Tuesday April 22nd 2008
Noon position: Lisbon, Portugal (Tied up at the dock)
Bob: Getting up around 4:30 a.m., the flash of a lighthouse in the dark outside our balcony caught my eye and I went out to investigate. Our ship was creeping up the Tagus River toward Lisbon. The night was pitch black but the air was clear, so it was fun watching the lights of the homes and buildings ashore slide quietly by. But it was cold on the balcony and it was, after all, o-dark-hundred in the morning, so after taking some pictures I retreated back to my bed. I was having a nice but somewhat weird dream that I was in an airplane but was surprised that we were having such a smooth flight and that I was stretched out somehow rather than being cramped into an Economy-class seat, when I was jolted awake by Monika screaming, "The Bridge" and leaping out of bed. Swimming up from that dream I had to establish the fact that I was on a cruise ship rather than an airplane, which explained the smooth ride, and that I was really in a bed rather than an airliner seat before I could get to the fact that were were probably now in Lisbon and Monika was probably talking about the 25th of April Bridge that spans the Tagus. While I was engaged in all this cogitation, Monika raced to get her camera and then was out on the balcony taking pictures. After gathering my wits, I grabbed my camera and we went up on deck to take some more pictures. |
Monika: Jeff was telling us about taking the commuter train west along the Tagus to the Atlantic and to Cascais at the end of the line. This sounded like a splendid way of seeing some more of Portugal and so we asked whether they would mind having us along. They readily agreed. After watching the ship dock close to the 25th of April bridge, we got off the ship. The train station was only a block away. The ticket machine was in Portuguese but similar enough to the ones in Hamburg and with enough symbols that I could understand it and we all bought return trip tickets to Cascais and back. |
Bob: After breakfast we joined Helen and Jeff for an outing to Cascais, Portugal, that Jeff had planned. His basic idea was to just walk off the ship to the Alacantra train station and take a regional train out to Cascais, a resort town about 18 miles West of Lisbon where the Tagus empties into the Atlantic Ocean. As it turned out, we each had our specialty on this little outing. Jeff had downloaded maps from the web and knew roughly where we should go. I had switched my GPS to the Portugal + Spain basemap I had constructed back at home, so I knew where we were and where we had been (by the "bread crumb" trail on the GPS display), but since it was only a basemap I had no detailed information on the streets or points of interest like Jeff had. Helen kept us honest by keeping an eye on the time and making sure we would get back to the ship before the specified re-embarkation time of 4:30. Monika charged ahead and pulled us all along, taking pictures all the while, which was quite a feat when you think about it. Right at the get-go I could see the advantage of having companions (accomplices?) who were familiar with European mass-transit systems. The ticket office at the Alacantra station was closed so we were forced to use the ticket machine which was, of course, clearly marked in Portuguese! However, it apparently operated along the same lines as ticket machines in England and Germany, so Helen, Jeff, and Monika figured out how to use the machine in no time and we purchased round trip tickets to Cascais for 3.30 Euro each. The train, a very quiet, clean, inter-urban electric type of train, ran out to Cascais, the end of the line, in 28 minutes flat, and we began our walking tour by meandering South from the train station to the seashore along some quaint, narrow city streets. The paving stones were often the black-and-white stones set in geometric patterns that I had seen in the Azores on our Atlantic crossing the year before (Wanderung 14), so that seemed to be a consistent aspect of Portuguese culture. Many of the houses were quite pretty, painted in gentle pastels and having the fancy ornamentation characteristic of houses from the 18th and 19th centuries. One particularly attractive decorating theme was the use of glazed blue-on-white-background tiles to create scenes of stunning size and complexity. That was also true to a more modest extent in the Azores and probably reflects another common feature of Portuguese culture. |
Monika: The train was a quiet electric train that came in a few minutes. The trip to Cascais took about 30 minutes along the coast, a very nice comfortable ride. At the station, we checked on times for the return trip. When we found a map of the city, the guys studied it carefully. Jeff loves maps and would have loved taking it along. Bob had his GPS, so we at least would always find our way back. We first found our way down to the harbor along narrow, winding streets with pretty houses on both sides. The whole town made a very clean picturesque impression. |
Bob: We arrived at the shore at a rocky little cove with a nice sandy beach at the head of it. The rock seemed to be heavily eroded limestone. Some nooks and niches looked like veritable little grottoes, complete with seaweed and mussels or some kind of shellfish at the low water mark. The tide was out, so we had a small stretch of sandy beach between the rocky promontories, but I expect at high tide the beach, as well as many of the low-lying rocks, disappears. Sticking to the waterfront area, we curled around a plaza adjoining the main harbor. From the piles of lobster cages and the number of small fishing boats both at anchor and out on the estuary, Cascais was home to a viable local fishing industry. Another major local employer was a casino a couple of miles back down the railroad line, which Helen informed me was the largest in Europe. Circling the harbor we walked around an old fort located on the headland jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean. Nowadays, of course, the fortress is just a stop for the tourist buses and the area around its base has been converted into a very extensive yacht basin. We were fascinated by all the fish lounging around in the basin, astonishingly thick in some places. We debated if they were edible and, if so, why nobody was taking the trouble to catch them. It was tempting to get a net, swoop up a couple, and take them back on board to see what the Navigator's cook could do with those, but common sense prevailed and we gave up the idea. |
Monika: . At the water, we found a small little beach with boulders sticking out. Bob, Jeff, and I went down to the water's edge and climb along the boulders. I even found a pretty shell. After coming back up, we walked along the promenade to the main square and the harbor area. The houses here looked more upscale. Some had beautiful tile pictures inset into the plaster. When we saw one with a picture and the inscription "Maria Helena", Helen laughed and told us that her name was "Helen Mary". So, of course, we had to take pictures of her with the sign. We kept walking out along a marina to where a fort seemed to guard the entrance. In the marina, big catfish swam around the boats and nibbled on the barnacles along the floating docks. At places they were so thick, that you probably could have scooped them up with a net. |
Bob: Coming back around the promontory we ambled into a park that boasted a children's petting zoo and a museum. The museum was set in a charming little manor house with great views out over the Atlantic and a tidal basin at one side. The docent told us that the house and grounds had originally belonged to a quite wealthy man who had no descendants, and he had willed the complete house, furniture, and grounds to the city of Cascais after he died. We all agreed that the house was a little gem of a museum. I was only allowed to take pictures of the courtyard, which was very pretty, but the interior of the house and the furnishings were magnificent. Each room had distinct architectural features like siding, fireplaces, and ceilings, and we could come right up to each exquisite piece of furniture and examine it closely, which I like to do. Explanatory signs in Portuguese and English were really very informative about the provenance of each piece, and fortunately Helen and Jeff also liked to read about the exhibits so I got to see it all at my preferred leisurely pace. Almost all of the desks, secretaries, and writing tables featured beautiful patterns of wood inlay. Several of the rooms also had rather large fireplaces, which looked functional although I could not imagine taking the chance of lighting a fire in them nowadays. The music room featured a large pipe organ with some of the pipes running two stories high; the original owner had sacrificed a second floor in that wing of the house just so he could put in his precious organ! The dining room table was set as if for a feast, and all the silverware and crystal was gleaming in the sunlight. The house even featured a turret with a circular staircase inside, which we took up to an armory room on the third floor that featured old swords as well as matchlock and flintlock firearms. The second floor was essentially an art gallery around an open atrium where 15 or so very nice oil paintings were displayed. We liked the museum so much that we tried to purchase a guidebook or something that would have covered the exhibits in English, but none was available. If you are ever in Cascais, you might want to consider taking an hour or two and taking a close look at the antiques and artwork crammed into that pretty little house. If you do, be sure to look up at the ceilings in each room because I thought they were beautifully carved and decorated wood ceilings with different patterns in each room. |
Monika: Going around the fort, we found the entrance to a municipal park. Close to the entrance was an old manor house with a fountain that had a beautiful tile picture at its back. The architecture of the house looked like there had been a definite Moorish influence. Going into the gates led into an interior courtyard with the house all around it. One side was a hotel, but we were told that the other part was a museum. What fun! We found out that Helen and Jeff like a good museum as much as we do. The house and grounds had been willed to the city as a museum and park, since the last owner did not have any children. The place was furnished with 19th century furniture. There were placards with descriptions in Portuguese and English all over, so we knew what we were looking at. All rooms had at least some tile walls and beautiful wood painted ceilings. The music room actually had a beautiful organ, and the dining room was set for dinner. We even could walk up into one of the turrets to an armory. On the second floor, the hallway that lead around the courtyard had been converted into an art gallery with paintings on all four walls. The whole place was absolutely charming and to top it off, free because we were all "seniors". |
Bob: As a group, we were getting a bit tired, hungry and thirsty by this point, so we wound our way back through town toward the train station, looking at various restaurants and bars along the way. Monika vetoed a sushi bar, and we ended up having beer and sandwiches in the food court of the shopping center across the street from the train station. That made it easy to amble across the street and catch the 3:08 train back to Lisbon, where we reboarded the ship. |
Monika: The park that surrounded the house had many old trees and a little pond with ducks swimming on it. There were even some fluffy little ducklings who looked like they had just hatched. Of course, there were several peacocks strutting their stuff. At the end was the only disappointment of this charming place, a mini zoo that mainly had rabbits and canaries. But overall this looked like one of those secret places which you never read about in guide books. Guided by Jeff's sense of direction and Bob's GPS we got back to the main part of the town. We debated about lunch, but decided to head for a large modern mall that we had seen on the other side of the train station. On the way back we saw a Zara store. Now our tablemates Vicky and Don and George had raved about Zara. So, of course, Helen and I had to go in to look at the clothes. They were really quite nice and not extravagantly expensive, so we could see why Vicky would like it. At the mall, we found a large food court. It was quite obviously catering to the locals rather than tourists since none of the signs was in English nor were there any of the American chains. We found a table close to a sandwich store. While Helen watched our stuff, Bob and Jeff stood in line for a sandwich and I wandered around looking for a beer. Of course, I found a small draft for 1 Euro. I also looked at the food. There was one hamburger place, one hotdog place, one pizza place. There also was an Indian food place and a Japanese place. Several grills and even one place where you could have full meals. Really a large selection of different foods. When I came back to the table, Jeff was also looking for a beer, and we found that the sandwich place also had beer on tap - slightly larger glass for 1.15 Eurasia. Bob and I shared a ham and cheese on a very nice crunchy baguette. After lunch we stopped off at the grocery store where Helen bought some tonic water and I bought wine in a one liter carton - like a milk carton. I put it into my purse and indeed had no problem smuggling it back on board our ship. |
Bob: After another nice dinner, we went to the show, which was the final big production number featuring the ship's ensemble of 10 dancers and 4 singers. Whether it was due to my having complained a couple days earlier or not I don't know, but the amplification was turned way down and I could comfortably listen to all the numbers without resorting to my earplugs. Monika also found the sound levels tolerable, so we could stay for the whole performance and enjoyed it very much. Afterwards, we started in on the Robin Wells book "Babe Magnet" and then turned in for the night. |
Monika: By now it was 3 and time to go back, since the all aboard was 4:30. The train trip back was as pleasant as the one going out had been. I even managed to get a few pictures. Back on board we stowed our loot in the refrigerator and went up on deck to watch the ship depart. But instead of departing, the captain informed us that they had a problem with one of the stabilizers and the port authorities wanted them to fix it before we could leave. They had divers in the water to check it out. So we went back down to our cabin to dress for formal night. We again had our picture taken, but this time against a black background. During dinner there was another announcement, that yes there was a problem and they would try to repair it. The final announcement came before the evening show. We would have to stay overnight and probably miss our stop in Cadiz. The captain sounded rather upset at the whole thing and apologized profusely. I appreciated his openness in keeping us so well informed. The evening show was the second production show, and surprise, surprise, the volume was at a bearable level and the band and singers were well blended - no overbooming percussion. Whether this was, because with a production show pretty much everything is set in advance, or whether the sound man actually did a better job mixing, we will have to see. But we enjoyed the show of popular music. The dancing was energetic and the singing really very good. This ship does have four really good vocalists. So we did have lots of fun. |
| Prolog | Map of Trip | Epilog |
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