We traveled up the river and docked in Portugal while we were partaking of the Jazz brunch. I do think that no brunch is truly complete without good jazz and some local sparkling "green" wine--don't you agree? Green wine is made from grapes that are not completely ripe--if the wine from unripened grapes is this good--why bother to ripen them!
Our afternoon tour took us to Cascais, an old fishing village now home to exiled leaders from various places. Apparently the cost of real estate is astronomical and houses not even on the ocean go for 5 to 10 million euros! The little town is very picturesque and even the town hall is covered with hand painted tiles.
From there we traveled up the coast and over the mountains (500 meters) but they seemed proud that it was a "mountain". Sintra is another charming village with a Palace (not so imposing as many) and lots of very steep, narrow lanes and passageways. You certainly would stay in shape if you lived here. We were treated to a snack of the national pastry--supposedly it had cheese in it, but we all thought it was a bit like apple strudel. The spoon stood up in the coffee by itself, and no amount of additions seemed to help!
Our 2nd day in Lisbon was turn around day for the ship and was quite chaotic. We were changing cabins (more on that in a future post) and had transferred the contents of the safe, so we were a little put out when we got all the way to the end of the pier only to be told that we needed our passports. As most of the passengers were leaving the ship, we then got caught up in luggage collection, etc. and every time we went back and forth our cards set off all the bells and whistles at the gangway. Eventually we made our way into town!
We managed to buy our transit day pass, even though they have changed the name since our guidebook was written, and did a wild ride around the town on a tram with a boisterous crowd of Germans.
After some mildly caffeinated beverages and non-national pastries we continued our tour of Lisbon by riding the funicular. Our transit day pass (5.20 euros) covered all of the trams, buses, metros, and funiculars).
As it was Saturday the neighborhoods were bustling with people, but the overall ambience of the town was decidedly less affluent and more distressed than when we were here in 2004. I guess that's true of cities and towns all over the world! The guide we had was telling us that Portugal's Prime Minister had just announced huge new tax increases and cuts in all programs which she said was causing most Portuguese to lose sleep.
More so here than in any of our other ports we noticed the graffiti! I am always horrified at the defacement of historic buildings, but here they don't stop at that. It appeared that anything moving or stationary is fair game, and there doesn't seem to be any attempt to paint over it. Perhaps it is considered art as some of it is quite colorful!
Leaving Lisbon with only 350 passengers we will be at sea for 9 days with about half the number of passengers as on the first leg.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Our afternoon tour took us to Cascais, an old fishing village now home to exiled leaders from various places. Apparently the cost of real estate is astronomical and houses not even on the ocean go for 5 to 10 million euros! The little town is very picturesque and even the town hall is covered with hand painted tiles.
From there we traveled up the coast and over the mountains (500 meters) but they seemed proud that it was a "mountain". Sintra is another charming village with a Palace (not so imposing as many) and lots of very steep, narrow lanes and passageways. You certainly would stay in shape if you lived here. We were treated to a snack of the national pastry--supposedly it had cheese in it, but we all thought it was a bit like apple strudel. The spoon stood up in the coffee by itself, and no amount of additions seemed to help!
Our 2nd day in Lisbon was turn around day for the ship and was quite chaotic. We were changing cabins (more on that in a future post) and had transferred the contents of the safe, so we were a little put out when we got all the way to the end of the pier only to be told that we needed our passports. As most of the passengers were leaving the ship, we then got caught up in luggage collection, etc. and every time we went back and forth our cards set off all the bells and whistles at the gangway. Eventually we made our way into town!
We managed to buy our transit day pass, even though they have changed the name since our guidebook was written, and did a wild ride around the town on a tram with a boisterous crowd of Germans.
After some mildly caffeinated beverages and non-national pastries we continued our tour of Lisbon by riding the funicular. Our transit day pass (5.20 euros) covered all of the trams, buses, metros, and funiculars).
As it was Saturday the neighborhoods were bustling with people, but the overall ambience of the town was decidedly less affluent and more distressed than when we were here in 2004. I guess that's true of cities and towns all over the world! The guide we had was telling us that Portugal's Prime Minister had just announced huge new tax increases and cuts in all programs which she said was causing most Portuguese to lose sleep.
More so here than in any of our other ports we noticed the graffiti! I am always horrified at the defacement of historic buildings, but here they don't stop at that. It appeared that anything moving or stationary is fair game, and there doesn't seem to be any attempt to paint over it. Perhaps it is considered art as some of it is quite colorful!
Leaving Lisbon with only 350 passengers we will be at sea for 9 days with about half the number of passengers as on the first leg.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Portugal
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