Let There Be Lisbon: Jesus (3)

Today was the day of our 'pilgrimage.'  As I mentioned earlier, I had developed an obsession with the Cristo Rei statue.  So much so that, one evening, I just about tripped over in the square in my haste to get a view of him at dusk.

Jesus in the distance: the tall thing to the left of the Ponte de 25 de abril bridge.

A bit of background info (as much for my sake as yours):

• The statue is in Almada, Portugal.
• It was an extremely long project, which started in 1934, when the Cardinal of Lisbon visited Brazil, and saw their statue.  He was so impressed that he wanted one for Lisbon!
• It's situated on a 113-metre-high hill, overlooking the city of Lisbon.  
• To add to that height, the base of the statue is 75m tall; this is the part that you can go up to the top of in the lift.
• The statue itself is 28m tall.  
• It was sculpted by Francisco Franco de Sousa, who died in 1955, and therefore never saw the statue erected.
• It was opened to the public in 1959.
• It was built to thank God for having spared Portugal in WWII.

28m-tall Cristo Rei.

So, back to me and Jess.  Fittingly, on this Sunday morning, we decided to get closer to Jesus.  The guy in our hostel more or less gave us directions, and we set off to Cais do Sodré to get the ferry.  I can't remember the name of the line, but I believe it was this Cacilhas one.  Once there, we found bus, which took us up to the statue.  (However, this site shows other ways to get to the Cristo Rei statue). There was much excitement along the way, as the looming tower got closer and closer, and, finally, we were there.

So, up we went to the viewing platform.  It was 4E, so we were determined to make the most of the views.  They were indeed amazing.

From the viewing platform.

Looking up from the viewing platform.

View out over the Ponte 25 de abril. 

Then, off we went, running for the bus, which then sat for about 10 minutes before leaving.  D'oh.

Yes, those are the menus: on paper, on the barriers.

Apparently, the ferry service's frequency had been reduced that day, so we had ages to wait before we could get back to the 'mainland.'  So, we decided to pass that time in one of the many cute little restaurants that were near the ferry terminal.  I was pretty pleased about this, as it was the most 'Portuguese' place we'd eaten in so far, I think.  Plus, they brought out this cool cheese/pate plate.

And then the mains came out.  Wow... a binder, to say the least.

This, along with a quick walk along the wharf, easily filled in the time until our ferry left.

To be honest, I can't remember exactly what we did after that.  I think there was more wandering around, looking for the Rossio train station (awesome building: twice as awesome as what this photo shows).

Rossio Train Station, Lisbon

And then we were exhausted, so we chilled and watched MTV for a while, before making a big trip out to Telepizza!