Lisbon, Portugal
So- our trip to Lisbon was lovely and we can now take a test
on the history of the city and pretty much the whole country! We had some very
thorough tour guides and everyone else in the country seemed to have all the
details at their fingertips!
One of the art historians on board had given a bit of a
pre-port lecture about Lisbon, it’s history and architecture, the food, music
and great things to do to get to know the city. Very helpful-especially the
parts about the amazing pastries!
Day 1(Saturday)- We boarded a bus and drove through the city
getting a bit of an overview of the different parts of the city. It was nice to see the different areas and
things that the pre-port lecturer talked about. We crossed the April 25th
bridge (build by the same company that built the Golden Gate Bridge-very
similar looking!) and saw the huge statue of Christ the King which was
fashioned after the one in South America. This was done during WWII as a way to
pay homage to the neutrality of Portugal during the war (although they did let
the allies use the ports of Lisbon for refueling, etc.). We went to one of the wine regions outside of
Lisbon and visited the vineyard of Jose Maria Da Fonseca where we got a nice
tour of the winery and the beautiful gardens full of bougainvillea
and Jacaranda
trees with their beautiful purple flowers.
We tasted some nice red (tinto) wine and some Moscatel wine
that was an intense flavor that we decided would be great as a wine spritzer!
After purchasing a lovely bottle of red wine we drove to a beautiful pousada
for lunch and beautiful views. A pousada is a more modern building that in order
to be an official Pousada it must be build over/on top of, etc. a historical
building of some sort. We went to the Pousada de Palmela which was built over apart
of the ancient cloisters of the convent of Castle Palmela built in the 8th
century.
The lunch was our introduction to Portugese food and was
fabulous with a carrot soup, a beautiful entrée with fresh sautéed vegetables
covered with sea bream filets, covered with roasted potatoes with amazing
seasonings. Along with some lovely white wine and fresh rustic bread. Dessert
was a concoction of eggs, cream, almonds and cinnamon. Followed of course by
the little cups of espresso that are served everywhere. Oh my!! It is a good
thing that getting to the Pousada involved walking a long way and was followed
by a walk about the castle. We worked off one small fraction of what we ate and
drank!!
We drove back to Lisbon across the Vasco de Gama bridge
which is an amazing suspension bridge that is apparently the longest bridge in
Europe!! We had a little bit of walk about time in central Lisbon and then
continued with a drive around some of the newer parts of the city that were
build in 2007 as part of the World Expo-pretty impressive buildings! Lots of
tributes to Vasco de Gama!!!
Spent a quiet evening on the ship after a very full day out
and about!
Day 2 (Sunday)-
We got a “hop-on, hop-off” bus ticket with one of the
sightseeing companies (is there a Grayline tour in every country??) so that we
could see the major sights that we wanted to see in the easiest way. We started
at the Jeronimos Monastery which was built in 1493 (and is the burial place of
Vasco de Gama). The line to get into the cloisters was around the block so we
decided to learn from our son Richard (who does this regularly) and attended
the holy mass that was being conducted. No only did we get to see the beautiful
church but we got to hear the pipe organ and the choir which was beautiful. I’m
sure the mass was lovely but with our limited Portugese vocabulary (thank
you-male and female versions, how much is that, and do you speak English) we
didn’t understand much!!
Coming out of the church it was raining and we were debating
whether we wanted to see the cloisters (although the opportunity to see it and
learn about the “Manueline” style of building was too tempting) so we decided
to venture to the bakery to try the goodies at the famous Pasteis de Belem. We
had a bite of lunch and some pastries while waiting out the rain. About the
pastries (I’m just saying-it wasn’t our fault that we had to eat so many!), we
had been told that it was impossible to just eat one so we ordered a little
lunch and then asked if we could have 2 for lunch and have two packaged to take
with us. No problem! said the waiter. I thought, well that was easy! So lunch
comes along with a plate of 4 pastries and a bag with 2 to take with us-oh my.
They were kind of little so we ate one each, split one and then put one in the
bag with the others to take with us. We thought it would be nice to have them
on the ship with a cup of tea the next day. Well, sometime that afternoon we
got hungry and split one more which left the other 2-no problem-save them for
the cup of tea-you get it-great plan. On
the walk back to the ship we were about 2 blocks away when I remembered you can
only bring food on the ship that is hermetically sealed-not food from a
restaurant or a BAKERY! So now-what would you do? Throw them away or eat them
in the 2 blocks left to walk. As you can guess, we ate them and waddled on to
the ship!!
But I digress- after waiting out the rain in the bakery we
decided to go back to the monastery and see the cloisters. Rick had on a big
brimmed hat and I had thought to put one small umbrella in my purse. By this
time it was POURING down rain but the good news was that the rain had greatly decreased
the line for the monastery! So we stood and got mildly soaked in line for the
cloisters (during which time the sun came out!) and we can now answer Jeopardy
questions about the Manueline style of architecture that is so prevalent in
Lisbon. That is the purpose for all this travel isn’t it?
Back to the hop on-hop off bus and we toured most of the
historical sites we wanted to and then had the opportunity to ride and really
see the more modern parts of Lisbon from the World Expo. Picture taking was
non-stop and we got some great pictures of Lisbon and some pictures of
sustainability efforts around Lisbon for Rick’s class.
One set of pictures we took had to do with the amazing
sidewalks in Lisbon. Richard had taken a picture of one of them when he was
there several years ago and we kept an eye out for interesting designs.
Unfortunately we didn’t get as many as we would have liked due to being in
moving vehicles so much and when we were on foot (lots!) we didn’t see the ones
we saw from the buses!! But we did get some great ones and hope to put them
into a photo collage of some sort.
Day 3 (Monday)-
We ventured to the highest “mountain” in the Lisbon area to
a town called Sintra where the summer palace of the royal families of Portugal
is located. After having a rainy start (now carrying 2 umbrellas and rain
jackets!) the day cleared up just in time to make the climb up the hills to the
palace which was stunning inside and out with some of the most amazing views of
the Portugese countryside all the way to Lisbon and the Atlantic Ocean. They
were definitely not slumming it! We also learned even more about the history of
Portugal (we can take a serious test by this time-and pass with flying
colors!). We then had time to stroll the
streets of Sintra with their shops filled with everything from beautiful tiles
to everything made from cork! This is the area from which most of the cork in
the world comes from and they have certainly capitalized on it! Nothing like
having NO ROOM in our suitcases to bring much back to keep the purchases to a
minimum. I did buy a cork pen for my pen
collection as well as a cork fan!! There were still some purses I could have
easily gotten!
Day 4 (Tuesday)-
Cooking day!!! We went to an interesting part of Lisbon that
had been warehouses for the fishermen that has now been made into little shops
and restaurants. There we had a cooking class making some traditional Portugese
food. For a starter we carmelized apples and rosemary and then made little
meatballs out of a traditional Portugese smoked sausage which we got all crispy
and served on top of the carmelized apples. The story says that the sausages
saved the lives of Jews as the monarchy wanted to get rid of any non-Christians
and the only way to tell if someone was a Christian was to see if they had
smoked sausages in their smoke houses. Since non-Christians didn’t eat pork it
was assumed that those homes who had no smoked sausages were non Christian
homes. The Jews learned to make smoked chicken sausages and when the government
checked the smoke houses they
We then made a traditional fish stew with olive oil and
layers of onions, garlic, potatoes, red and green bell peppers, tomatoes, monk
fish and cod and prawns. Mighty tasty!!! We finished everything off with a
small tart made of chickpeas and almonds, chocolate mousse and small glass of
port!
Say goodbye to Lisbon-on to Bilbao, Spain!! We will be there
on Friday morning and the adventures will continue!!
