Monday, 12 April 2010

An absolutely perfect day: wonderful weather, spectacular port, scenic shore excursion, and total exhaustion.

Eurodam docked in Lisbon

Sunday Dinner

Just to keep the record complete I shall record the dinner menu:

• Chilled green asparagus with buffalo mozzarella and balsamic vinegar
• Caesar salad with anchovies—Michael must have requested extra anchovies, for I can hardly find the romaine under the little fishes
• Veal cordon bleu—excellent taste, but the veal was not as tender as it should have been; the chefs should have beaten the meat thinner
• Tarte Tatin—a caramelized apple confection, with vanilla ice cream

Monday Morning: Arrival in Lisbon

I awake at 5 am to the changing gears of the engines as the Eurodam enters the Tagus River estuary and slowly sails into Lisbon’s waterfront. The sun is just beginning to emerge as we do a complete 180º pivot—like a graceful elephant en point—and then sidle to the pier almost directly under the 25th of April Bridge (designed by the same architects who built the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco). Although the Tagus forms a wide bay at Lisbon, it soon narrows and is not navigable much beyond the city limits. The Tagus actually begins in the hills of central Spain, flows through Toledo, and eventually reaches the sea at Lisbon.

Christ the Redeemer & 25th April
Bridge (from my verandah)

This morning’s excursion to Obidos begins with a 75-minute bus ride through the Lisbon suburbs and surrounding agricultural area, a landscape of steep green valleys and hills lined with windmills, both the new energy producing ones and the old sail windmills with which Cervantes would be familiar. On arrival, our tour guide leads us through the fortified gates of this old hilltop town, completely surrounded by its walls. In addition, there is time to wander on my own, take almost 135 photographs, and buy a souvenir notebook.

The tour bus returns us to the Eurodam about 1 pm, and I walk to the nearby station, at Alicantara Mar, to catch the train into the city center. But the automated ticket machines (which worked perfectly last year) simply refuse to take any paper money. Fortunately I’m picked up by three strangers who want to share a cab into the city center. We hail the most beautiful cab driver in Europe (sorry, no picture), and then we all go our separate ways when we reach Rossio Square.

My way is to wander through the Baxia, the central low-lying 18th-century center of the city. I ride the eleveador Santa Justa to the Chiado district for a good cup of coffee and more wandering, ending at the Cais do Sodre station for the quick train ride back to the ship.

A short afternoon cannot do justice to the charms of Lisbon, but this is my third visit to the city and I am sure I will be back again. Travel guide Ian provides narration as we sail back into the Atlantic and darkness. Tomorrow: Portimao on the Algarve.