Geeky Yet Waterproof

This morning at 9am, we stepped foot in Lisbon, Portugal.

This was the first time we’ve been in (the mainland of) Europe for almost three years, and it was good to go back. Lisbon reminded me a lot of France… not like Paris, but probably some city like Angouleme.

When we first got off the ship, we walked around for a little while, and ended up in the Praça do Commercio square. There, we bought tickets to get on any of the many city tour buses, which cruise around Lisbon all day making stops for people to hop on at will.

A monument at Praça do Commercio

Praça do Commercio

One of the places we stopped at was the Tower of Belém, a Disneyland-esque castle on the edge of the water which was built between 1515 and 1521 to welcome foreign dignitaries. It looks like a giant chess piece, and it’s apparently the 2nd most recognizable landmark in Lisbon.

The Tower of Belém

Later we stopped at a huge church, 90 meters long and covered in Gothic-style stonework. Like most of the other things we saw, it was something only to be found in Europe.

After a while we got off the bus for a lunch break (the beauty of “hop-on, hop-off”), at a tiny restaurant called Pão Pão Queijo Queijo, which means “Bread Bread Cheese Cheese”. We all had swordfish and sardines, which again broke the Best Fish I’ve Ever Tasted record — even better than in Funchal! I love seaports.

A Toast! Dessert!

When we had all eaten (more than) our fill, we set out to find the Castelo de São Jorge: a 5th-century Visigoth castle overlooking the city. However, finding it was no trivial task — nobody seemed to be able to give us directions in English! But the help finally came from a lady who gave us the precious words, “Next right.”
Eventually we found it, along with about 20 seemingly Italian tourists. It was all in ruins, but that is to be expected of a 1500 year-old Visigoth castle standing in formerly Roman territory…

At the Castelo

When the “All Aboard” deadline of 4:30 was approaching, we Hopped-On the tour bus and headed back in the direction of the ship. It would have been nice to spend some more time in Portugal, but (with Grandma Nini’s help) we’re so efficient that we saw pretty much all of Lisbon in six hours!

A Roman Aquaduct

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to practice speaking Portuguese today, even though we had no shortage of contact with the natives (asking for directions…), because Grandma Nini, who has the power to make others speak the language of her choice, got to them all first. However, with all the signs and advertisements, I learned some new words even miles away from The Portuguese Book.

As the British-accented TV lecturer is announcing to us while I write, we’ll be in Cadiz, Spain tomorrow morning. (Which is why this entry might seem a little rough… I have to finish it before we get to Spain!) We’re passing through the Strait of Gibraltar at 4am — too bad it will be too dark to see the Pillars of Hercules! But I’m sure we’ll see things in Spain that will by far make up for that.