We began the day with breakfast in the dining room because
our tour didn’t start until 11:30am.
Jessie and I thoroughly enjoyed our meals, but Hildy said her eggs were
‘gross’ because they were too runny. It's difficult to cook to everyone's tastes and preferences.
The ship had predicted 30 degree Celsius weather for the day
and so we put on summer clothing, but when we glanced outside everyone was in
long pants and jackets. We decided to
dress a bit warmer then, which was a good choice because it was actually a high
of 15 for the day and windy. I was not
impressed with the lack of meteorological accuracy from the ship.
Once outside, we met our tour guide, John. We filled into a small van and the tour was
set to go. There were only 10 people on
the tour, so it was nice and small. We
set off by driving through the town, which had tiny streets and was very hilly. There were many similarities between Lisbon
and San Francisco. We learned that the
same architects were hired to build the bridge in Lisbon, as those who created
the Golden Gate Bridge.
Throughout our driving tour we saw the diamond building
which is now a museum and John discussed the history of the town. We learned that 75% of the population died in
an earthquake during the 18th century. This was a trilogy of a disaster because it
encompassed an earthquake, fire and tsunami.
Much of the city is built over water and has a pine tree
base. The salt from the water preserves
the trees so they don’t die. They shift
if there is an earthquake, which provide a good foundation for the buildings
etc.
Next, we were dropped off and looked around at a local
cathedral, the Church of Santa Maria Maior Lisbon Patriarchal Cathedral built
in the 12th century. This was
another breathtaking cathedral with flying buttresses and was built in stone,
and accented with stained glass.
Back on the bus, we passed the largest archway for an
aqueduct in Europe, reaching 68 meters tall.
Soon we were arriving at the Church of Belem. It displayed beautiful stone masonry. There was vast enclosed space with domes and
typical cathedral carvings and paintings.
The cathedral was highly embellished and one could spend hours looking
at the small details. The building
continued to house several other museums; however we unfortunately didn’t have
time to visit them.
Following the cathedral, John took us to see several
maritime monuments along the Tabus River.
One monument was erected displaying 29 men, in honour of the seafarers
who discovered so much of the world. It
was made to celebrate how much Portugal discovered of the world. It included a marble map in the forefront
which illustrated the different places discovered across the globe.
From a distance, we saw the Jesus Statue; a replica of that
in Rio de Janeiro. It was built from the
thankfulness that Portugal didn’t get involved in the Second World War. People from churches raised money to build
the monument out of vast gratitude.
Jesus’ nose is over one meter in length and it is positioned so that it
can be seen from almost anywhere in the city.
The tour ended and we were dropped off in the city
centre. We walked the Promenade filled
with street performers. Hildy was
overwhelmed by the number of beggars and didn’t know who to help. We did some window shopping and found a
wonderful Portuguese bakery where we bought a variety of tarts (including the
traditional egg/cream tart) and a bun.
We also purchased some freshly made strawberry juice which was a
hit.
We walked around a bit more, but there was such strong wind
that day, that we were all quite cold.
We settled at a café and bought come coffee and soup, but didn’t stay
long. Soon we were headed back to the
ship.
We had dinner with a lovely couple from Texas and enjoyed
getting to know them. Jessie spent the
majority of the meal talking with the husband about cameras and photography, as
he had done it semi-professionally for the past 30 years.
During the meal, the captain made an announcement that we
were experiencing hurricane strength winds gusting more than 65mph. This made for a rough ride and it was evident
when looking out the windows that our ship was sitting at a 30 degree angle!
The captain told the passengers not to be alarmed, that the
ship could tolerate such winds but recommended that the ladies not wear high
heeled shoes, as they’d likely fall over and hurt themselves.
After dinner, I felt a little queasy with the rocking of the
boat, but I decided to join Jessie and Hildy for the Marriage Game Show in the
theater. I stayed for more than half of
it, but then felt ill and retired to the room.
Jessie and Hildy stayed for the show and enjoyed the Indonesian show
that followed. I’m sure it was a good
production.
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