Before travelling to Portugal we had looked into the areas of Lisbon which were flat and would be the easiest to navigate with my wheelchair.
The area which was most talked about was Belém in the South West of the city. Keep reading as we explore an accessible Belém!
To get to Belém we took a bus from near our hotel. As we were staying a bit outside of the city the bus was quite quiet when we caught it but was busy when we reached Belém.
Jerónimos Monastery
The first place we visited was Jerónimos Monastery. This building was huge and was beautifully ornate from the outside. The ticket office is located across the road from the monastery. There were massive queues so we went to the front and asked if we were in the right place to buy tickets. He said yes and we were able to queue jump, woop!
To get inside the monastery there is a ramp. The ramp was quite cool as it was a plastic mesh so that it wouldn't cause any damage to the old stone. It made me wonder if it was a ramp that could be used in more listed buildings.
We firstly went into the monastery which took over 100 years to complete. It is flat and you can roll round and see the beautiful stone carvings. There are also a few side rooms to see. If you are travelling with someone able bodied they are able to go upstairs and view the monastery from the second level.
After we had looked round we visited the church that was next door. There was another funky mesh ramp to use here as well!
The church had lots of tall carved pillars and the tomb of the Portuguese explorer Vasco Da Gama who famously discovered the sea route from Lisbon to India.
Pastéis de Belém
I had read about a bakery called Pastéis de Belém near to the monastery which is famous for its Portugese tarts! I guess you could say it is Lisbon's equivalent to Betty's Tearooms! The tarts are made to an ancient secret recipe from the Jerónimos Monastery making them extra special. The shop was very busy so we bought our two tarts and went to eat them in a nearby park. They were sooo good and didn't last very long. Definitely buy at least 1 each if you go!
Discoveries Monument
Once we had scoffed our tarts we wanted to visit the Discoveries Monument but we needed to cross the railway line to reach it. With a little help from Google we found a ramped overpass to get us across however it was in the opposite direction to the monument so we then had to walk back on ourselves to get to the Discoveries Monument.
It was very windy so we didn't spend a lot of time here. The Monument is big and stands at 52 metres tall. It was opened in 1960 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the death of Henry the Navigator. The statues are amazing and it's possible to get up close to them to see them in detail. There was also a singer here and it would have been a nice place to sit and relax for a bit if it hadn't been so windy!
Tower of Belém
We next headed to the Tower of Belém, another tourist attraction along the same route. This tower was built in the 1500s to defend Lisbon. There was a massive queue to get into the tower and we weren't sure if it was accessible so we just admired it from the outside!
MAAT Museum
We carried on walking along the river until we saw an interesting building which was the MAAT Museum. We didn't go in the museum but saw there was a viewing point on top of the building that was free to visit. There is a ramp up to it which is a little steep but it's worth it to see the views.
That was the end of our second day in Lisbon. I am glad that we were able to explore some historic places on flat ground and found Belém to be very accessible! I would definitely recommend the area to visit as a wheelchair user, just make sure you're powered with plenty of Portuguese tarts!
In our next post about Lisbon we will talk about our trip to the nearby seaside town of Cascais. Why not read our other posts about Portugal?
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