Trevor Huxham

While I was kickin’ around in Lisbon this April, I took a couple daytrips from the city center to some admittedly touristy destinations. A modern-day tram that shares tracks and wires with the creaky, classic Tram 28 took me to the coastal neighborhood of Belém , a World Heritage Site dripping with history, museums, glorious architecture…and pastries. The next day, I hopped on a speedy regional train from the Rossio station to the nearby city of Sintra. Looking down from the Moorish Castle Inhabited since time immemorial, Sintra’s picturesque location perched on a hill between the Atlantic coast and Lisbon has made it an attractive place for kings, the wealthy, and daytrippers alike. Famous for its mystical fog and pleasing natural surroundings, Sintra became a favorite retreat in the 1800s. Relics from the Middle Ages (like the Sintra National Palace) or from Portugal’s Islamic past (like the Castle of the Moors) played in to the age’s prevailing Revivalism and Orientalism . ...

As I hopped off the train in Lisbon’s magnificent Gare do Oriente train station, I was most looking forward to visiting the Portuguese capital’s historic neighborhood of Belém. Six kilometers west of Lisbon’s historic center, Belém (pronounced “bih-LANG” [bɨˈlɐ̃j]) has a concentration of museums and monuments a lot higher than the rest of Lisbon—or any city, for that matter. Insane ceiling tracery in the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos church The area around Belém became an important harbor for sailors departing from and arriving in Lisbon during the Age of Exploration, an era when Portugal dominated the seas. Today, with the advent of modern tourism, Belém has become a great daytrip away from the city center, a great place to moor your ship for a spell and take in the wonders of this World Heritage Site. I’ll take you throughout the neighborhood below and let you know whether each site is worth seeing—or skipping. Mosteiro dos Jerónimos (Jerónimos Monastery) South façade ...

The famous Tram 28 Before visiting Portugal , I had always had this image in my mind of the country as warm, sunny, and kind of dreamy. Lisbon, the capital, lived up to all those preconceptions, but the actual, living-and-breathing city turned out to be much more interesting than I thought it would be when I visited in April. Orange blossoms in the Moorish Castle I was really struck at the similarities between Lisbon and its southern neighbors in Spain, like  Sevilla , Málaga , or Córdoba . The hilltop Moorish fortresses, the red-tile roofs, the winding, whitewashed streets, and the warm, refreshing atmosphere reminded me so much of Andalucía . It really shouldn’t be so surprising, though, because it wasn’t until the 1200s that southern Portugal was separated politically from Spain. I thought it was too good to be true when I happened upon some orange blossoms by the cathedral. Their delicate springtime fragrance became synonymous with springtime in Andalucía for me, ...