Day 4 - Lisbon

Today saw us in Lisbon.

We docked further upstream compared to when we were last here in 2009 in an area which is clearly being developed to improve docking facilities.  Our tour was ‘Highlights of Lisbon and the Estoril Coast’. We saw few highlights, as perhaps they are few in number in any case and then we set off for Estoril.  We parked near the Casino and had almost an hour of free time near the sea front.  We enjoyed that in what was very pleasant autumn sunshine and had time for a drink in a beachside café before returning to the coach.  We hugged the coast on the way back into Lisbon.  The final stop was for the Belem Tower, the Old Lighthouse and the tribute to the navigators who, from Henry the Navigator through Magellan to Vasco da Gama discovered so much of the undiscovered world.  The monument to the navigators is in the shape of a caravelle, which I’d never really noticed until you see it from the water.

Each time we’ve been to Lisbon we’ve tried valiantly to fall in love with the city but have never succeeded.  It always comes across as a touch scruffy and the traffic is a nightmare.  Add to that the 30 minutes plus it took us to get back on board after our excursion and it was almost a day to forget.

And as we left Lisbon, once again we were rocking and rolling, even though this time we had barely left the Tagus estuary for the Atlantic.  We enjoyed our evening meal and then had a spell in the very popular Tamarind Club listening to their live band ‘Dynamite Groove’ playing hits from the 60s to the 90s.

After that we went to the theatre to see Gareth Oliver, a ventriloquist who was billed as the only one who had ver reached the semi-finals of ‘Britain’s Got Talent’.   After 10 minutes we decided that there was no way we could cope with being half ejected from our seats every few moments as the ship hit endless high waves (6 metres plus we were told) so we headed back to the cabin, got into bed and fastened our safety belts for the night.

That proved to be a good plan as the bed heaved and slewed for much of the night.  First light saw us entering the harbour at Leixos a good hour early, so I can only assume that they had sailed faster than planned so that we could at least get up the next morning without having to hold on to something all the time.