Lisbon - the exotic city of Europe III

I had a little delay with finishing this story, as I have been doing a lot of travelling to new places that I will tell you all about very soon and my work also kept me pretty busy, but what can I do?

Coming back to this gem of a city (if you want to read part one you can find it here or part two here), today I'm going to tell you about its most beautiful part, at least for me, and that is Belem. This is a part of Lisbon that I've dedicated two days of my trip and it still wasn't enough.

Its name, Belem, is derived from the Portuguese word for Bethlehem. Situated at the mouth of the River Tagus, Belem is where you find most of the landmarks in Lisbon - the Tower of Belem, the Jeronimos Monastery, the Berardo Museum, Coaches Museum, the Tropical Botanical Gardens, the sail-shaped Discovery Monument and a lot of other places.

What impressed me the most and found it to be an icon of Lisbon and this place in particular, was the Coaches Museum, which might sound very boring and not interesting, but I say it's really worth visiting if you want to see the Rolls Royces of coaches and what "travelling in style" meant in the modern ages.

The museum has two collections with two different entries.

First collection contains 10 coaches that are show-cased in an old-beautiful decorated building, and it's a definitely must-see.

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The museum was created in 1905 by Queen Amélia to house an extensive collection of carriages belonging to the Portuguese royal family and nobility.

The building in which the first collection is located is the 18th century riding academy attached to the royal palace. I don't know exactly what an 18th century riding academy would use this hall for, but to me it looks like a ball room which now has as main attendees some really beautiful carriages.

Another really interesting part of this limited collection is the display of 18th century fire-fighting carriages.

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It is a true display of human inventivity and it makes you think if the cars and machinery we use now will be show-cased like this also, in a couple hundred years from now.

The second collection, although it's held in a new-style building, it does contain some really remarkable pieces. The collection gives a full picture of the development of carriages from the late 16th through the 19th centuries, with carriages made in Italy, Portugal, France, Spain, Austria and England.

Only in this second collection you will see the real bling-blings of the 18th century.

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This is the only place in the world where you will find such a variety of carriages. So don't miss it!

Close to the Coaches Museum, another beautiful place is the Tropical Botanical Gardens of Lisbon.

It was created in 1906, as a data collection field for agriculture in the Portuguese colonies. Although it still requires some work, it's really nice and houses some really unique species. From place to place you will also see domestic birds walking around and also peacocks, which I couldn't help but chase them around.

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The most impressive part of this garden I found it to be a very old tree, that made me feel for a moment like I was in the Avatar movie. Lately I'm really fascinated by roots, so this tree will always remain in my mind. It is a really beautiful tree, both its roots and its crown are amazing and show how old it is.

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I was here in January, but it felt like spring, the garden seemed to me like a little green paradise and I bet in spring-summer it's even more impressive.

It also has a little Japanese Garden which you will definitely enjoy exploring.

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Another peaceful and beautiful place in Belem is the Jeronimos Monastery, an architecture gem of the Manueline style, impressive on the outside and on the inside from what I've heard, as I didn't have time to visit it inside. I could only see the church. If I will go back there, the inside of the monastery is one of the things that I will definitely see. This is a a UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with the nearby Tower of Belem. The construction of the monastery and church began on 6 January 1501, and was completed 100 years later. The role of the monks who occupied the monastery was to pray for the King's eternal soul and to provide spiritual assistance to navigators and sailors who departed from the port.

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My next stop was the Berardo Museum of Modern Art. If you like art and especially if you like abstract, modern art, you will enjoy it. You will find art pieces by Picasso, Dali, Andy Warhol and also a lot of other really good modern artists.

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As I told you, I gave two days of my trip to this part of Lisbon and even on the second day I still didn't manage to visit the Belem Tower on the inside, but I least got to watch a really nice sundown here, which was like a cherry on top of a cake.

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Here it ends my Lisbon experience series. All I can say is that I'd like to go back and continue it, as Lisbon is truly an amazing city, out of a fairy tale, with a great history and well preserved.

Fare well, Lisbon! To next time!