September 26, 2016

We were up early to get to the walking track on deck 14. The temperature was 15 C with a northwest wind of 26 km/hour as the ship entered the Tagus River from the Atlantic Ocean. By the end of our 45 minute walk the sun had risen in the cloudy sky and the ship had docked.   After walking three miles, we stopped for a quick breakfast in the Oceanview café.  The flat screen TV would not turn on again this morning, but was fixed by the time we returned from our tour.

We met the group of eight other couples, at 8:20 a.m. for our tour to Sintra, a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site, Pena National Palace, plus lunch in Cascais and other parts of the greater Lisbon area.  Our guide Andrea, explained that Lisbon is surrounded by seven hills and has a funicular (a cliff railway which uses a cable to ascend and descend) and buses to help people get up the hills. There is a 53 kilometer aqueduct supplying clean water to the city since 1746.  It survived the 9.0 earthquake in Lisbon on All Saints Day November 1, 1755 which destroyed many buildings in the city and surrounding area.  It had the tallest stone arches in the world when it was built.

There are two bridges that cross the Tagus River at the Lisbon estuary, which narrows to a two kilometers width.  The “25th of April” bridge which looks like San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, was completed in 1966 and stretches more than two kilometers. The Vasco da Gama Bridge was completed in 1998. It is a cable stayed bridge with viaducts and stretches over 12 kilometers. Vasco da Gama was a Portuguese navigator who was the first sailor to successfully round Africa’s Cape of Good Hope and reach India in 1498 and return in 1499.  Portugal became a rival with the Muslim traders of the Indian Sea and African coast.

As we drove from the city center we noticed that many apartment balconies had laundry hanging from the railings.

The drive to Pena National Palace and park took about an hour.  The colourful palace is perched atop a hill with a view of the town of Sintra, a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site and all the way to Lisbon on this day when the clouds gave way to sunshine. The road to the top is narrow and winding, so we were happy that we had a 20 person bus to take us to the palace.  The style has architectural elements of the Manueline, Moorish and Romantic styles.  It also is a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site that was commissioned in 1839, by the German born Portuguese King Ferdinand 2 on the site of a former Manueline monastery as a royal summer home.  The tour of the palace went through many rooms and terraces with impressive views of nearby Sintra.  It has rooms that show pieces from Portugal’s Empire stretching to Brazil, India, Africa and the Philippines.  There are huge 4 meter high cabinets in the Stag Room which containing some saved stained glass from the monastery that survived the earthquake.

Next we found the bus in the car park and drove down the twisting narrow road through the forest to the town of Sintra, less than 10 minutes away. We had 30 minutes to explore the narrow cobbled pedestrian friendly streets running up and down hills.  Some people took the opportunity to try queijadas, small sweet cakes or travesseiros pastries made from puff pastry and almond paste.  The line-up was too long for us so we found our way to the main street and walked around the beautiful National Palace of Sintra, which has been standing since the 11th century when it was a Moorish palace.  After alterations over a few centuries, the palace has been maintained since the 16th century in its present appearance. We even ventured into a store to look at tablecloths.  The shop assistant spoke good English. As we left the patio in front of the palace, we saw a small cart where a vendor was selling roasted chestnuts in small bags.  The last time we saw a roasted chestnut cart was in Istanbul, two years ago. 

On the way to Cascais for the lunch stop, we passed the vineyards near Colares.  We also drove along the ocean highway and saw lovely beaches and stopped for a few minutes at Cape Roca, the furthest west point in Portugal and Europe. The lighthouse there is constantly buffeted with wind. There is a saying that you can see New York on a clear day.  It was after 1 p.m. when the bus dropped us off near the fisherman’s harbor in Cascais. We were given an hour to explore and/or find a restaurant for a quick lunch.  We did both, wandering up a pedestrian friendly streets going uphill and found a tiny bakery café which served homemade meals.  We chose either the spaghetti with clams, which had at least two dozen small open shell clams on the spaghetti, or a baked cod, sweet potato and spinach pot pie, which we rushed eating.  Then we hurried back to the meeting point, to wait almost 10 minutes for the three straggler couples. 

Once on our way, travelling east back to Lisbon, along the Tagus River in the Estoril coast area, the sun was shining and the temperature was about 23 C. We circled the Estoril Casino, the largest in Europe which was frequented by spies during World War 2, including Ian Fleming.  He based James Bond’s adventure in “Her Majesty’s Service” partly in this casino.  Across from the Estoril Casino is the Palace Hotel, another building with an intriguing history.

We passed Saint Julian’s Fortress which was part of a system that controlled the entry and exit of ships along the Tagus River.   The next stop was at Belém Tower built between 1514 and 1520, at the mouth of the Tagus River, as ceremonial gateway to Lisbon and as part of the city defense system.  It is a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site.

Then we walked over to the Hieronymites Monastery in Belém , another example of the Manueline style, which was abandoned by monks in 1833 when all monasteries were abolished in Portugal. Vasco da Gama and his crew prayed here the night before they departed on their quest to find a route around Africa to India in 1497.  Today the building houses the military museum. The church of the Hieronymites Monastery is still there and contains the tomb of Vasco da Gama.  Last snack break before leaving, we were guided to Pasties de Bélem pastry shop, where we bought the typical custard tart with a crispy flaky shell, still warm. Most of our group stopped in to try either the custard tart or some other tempting bakery delight.  We had time to walk in the gardens across the street from the monastery before boarding the bus to return to the ship eight hours since we had left.

We stopped for frappes, at the Café al Bacio on Deck 5, before dropping off our purchase and backpack. Then, we wrote up the blog before going to the Oceanview Café for dinner.  We had time for some dancing in the Grand Foyer on Deck 3 after dinner. 

Today we logged over 10.2 miles.