Pastel de withdrawal symptoms

Whilst not wishing to bore the blip community with repeats of wordplay, leaving Portugal is always going to be accompanied by some withdrawal symptoms. It’s an excellent holiday destination. After the parents and sister departed for Manchester I had a few more hours to enjoy the streets of Lisbon before catching the metro to the airport.

Consumption of pastéis de nata (the famous Portuguese custard tarts) has ramped up as the end of the holiday started to loom. They can be good in Maputo but Lisbon has the best I’ve tasted. When the filling is still warm from the oven, and the pastry both crispy and firm, they are a taste sensation. The original custard tarts were made by monks at a monastery in the Belém area of Lisbon. This picture is of the Torre (Tower) of Belém very close by, which was constructed as both a fortress and ceremonial gateway into the city as boats entered the River Tagus (Tejo in Portuguese) from the Atlantic Ocean.