Our terrific cruise is over and here's where we sailed.
Up early to catch the arrival into Lisbon
and to get to La Veranda for their early disembarkation breakfast. I got the same breakfast I have had for the last 16 days (with only the type of egg being different). More crowded this morning (as expected) but I still enjoyed the breakfast. Ellen had her breakfast delivered a little later.
We vacated our suite around 8:45 AM and waited in the Coffee Connection (enjoying a farewell Iced Mocha)
and Reception
area until Yellow 2 was called. Andy told us that there would be a bit of a
delay as no one could leave the ship until all of the luggage was in the
terminal area. Still it did not take
that long to get that done and soon our number was called.
Disembarkation
was easy – a quick scan out (we had picked up our passports a couple of days
ago – they were held and scrutinized by immigration) and then on to our bus,
which we found pretty quickly. And we
were on the tour (a nice bit of negotiating with Destinations to get on this
tour because this is really meant for people flying out of LIS). We got good seats on the bus and we were on
our way.
Lisbon is
made up of seven hills and walking the city can be tough (something we will try
over the next few days). From the pier,
the bus drove by the Praca Don Pedro IV – the “Rossio”, (“Commons’') the name locals call this square. The tower and statue date
to the mid 19th Century.
There is also a fountain (with statues from Spain) and the square was
paved with Portuguese Mosaic. We didn’t stop but I did get pictures.
Our next stop was the Jeronimous Monastery, which was constructed in the later 1500s. I took some pictures but they have somehow vanished.
In 1880, the remains of Vasco da Gama were interred in the Monastery close to the tombs of King Manuel I and King John III, who had supported the explorer. When we visited here last, our guide told us that da Gama’s remains were not in his tomb – I guess he was not quite accurate. The place was packed with visitors but there was a gift shop with facilities so that was a plus. The square is also home to the Navy Planetarium – too far away to walk and we only had about 30 minutes here.
The Monastery is not to far from the Tagus (Tejo) River so that was our next destination. The bus parked pretty far away from the river – it was really crowded today and the bus couldn’t get any closer. We walked about a block to get to the Monument to the First Aerial Crossing of the South Atlantic commemorating the 1922 flight by Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral.
It’s an airplane made of stainless steel on a concrete base. There is, according to the description on line, a sextant in the monument but I couldn’t find it.
We walked across the street to a very large square that abuts the Tagus River. There were a lot of little sailboats out there today and lots of people, as well. It was hard to get a picture of the April 25th Bridge, built along the designs of both the Golden Gate Bridge (the Orange Color) and the Bay Bridge (design).
It was
completed in 1966 and named the Salazar Bridge (Ponte Salazar) after
dictator, Antonio de Oliveira Salazar. The Bridge was renamed following the
“Carnation Revolution” in 1974 to the April 25th Bridge after the
date of the Revolution. The bridge spans
about two miles across the river.
The other is
the Monument to the Discoveries, a large structure in Belem,
honoring Portugal's Age of Discovery (in the 15th and 16th
Centuries) and its maritime explorers. The stone memorial resembling a
caravel was built in 1940 for the Portuguese World Exposition. It was officially
recognized in in 1960 to celebrate the fifth centenary of the death of Prince
Henry the Navigator.
There are several navigators/explorers
on the monument: Bartholomew Dias – who turned the
Cape of Torments into the Cape of Good Hope; Vasco da Gama – who
discovered the maritime route to India; Pedro Álvares Cabral – who discovered
Brazil; and Magellan – the first European to cross the southern Pacific
and circumnavigate the globe. Henry the
Navigator leads the line of explorers while Vasco de Gama is in the third
position. Magellan is about a third of
the way down the line (you would think that he would be near the top).
There is a map
of the planet on the pavement of the monument but it is difficult to get a
picture with all of the tourists wandering around.
We then walked across another square and by a lot of food trucks to the Belem Tower.
The
Tower was built by King John II in 1519 as a fortification for that section of
the Tagus River. It was also used as an
embarkation and disembarkation point for Portuguese Explorers headed out on
their voyages. The limestone structure
is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
We found our way back to the bus and a bit of a ride to our next stop, the Parque Eduardo VII.
The park was name for the English Monarch
following a visit from him in 1903. It’s
current configuration dates back to 1945.
It is a huge park (64 acres) that runs from the top set of monuments
(April 25th Monument) to the Marquis of Pombal Square
and roundabout. The bus let us off near
the April 25th Monument, which gave us a view all the way down the
twin grassy sections. There was a maze
not far from the top. We took a lot of
pictures but our time here was limited.
On our way to the airport, we passed by Praca do Commercio, with its iconic statue of King Jose 1 on his horse, stomping on snakes.
When we were here a few years ago we walked down the hill to this Praca
and then had quite a struggle to climb back up to our hotel. I did get some shots through the clean windows of
the bus.
I asked our guide to let us off close to our hotel and she said the hotel, Melia Lisboa Aeroporto was just a short walk from LIS Terminal 1, where everyone was going to get off. It took a little while to get to the airport and the guide pointed out the hotel to us and it was right there. It was easy to spot.
We got our
bags and started downhill to the hotel.
This involved crossing the turnabout and other busy streets which
fortunately all had pedestrian crosswalks – the cars here are very good at
stopping at cross walks. We started off
by walking to the right a bit to catch the first crosswalk and then it was easy
to see how to cross the streets.
Downhill was good – we will probably take the hotel shuttle when we are
going to the airport.
We checked in which took a little while but they had all our stuff. We did have to pay a 24Euro resort tax, which wasn’t part of the original pre-payment to Hotels.com (Expedia.com). We had contemplated shortening our stay but the desk agent said that would have to be worked out with Expedia and I just knew that would be a major deal so we are going to stay the full time. We are in Room 529 –
all the way at the end of that part of the fifth floor. We only have one neighbor. The entire hall was illuminated by motion sensor lights and by the room numbers so you could see where you were going.
The room, which I did not get a picture of
(just forgot) was a typical Eurostyle room, smallish with a nice bathroom – there
isn’t an actual door on the toilet space – just a translucent door that doesn’t
shut completely (I could not find a vent in the toilet space). The shower is next door
to the toilet and has the same kind of door.
There is a fridge and a safe so we are OK there. There was one bottle of complementary water in
the room and lots of snacks for purchase.
We will make this work because the price is right. We got the WiFi password and also noticed on
our key sleeve that we also got two breakfasts – breakfast was not included in
this reservation when I saw it on line – perhaps the on line information was
not up to date. Breakfast is served from
4:30AM (really) to 10:30 AM. Lots of
airline crews stay here so they need early options for breakfast – also people
catching early flights need breakfast as well (that would be us).
We were pretty hungry at this point and checked for local restaurants and were told that the hotel across the street, Star Inn Hotel, had a restaurant – they did but it wouldn’t open until later in the evening. Our hotel also had food in the bar area so we decided to get dinner there. We wound up ordering a Margherita Pizza and a green salad (there was only oil and vinegar for the salad). We ordered a Euro Coke Free which came in a big bottle and was enough for both of us.
Our waiter must have been a trainee because
he literally could not get anything right – without going into details, we
finally got the food and coke. It was
actually OK and enough.
We went back
to the room to wind down – the room seemed quiet – no room noises. After a while, I could hear the toilet
running. I called the front desk and
told them and they sent someone (I think it was the front desk clerk) up to fix it.
It worked for a while and then another service person came and installed
a new float mechanism. That was worse as
it would not flush after that repair.
Another call to the desk and he said he would move us to a different
room.
It took a little while but we wound up one floor up in Room 627 –
fortunately, we decided not
to unpack so the transfer was easy. This
room was exactly the same but it had two neighbors. Still, it seemed quiet.
The toilet
worked so that was a W.
Lights were out at 10:15 PM.
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