Lisbon - The Prize at the heart of the invasions

Having arrived in the heart of Lisbon yesterday, today is the day to focus on this city which was the 'prize' of all those who came into Portugal. Junot, Soult, Massena and indeed Wellington all focussed on making it to Lisbon and making it safe. We see in two Forts and a museum what they, and the people of Portugal, have done over the years to keep themselves safe. 

More about the Fort of Belem later, first let's go back to the beginning of the day. 

Early Morning

It will come as no surprise to anyone that I am up at 3.30pm, though the pattern after that was a little different. I normally focus on blogging, but last night I was too tired to finish reviewing the photos, so I spent an hour checking, editing and downloading them. So, I didn't begin the blog post for yesterday until 4.30am. This means that I was only 2/3rds complete when Drew awoke at 5.30am and I make us both a cup of tea. 

Then, two cups of tea each, two showers, two toothbrushing and one shaving and we are ready for breakfast.

Breakfast

We got down to Breakfast at 7am. The Hotel Mundial has a good range of breakfast on offer.

As well as plain yogurt the hotel has a great selection of seeds (sunflower, pumkin, linseed and chia) and nuts (almonds and hazelnuts). So that was my first course.

Drew opted for bacon and omelette, he was well on with it when I took this photo.

He then had a fruit selection with Melon, Watermelon and other treats, again I was late on the photo

I had sausages, spicy and tasty, omelette, which was deliciously firm and flavoured tofo, the flavouring being typical herbs of Portugal - thyme, oregano and parsley.

Drew completed his breakfast with four cakes. A doughnut, a sweetened bread, chocolate cake and a madeira cake. 

We went back to the room after breakfast and were down in the hotel foyer at 8am.

Travelling to the first fort

The early start was prompted by the Lisbon traffic, very bust in rush hour. We left the hotel passing through the nearby square called Rossio and then past the statue in honour of Pedro the Fourth, the winner of the Civil War between the two brothers that we heard about earlier in the week, Pedro is also known as Pedro the First of Brazil where he ruled prior to his return to Portugal.

Next we drive through Praca Dos Restauradores Square which celebrates the return of the Portuguese monarchy after 6 decades of Spanish rule.

We then travel up to King Edward VII square to see the grand statue of the Marquis of Pombal at the bottom of King Edward VII park.

We then pass the Monsanto Forest Park with its 900 hectares of greenery. It is often called the Lungs of the City.

São Julião da Barra Fort

At 9am, an hour after departure, we arrive at Forte de São Julião da Barra. This Army Fort, built in 1579, is a military base and the weekend residence of the Portuguese minister of defence. It is therefore a place that doens't often get vistios, but contacts our historian, Mark, has, have managed to get us inside. 

It is this fort that was the location where Wellington planned to take his troops back to Britain if they had been defeated in the war. It was surrounded by the third line of Torres Vedras

We are met by Staff Sergeant-Major Joao who give us a background on the site. He explains that it was King Manuel the first, who coming for a summer to a nearby villa saw the huge rock on this site. At that time with the riches flowing to Lisbon from the worldwide discovery of the Portuguese mariners there were North African Berber Corsairs regularly attacking and pillaging Lisbon. He was looking for a site to form a secure defence at the entry to the Tagas and the harbour beyond.

King Manuel bought the site and King Joao the third started the construction. Under the child King Sebastian, the regent, his Grandmother, Queen Catherine of Austria established a tax for all boats passing this point in the river, to pay for construction. 

in 1580 King Sebastian went to war in Morroco and the young king lost the battle and his life. His successor was King Philip II of Spain (husband of Queen Mary of England, known as Bloody Mary), and for the next 60 years Portugal came under Spanish rule.  As Portuguese society was not ready for Spanish rule, Philip sent Spanish Troops into the country besiging this fort for 6 days before it capitulated.  start of Spanish rule.

Sixty years later in 1640 King Joao IV again besieged the fort until the Spanish capitulated which made him the recognised king and the restorer of Portugal. His daughter, Catherine of Braganza, married King Charles the Second of Britain. 

Here are some images of this impressive and sturdy fort.

For our tour the fascinating Portuguese history is subsumed by Wellington's work here. Junot had put troops on this island when he briefly ruled Portugal and Wellington also saw its defence benefits. The beach, in the photos above, which is  below the fort was designed to be accessible to get troops off to sea from if things went wrong. 

Wellington built 9 forts around the area to defend the beach and effectively used San São Julião's as the tenth fort. Wellington, again in secrecy, built a sunken road beneath the fort leading to the jetties which he built beside the beach. These have now rotted away, but it is possible to imagine the plan to evacuate, though it was never used. 

The Fort of Belem

The image at the top of today's post is of the spectacular Tower of Belem. Built in 1415 in the middle of the river. King Manuel the first designed it in celebration of the discovers. With images of figs and wines, representing the riches of the colony and stone ropes of ships. 

The crosses on the top of the fort are not, as many assume Templar crosses, but when the Templar order was suppressed. King Manuel, working with the same people in Portugal, created the Order of Christ and agreed that the slightly adapted cross could be their emblem - it is way you see such crosses in images of the 'discoverers' arriving in India, Africa and Brazil.

The ships they travelled on, called Caravels, always had the cross of the order at the front. Here is a view of some of the great views, including two of our fellow tour passengers on the balcony of the ornate fort.

Lunch

We leave Belem at 11.30am and get back into the coach. The rush of Lisbon traffic means we don't get to lunch, near the main cruise and train terminals until 12.30pm

Lunch is at a small restaurant called Bistro Terminal Santa Apolonia, just opposite the Military Museum of Portugal which is our post-lunch destination.

Drew opted for their Hambúrguer Duplo a double burger with cheese and chips. He was very pleased with it.

I opted for Pulvo, the Portuguese was of presenting octopus. This was served, lightly fried in oil, with a garlic and oil sauce at the bottom (and, helpfully, bread provided to mop it up when I'd eaten the Pulvo). The dish included sauteed new potatoes which were a great flavour alongside the octopus.

We had our usual drinks, coke zero for Drew, Agua com gas for me, the beer you can see in the side of Drew's dish is Alasdair's who was eating a plate of freshly grilled sardines. 

We finished with an espresso each. 

MIlitary Museum

Lunch over we headed across to the Military Museum of Lisbon at 1.45pm a passing note, the architect of this building was the father of the architect of the São Julião da Barra Fort we began with this morning. 

The museum is impressive. It has a range of murals on Azulejo tiles, depicting the many battles of Portugal over the years.

Some of our former military, especially Ned from Vermont, were overawed by the range of cannon on display and would explain a number of their ballistic features, to anyone who came within earshot. David, a lovely guy from the West Country who seems, like us, to be interested in history in general, rather than military history in particular, came out looking glazed saying: "I've had my first lesson in Ballistic Physics 101 in the last half hour." Others, the war games/war modelling people (there is a big difference, the former focus on the models being used in competitive games of strategic thinking and battle, the latter like checking the colours and types of uniform and decorating them accurately!) were amazed at the range of modelling of various Portuguese external and civil wars including the French Invasions during the Peninsular War as well as some of the paintings of the relevant battles. But the discovers, especially Vasco de Gama are also well represented here. 

Here is a brief snapshot of some of the items in the Museum, when I get them up on Flickr you will be able to see, many, many more. 

[Co-pilot's note: Before, dear readers, you read the following, please reflect on the fact, that one of us two spends approximately 14 hours "doing our accounts", while the other one spends approximately the same time per week: tracking various vessels installing wind-farms and monitoring renewables production figures. Just keep that in mind while reading the below, it means we can't be judgemental about nerds!]

[A editor's side-note reflections: It is interesting on a trip like this to see who is with us on our travels. I'd expected ex-forces people, I'd even expected history buffs, I also expected people like Drew and I, drawn to Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series and wanting to see the settings in real life. But I had no idea there were so many role play/modelling/war games folk in the world, let alone on this trip. I suspect they make up the majority of the travellers, meaning the interest in how many buttons one type of soldier wears over another and the difference between French Blue and Portuguese Blue uniforms (I may have made that up, I don't play close enough attention, but it was something to do with colours of uniforms and numbers of buttons). And the utter offence caused by a film based in Torres Vedras where the French army were wearing the wrong colour trousers!! Leads me to realise there is a whole world of nerdiness I've never encountered before. A world where people in respectable jobs, with well balanced family lives, have this secret part of themselves which is beyond my understanding!]

Back to the Hotel

We left the museum at 3.00pm and walked over to the place where the bus picked us up. It is very, hot today. The temperature on the bus' external thermometer is 34⁰C, for older readers and American's that's 93.5⁰F. 

We arrived back at the hotel at 3.40pm, more exhausted today than in some of the days with lots of walking, I'm really not built for heat!  

There was an option to go to see St. George's Fort, which is up the hill beside the hotel. We, along with another 14 of our group of 24, decided discretion was the better part of valour and only ten (including the tour manager and the historian) made the effort to climb, even though the views are amazing.

30 minutes sleep, a lovely shower for me and a deep and lengthy bath for Drew refreshed us. We had time to sort things ready for our resumption of independent travel tomorrow.

Dinner 

The tour manager had arranged for us to go to the heart of the old part of Lisbon for dinner. We ate at the Convent Square Hotel, which is built within the walls of a restored 13th-century Dominican convent, it brings a coolness (aided by air-con I'm sure) to the still warm city streets.

The meal started with a delicious Portuguese Gazpacho, which must have been delicious, as I forgot to take a photo. Gazpacho is the same in Portugal as in Spain, but this one was a specially rich, garlicky one.

For mains I had Entrecôte com aspargos e batatas gratinadas, the potatoes were crisp and lucious, the meat gently poached in its own juices and the asparagus was el dente. A highlight among the meals we have had on the tour.

Drew opted for the Atum com legumes à ratatouille e molho de maracujá, the tuna was beautifully cooked and the ratatouille style veg (peppers, onions, tomatoes etc) crunchy and tasty. The passionfruit seemed jarring at first as it wasn't a usual combination of flavours, but it turned to work very well, when you got over the idea it was odd.

The dessert was, in Drew's case as he had mine, two deconstructed cheesecakes with a crumble. It was a layered affair that Drew really enjoyed. The cheesy element had a surprising and pleasant texture, the chocolate layers were perfect for Drew's taste.

When we left the restaurant, with a number of the group going to find places to watch the Trump soccer competition,  Drew and I went for a walk through the three squares around here, Rossio, Pedro IV and Restauradores, checking we knew the best way to get to the metro in the morning. 

We got back to our hotel at 10.30pm and to bed by 11pm.