Wednesday April 23rd 2008
Noon position: Lisbon, Portugal (at anchor).
Bob: Since the port authorities wouldn't let the ship leave with damaged stabilizers, we stayed in port an extra day to remove them completely, which I thought was a curious choice rather than repairing them. Scuttlebutt had it, (although I don't think the water butt was located under the scuttle on our cruise ship!), that there was a contest between letting the local Portuguese divers do the job or using a diving team that RCI had flown in from England. If that was true, the Portuguese must have won the power struggle because the dive boat that tied up alongside was from Lisbon and flew the Portuguese flag. In any case the Captain moved our ship away from the dock the first thing in the morning to make room for an incoming cruise ship, and we temporarily anchored upstream just off the city center of Lisbon. That gave us a great view of the large, open commercial plaza down by the waterfront and the Castle of St. George on the hill just to the East. Being up on the ship gave us such a good view, in fact, that we could even trace the route we had walked up that hill on our visit during Wanderung 14. I spied the little church where we had stopped to rest as we trudged up the streets to the castle on top, and I could even make out some of the castle's towers and battlements. To the East of the castle I saw what looked like a monastery and a cathedral, so I mentally marked that spot to visit on our next stopover in Lisbon. |
Monika: Well, when we woke up, we were still in Lisbon at the dock. But soon we started going slowly upstream on the Tagus. Bob and I hurried upstairs to take pictures of the city that we had walked in last year. We were moving slowly enough that we could take panoramic pictures. The only problem was that it was overcast and somewhat hazy. Can't have it all, I guess. On our door had been a letter, apologizing for the delay and telling us we would get $100 in on-board credit. We came to rest across from Lisbon's oldest section. When we sat on our balcony after breakfast we had a beautiful view of Lisbon, and when the sun shone on the city, the cameras came back out. The Captain came back on the intercom, explaining, that the port authorities would not let him leave with broken stabilizers, and at this point he also did not have permission to fix them, although he had a dive team with the necessary parts and tools standing by. He sounded very frustrated!!! But I was thinking, if you have to be stuck somewhere, what better place than a cruise ship in a cabin with balcony and a beautiful view, with plenty of food and entertainment. For us it is very relaxing! |
Bob: After lunch the Captain took our ship slowly down the Tagus River past the 25th of April Bridge and out to Cascais where the Tagus empties into the Atlantic. Along the way we could take nice pictures of the bridge, some large monuments to sea exploration that were on the North shore, the Cirque de Soleil tent, and even the interurban train we had taken out to Cascais the previous day. The ship's band was playing dance music in the Ixtapa Lounge, so we went in to take advantage of that. I had a false start during which I learned that I simply could not dance a really fast cha-cha and had to retire from the field before permanently injuring Monika or one of the other couples. But later the band played some slow foxtrots and Lindies, so I gathered up my courage and, rhythmically bloodied but unbowed, ventured once more into the breach, dear friends, once more. The band continued with moderate and slow-paced music, so we ended up dancing a lot and having a wonderful time. |
Monika: Finally in the afternoon, a much happier captain told us that we were going to proceed to Cascais at the mouth of the Tagus, anchor there and divers would cut off the offending stabilizer. We should be under way after midnight. However, this would mean that we would miss both Cadiz and Mallaga. We would get a letter in the morning telling us what the compensations would be. This suited us just fine since we did not have any plans for Cadiz or Mallaga. |
Bob: By the time we finished dancing we had passed under the 25th of April Bridge, a pretty exact copy of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and continued downstream to anchor just offshore at Cascais. That's where the divers tied up alongside and began working to remove the stabilizers while a large crowd of kibitzers gathered to watch at the railing of the promenade deck. I found it curious that they did the work out in the open water like that, but maybe the visibility was better or the Lisbon authorities just didn't want the work being done near the city center. We had a nice dinner with the gang, after which Helen accompanied us to the night's performance of a guy playing an electric guitar. She helped me work my acrostic until it was curtain time and together we made fantastic progress. The guitarist, Mario D'Andrea, could also sing and tell jokes, and turned out to be remarkably entertaining, which surprised me a bit. He was a virtuoso on the guitar and could imitate a banjo, bagpipes, and even a piano on different various tunes. Now those imitations did not, I should quickly add, sound exactly like the "real thing", but the amazing thing was not, as Shaw I think once said about a dog walking on two legs, that it was done well but that it was done at all. The songs were pop songs from the 40s to the 60s and however he did it, D'Andrea had the audience in the palm of his hand, which most of the previous evening performers had not done. Returning to our cabin, we read together another couple of hours but finally pulled the plug and turned in about 11:30. |
Monika: After dinner we went out on deck to take pictures of Cascais from the sea. We even identified the house and museum that we enjoyed seeing earlier. We also watched the first of the dive boats tied up to the ship. A big Labrador on board was keeping an eye on the divers. Afterwards we listened to a very entertaining guitarist, who actually could make his guitar sound like a bagpipe. For once, the amplification was acceptable. We enjoyed the show with Helen, since Jeff had to watch the Chelsea Vs Liverpool football (soccer) match. |
| Prolog | Map of Trip | Epilog |
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