Day 10: Wednesday April 25 2007, Lisbon, Portugal
Noon position: 38 degrees 42.048' N latitude, 009 degrees 09.463' W longitude (docked at Lisbon, Portugal)
Bob: The Brilliance was gliding up the Targus River toward Lisbon when we awakened, so we had a quick breakfast and hurried on deck to watch the ship dock. We passed under a huge, graceful suspension bridge just before we reached the dock area, and it reminded me very much of the Lion's Gate Bridge we had seen in Vancouver during Wanderung 13. A gentleman on deck with us said it was longer than the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and we even saw an electric train rolling across the lower deck of it. We disembarked at 10:15 with Rick, Brigitte, and Dave and took the number 15 trolley into the commercial square at the downtown waterfront, where we all went our way for the day. |
Monika: When I woke up and looked out of the window, we were already sailing up the Targus River towards Lisbon. So we went up on deck for the arrival pictures. After the 9:00 o'clock walk and breakfast we went with Dave, Brigitte, and Rick off the ship and took a tram to the center square. There we said good bye to the other 3 who had been in Lisbon before, since we wanted to do the tourist things. |
Bob: We spent the morning wandering up the twisty, narrow streets to Castelo De Sao Jorge (Castle of St. George), which is situated on a little hill. Actually, all of Lisbon seems to be situated on various hills and we certainly got a decent workout while walking around the city for six hours. |
Monika: We started up a pedestrian street but then got side tracked by bagpipe music. We followed the music until we caught up with a small group of bagpipers and a drummer marching through the city escorted by a couple of policemen. One man was handing out red carnations of which I got one. We let the musicians go and stopped in a Western Union asking for Internet. They did not have Internet, but told us that the music and carnation was in honor of the 25th of April, the day of the "Carnation Revolution", a rather peaceful overthrow of their dictator, where students put carnations into the guns of the soldiers. By this time we had followed the signs for Castello de Jorge and started the serious climb uphill. Halfways up we stopped to look at and take pictures of the Cathedral of Mary Maior (we also could use the rest it gave us!). |
Bob: The castle is an old fort which has either remained in very good condition or been extensively restored (I suspect the latter). We had an unpleasant experience when Monika bought our entry tickets and was shortchanged by 5 Euro, which the cashier claimed she had already given us, we didn't check all our pockets thoroughly until we were out of the office and by then it was too late to go back and make a complaint. Irritated at that, we paused to regroup right next to the entrance where we found a stone table and bench to eat the sandwiches we had brought from the ship for lunch. |
Monika: After that we made it all the way up through narrow twisting lanes. Some of the houses were clad in ceramic tile; some even had whole pictures. Very beautiful when kept in good repair. We paid our 10 Euro entrance and walked around the castle after having lunch on a stone bench. |
Bob: Having calmed down a bit, we wandered all through the castle proper, which was quite interesting. We found we could walk around almost all of the old ramparts, which was a lot of fun although probably not very safe! Stairs led up to the various towers, and some of the staircases were steep, narrow, and had no railing so I felt distinctly insecure. The castle did not have a museum nor any other kind of exhibits or information, and I was rather disappointed at that, but it did give us a beautiful view out over the lower part of Lisbon, which included the old quarter with its narrow streets and steeply pitched tile roofs. |
Monika: This was more of a fort with a lot of towers and walkways but no building. But walking on the top of ramparts gave us fantastic views of the city. |
Bob: From the castle we worked our way back across the city (and uphill yet again) to the Parque Edwardo Vii (Park of Edward VIIth). We saw a march getting underway and found out it that everyone was celebrating the anniversary of fall of the dictator Salazar. Folks were handing out red carnations and large crowds were assembled along the Avenida da Liberdade (Avenue of Liberty, I think) to watch the parade. It reminded us for all the world of the 4th of July parades back in the U.S. and we enjoyed the happy crowds. |
Monika: After having exhausted the castle grounds, we decided to walk to the park at the end of the Avenue of Liberty. This involved first some rather steep downhill and then of course more uphill; after all Lisbon like Rome is built on several hills. We stopped for a rest and refreshments (Bob-coke, Monika-beer) while looking back up the hill to the castle we just had left. Refreshed we walked on. At the top of the Avenue a large crowd had assembled to celebrate the 25th of April. Red carnations were everywhere. We watched the beginning of the parade (an armored car) but then hurried down the empty avenue since all traffic had been stopped. |
Bob: But walking through crowds is slow going, of course, so we finally had to walk briskly down to the harbor and catch a tram back to the ship. The tram was a old, rickety trolley car that had a wooden interior and rattled creaked, groaned, and swayed in an occasionally alarming fashion. It was so crowded that I didn't think anything was abnormal when a couple of guys smelling of beer crowded against me in the back of the tram, and it wasn't until we were in the line for security screening back at the ship that I realized Monika's camera was missing from its case on my belt! The case was unzipped just enough for the pickpockets to have lifted out the camera, and they did it by pressing against me in the crush of people on the trolley. I was aggravated at losing the camera, but it could have been much worse because at least I did have the backups of the pictures taken during the first week of the trip on the computer and, since I had been using my camera all day, we had a decent set of pictures for our day in Lisbon. My emotional reactions to all this were surprisingly strong and mixed. I felt stupid not to have detected the signs of being pick-pocketed and chagrined to have so carelessly left Monika's camera in a zipped bag on the front of my belt where it could be so easily seen. But I also felt angry at the personal violation of having these two guys rob me, and resentful that the local folks on that street car almost certainly knew what was happening and did nothing to warn me. In retrospect, I think a camera with only English instructions, a weird size of battery lacking a battery charger, and a weird type of USB connection with no USB cable to download the pictures, will not be very useful to potential buyers in the local markets. Given that, I hope the fence won't pay those guys much money for the camera, but that is cold comfort to me. |
Monika: After stopping at an internet cafe to let people know we survived our ocean voyage, time was getting critical. So we hurried onto a rather crowded tram for the ride back to the ship. I managed to make it to the less crowded back, whereas Bob was hemmed in by two somewhat drunken men. My new camera was in Bob's belt in the front but its container was easily opened. When we reached the ship, we noticed that the camera was missing. Oh well, live and learn. I was just happy that we had backed up the pictures the night before. |
Bob: Being shortchanged by a government employee and robbed by a pickpocket during our brief stay in Lisbon definitely soured us on the city. Perhaps we were just unlucky, but I would recommend anyone visiting Lisbon to count their change carefully after any transaction and keep a tight hand on their cameras, wallets, or other valuables! Chatting with Dave during dinner was, thank goodness, a pleasant and relaxing way to unwind after an unpleasant experience. The evening show afterwards was a pretty good comedy routine by two brothers, and that also helped dispel my aggravation. Having learned my lesson, I once again carefully backed up all our pictures on a chip that we kept separate from the computer just in case that too was stolen, and brought the journal up to date before turning in for the night. |
| Prolog | Map of Cruise | Map of Spain | Epilog |
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