Lisbon; Monday, 21 August, 2006

First stop of the morning was back to Praça do Comércio and onto the other open top tour that Carris run, the Tagus tour. This one goes through the centre of town and then out to Belém. On getting back to the Praça do Comércio I caught the next Olisipio tour as I had missed quite a lot the previous evening as I had sat on the side with less things to see! As the tours are both quite long, and I’d had a late breakfast it was mid afternoon by the time I got back to the city centre. I stopped for a brief bite to eat before catching the tram out to the Basilica de Estrela.

The Basilica is the second most important church in Portugal and is an impressive domed structure. Inside it is quite dark, but filled with lots of paintings.

After looking around the Basilica I wandered back to the Bario Alto and to the ruins of the Convento de Carmo. The roof and parts of the walls were destroyed in the earthquake that almost totally flattened Lisbon on 1st November 1755. The building now houses the an archaeological museum which displays many finds from across the city.

After a leisurely dinner I wandered back to the Praça do Comércio in time to catch the last Tagus tour of the night. The last tour in July, August and September sets off at 20:15 and consequently runs through the city and dusk and into the night. Following the heat of the day it was still in the high twenties as the bus went round the city, but with the wind from the movement it made for a very pleasant end to the day.