To Madeira, the Cape Verde & Canary Isles - Lisbon, Portugal Page

Thursday 3rd January 2013

Still well out to sea when we got up at 0740 & had breakfast in the Palms Café.
Then, wrapped up well & out onto the foredeck to go up the Tagus in 10°C but glorious sunshine.

We did not berth until 1110, so we really only had a half day ashore, there being a very early lunch in the Thistle Restaurant before we mustered to depart for Obidos at 1230. The start of the coach trip of 75 minutes is through the soulless suburbs of Lisbon but were soon into open country with a lot of wind farms. The guide, Anna, gave us a description of the economy which left nothing to the one in Teneriffe. She said, would we like to take their government away & it would be better if women were in charge. I heckled that we tried that & it didn't work, which was largely approved by the passengers.

Obidos was indeed a gem. An old town that was gifted to a queen & has been preserved more or less intact, although buying socks would be difficult, as the shops are either selling tourist rubbish or Ginja, a cherry liquor we tried for E1 a go. I had mine in the traditional chocolate cup which you eat after but the chocophobic Avis had hers in a thimble glass. We wandered around, in & out of churches & ogling the prettiness for 90 minutes, then drove back. We were taken on a tour of Lisbon traffic jams back to the ship. Clearly, on previous trips, we had seen most of the best of the city. Back at 1710.

Aqueduct	The "Village Gate"	Inside the Village Gate
This seemed to be the Main Church of 14	Inside the Main Church
Oldest church, very small	Inside the oldest church, modern sculpture
Red Bouganvilliae
This church has a...	...ceramic Mary outside
Castle, now a posada	Outside the Upper Wall	View from the Upper Wall Gate back
Inside the Castle Church, all tiles	Inside the Castle Church	View outwards from the Castle

Two more days at sea in the dear old "Braemar" to get back to Blighty.