.
10) Back in Lisbon proper, I did a little shopping and trudged back to the hotel through streets new to me, Old Residential Lisbon.
11) I just could not indulge in a NAP on my Last Night in Lisbon! So by 5 PM I was out the door, enjoying the evening light and two chocolate chip cookies and discovering busts marred by graffiti.
12) Passing the Church of Saint Roque, I decided to go in again, and had the good fortune to tour their museum of church treasures (which was closed when I visited the first time). It reminded me of The Name of the Rose: “The question is not ‘Was Christ poor?’ The question is ‘Should the Church be poor?’”
Oh my goodness. Not marred by graffiti, thank goodness.
13) My good fortune continued with an outside table at the famous Café Brasiliera, central to the tourist hubbub on a Friday night. A glass of wine and a smoked salmon sandwich with slices of orange (!) suited my mood.
The castle was illuminated -- probably more to hide the recent vandalism than for my last night, LOL.
14) But I was back in my room about 8:30 to be sure I was completely packed. The next morning I would leaving Lisbon for good.