Seeing the sights

The last few days we have been doing some sightseeing. Yesterday we visited the site of the world exposition held in Lisbon in 1998. Though more than a decade has passed, it still looks very futuristic and modern and is a lovely place to visit. We toured the huge aquarium there and were very impressed. This is the aquarium building.


The tanks were absolutely huge! Sorry I had to snag these pics elsewhere because my memory card was full!






All the walkways and fountains in the expo area were so pretty and they had a great mall with a food court with a balcony where you could sit outside in the shade and enjoy the view of the river and park areas.
We rode the metro and thought their stations were so large and clean and ultramodern. What a contrast from the the old historic area where we are staying.
Today we ventured out on the bus system and made our way to the monastery of St. Jeronimo which was built in the early 1500s by Prince Henry the Navigator. It is an extraordinary building carved in a very ornate style. I liked it.






Vasco de Gama is entombed here. Do you remember from 4th grade who Vasco de Gama was? He discovered the route from Europe to India which lead to all the riches acquired by Portugal and the golden age of discovery.
Vasco's tomb below.


Of course after this we had to go drink the delicious Portuguese coffee and eat some famous traditional pastries for which this area is known. They Re like little custard tarts in a puff pastry crust.









This pastry place has been here since 1837.

Next we went to the botanical garden which is kind of sad because they have no funding to keep it going an it is slowly deteriorating. It was once a fantastic garden for sure. We enjoyed going through this old sprawling family home which now houses some specimens collected by Portuguese explorers in Africa decades ago. We were then only people there. Cool!



That giant tree is a rubber tree.

Location:Lisbon