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<\/a><\/p>\nThe bottom story is set up with 17 cannon openings giving every angle of attack you could possibly need.\u00a0 I can’t imagine being in this small enclosed space when cannons are going off!\u00a0 They apparently were quite skilled at skipping cannon balls off the water to make it easier to hit their targets.<\/p>\n
You have to walk a very tight spiral staircase to get up to the other floors, and it’s too tight for people to pass, so they have timers set up so that you can only go up for 8 minutes, then down for 8 minutes, with a warning sound letting people know it was about to shift so move your ass!\u00a0 The 2nd and 3rd floors are just open space, while the 4th was the chapel, where they are supposed to show a video, but we have no idea when, as we waited through several “changing of the guard” 8 minute periods and no video.\u00a0 Cool ceilings though!<\/p>\n
The roof gives you a good view….of the people queued up waiting for their turn to fall down the stairs.<\/p>\n We also checked out a more recent addition to Belem, the Padrao dos Descobrimentos (that last word sounds suspiciously like a mint with a bad advertising campaign).\u00a0 This means Monument of Discoveries, and was completed in 1960 to honor all of the great Portugese explorers and those who assisted them.<\/p>\n Another angle on the monument.\u00a0 Pretty cool!<\/p>\n The guy on the bow is Henry the Navigator.\u00a0 There are a\u00a0 couple of other guys I actually recognize, such as Vasco da Gama, and Magellan (which I think is a software company?).<\/p>\n Lastly, on our way back home, we passed the place that holds the original recipe for the Pastel de Nata, the Pasteis de Belem.\u00a0 The line was crazy!\u00a0 It’s not like this is Voodoo Donuts or something!<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n