April 30th, 2024
We sailed into Lisbon at 2pm so we had a regular morning on board. I played Mah Jongg and Kathy read and did cross word puzzles at the Living Room bar. Kathy is always entertained when she sits at the bar in the am because everyone is talking about something and she just listens to the conversations. The bartender in the morning is Becca from the country of Georgia and he watches out for both of us. I usually go down with a diet coke from the fridge in the room and as soon as he sees me he gets me a large glass of ice. He also knows what coffee Kathy has and makes sure she gets refilled. The other morning I came down and Becca was busy so I thought I will go over to the Explorer’s desk which is like the hotel reception and check on something and than go back for my glass of ice. As I sat down at the Explorers desk here comes Becca with my glass of ice. Talk about being pampered.
We had a nice sail in and we got the announcement that we could get off right around 2. Kathy and I had no plans since we have been here numerous times and feel pretty comfortable on our own so we did not rush off the boat.
We dock right downtown so our view from the balcony
The weather was cool with a high of 65 but rain showers expected. We also had a pretty long walk from the boat to the terminal.
This square is an easy walk from the boat and if you walk through the arches you are on a pedestrian street with lots of shops and cafes.
Lisbon is known for the tile work on their buildings and their trams. They also have a lot of tuk-tuks now for tourists mostly.
Some of the tiled buildings
We walked up to a large square which had a market going with both food and crafts. I managed to find a long sleeve t-shirt which is rare since most places just have t-shirts and sweat-shirts. It started raining so we found a Starbucks and got a quick snack and waited out the rain.
After the rain we kept wandering and ended up on the most expensive avenue in Lisbon which has all the fancy shops on it. We like it because it has a great tree-lined walkway in the middle.
Beautiful tile work and we love the colorful buildings.
Lisbon is easy to find your way around because the city is at the top and the water is downhill so if unsure just walk downhill.
One of the yellow trams the city is famous for and you can see how steep some of the streets are.
After several hours and lots of walking we headed back down to the ship.
You can see all the HO-HO buses in front of the terminal
We decided we wanted to eat in town so we headed back off a little before 7pm and Linda and Michael went with us and Linda and Kathy found a nice place to eat after reviewing several menus. There are so many restaurants and they all have outdoor eating and all the menus are posted so easy to review. Kathy and Michael had a late tour but they met us for dinner. Several of us had the special which was 2 breaded chicken breasts which was very good. Kathy had an omelette and we shared 2 pitchers of sangria. It was a nice meal and we got back to the boat a little after 9pm. We managed to walk 7.78 miles today so we should sleep pretty well.
We have another day in Lisbon and we have no real plans except more of the same and lunch on shore.