I stay at the Florescente too - super convenient. Also handy for the delicious chicken at Bom Jardim.

Confetaria de Nacional
 

I actually don't know if Confeitaria de Nacional is open for dinner or not. As I said, we ate lunch there all three days so didn't try dinner there. It looked like more of a lunch place but I don't know.

While most days we had a mix of sun and clouds, unfortunately we had our second total wash out day in Lisbon. So other than a bit of shopping and a long lunch, we spent most of the day in the hotel getting a bit of work done (fortunately internet access was great everywhere we went). The following day, our last , we woke to blue skies, by the time we were ready to leave the hotel it was raining. And it was like that all day – every single hour saw both rain and sun.

We took the tram 15 to Belem- pretty crowded even at 9 am in March. Must be horrid in summer. Walked to the Monument of Discoveries and then the Torre de Belem, which we went in (€6, could also buy the monastery ticket there, no price saving but would save waiting on line which turned out to be a really, really good idea). There are several floors to the tower, views not that spectacular but the building is quite impressive up close. Then to the monastery (Mosteiro dos Jerónimos) – where the line was about an hour long. So glad we had bought the ticket at the tower. The stone carving in the monastery really is quite extraordinary. The sun was out part of the time and it was gorgeous, it was also raining part of the time (we were in there less than an hour) and it was nowhere near as pretty – the light is so important.

We walked to the Pastéis de Belém café and found a table way in the back room, but no one even acknowledged us for a long time, no menu, no cleaning the last person’s stuff off the table. We said screw it, lets just go back to Lisbon and eat at the cafeteria again. The line waiting for tram 15 (across the street) was huge and a bus (727) that was on the list of buses that should work showed up, we asked it he was going to the center of Lisbon and he said yes. Well after about 45 minutes of driving up and around we finally got to the Marquess of Pombal Square at the top of Av da Liberdade which I recognized, so we got off there. It was actually a pleasant walk slightly down hill to Rossio from there (until it started raining again).

Do you remember what time you arrived at the Torre de Belem? Based on what you said, we will plan to be there early, and either go directly to the Jeronimos Monastery (if the line doesn’t look bad) or go to the Torre de Belem first and buy the combination tickets.

Happy to hear the walk from Pombal Square was only slightly downhill. We are staying at the Real Palacio, near Edward VII park. I would like to walk from there to Rossio at least once. If it’s too long of a walk, we can always take the metro or a taxi. But knowing it’s only slightly downhill makes the walk more doable, I hope. I am a slow walker due to issues with arthritis.

Thanks for your helpful report!

We didn't get to Belem particularly early, I think it was about 10:00.

We are pretty fast walkers but the walk from Pombal Square to Rossio was only about 15 minutes and pleasant. Might want to take the metro going back up though if you have mobility issues. Save any hill walking for the Alfama. For the Chiado there are a few short cuts that reduce the amount of hill climbing. You can take the escalators in the Armazens do Chiado Mall (enter it just off Rossio - there's a "Mango" with escalators up to the main part of the mall, there you can exit into the Chiado). You can also take the elevators in the Rossio train station, that will cut out about half the steps, but there are still a bit more. Of course the Elevador Santa Justa will get you up there but there seemed to often (always?) be a line for that.

Isabel, did you buy the Viva Viagem card?

Karen - yes. You can get it from the machines or the manned ticket desk. The only weird thing was when you use it to go through the turnstile it doesn't tell you how much you have left on it. And when we tried to 'top it up' we were told there was still money on it and you couldn't add more until it was gone. So not the best system, but maybe I was missing something. We didn't use the metro very much though so it wasn't an issue.