After a Two Night Stay in Lisbon, Oh Boy Another Cruise

Lisbon's Transit Museum

Santa Justa Lift to high district of Lisbon was inspired by Eiffel design

Commercial Square, Lisbon's huge public space

Augusta Street Arch frames the Commercial Square and every tourist takes its picture

Breakfast in Pestana Palace Hotel elegant dining room

Pestana Palace main building was really a palace. The hotel units are very modern

The grounds of the Pestana Palace are a botanic garden

This old tram runs frequently from behind the Pestana to downtown Lisbon and serves nearby suburbs

We usually enjoy our tram rides

A number of overlooks provide fantastic views of Lisbon and the Tagus Estuary

Same viewpoint as above looking further north

Picturesque narrow winding streets make Lisbon exploration on foot a treat

Who hasn't heard of Lisbon's famous bagpipers and drum corps?

Averting our gaze of the Discovers Monument to catch a glimpse of Silver Whisper on its charter already in Lisbon

Belem's 16th Century square tower and slightly newer candy cane lighthouse

Employment for various guards of the National Museum in Lisbon

No time to change into shorts but enjoying the sail out from the veranda of our new suite on Silver Whisper. Note the 1.5 mile long "Salazar Bridge", one of the highest suspension bridges in Europe, and the Christ the King statue in the distance.

A parting shot of the hideous Discovers Monument. Note the crowd of "discovers" depicted on a stylistic ship at the base. This monstrosity was supposed to be temporary when it was dedicated in 1960 

I believe this was the very short harbor pilot. Perhaps his head is in Cartegena, Spain. See earlier entry

Monday to Wednesday - 5 to 7 May 2014 - Lisbon, Portugal

Disembarkation on Monday from Silver Spirit in Barcelona was routine and we headed to the airport. The usual lamenting about a cruise being over was competing in my mind with the strange reality of another cruise starting in two days time from Lisbon. Also we were looking forward to a couple of days in Lisbon, a city that I really enjoyed during a one day visit in April 2002. Barbara had never been to Portugal--at least until our recent port calls at two islands in the Azores which are part of Portugal, of course. This was her first visit to mainland Portugal.

As usual, we enquired at the front desk of our hotel where we might buy transit passes for Lisbon's lovely (and dare I say iconic) trolley cars. The desk clerk sent us via a circuitous walking route down the hill to the Lisbon's nearby (had we taken a more direct route) transit system's museum. I guessed that my American accent in English had to be as undecipherable to her as Portuguese sounds to me. I believe that language consists only of "yaow" and "whoosh" sounds, a contention that was more than confirmed during the following few days in this lovely but economically devastated county.

Upon arriving at the Lisbon Transit Museum we were immediately sent across the street to the Lisbon Transit Ticket Office; so maybe the desk clerk was correct after all. Unfortunately, the transit office clerk not only expressed no interest in doing business with a non Portuguese speaker, he replied, "No", to every question I asked including, "Do you actually sell tickets and passes at this window?" It should be noted that a sign above the window said, "Tickets and Passes". After using sign language, more than a little pointing and effecting somewhat cross expressions, we emerged with two very inexpensive 24 hour bus, tram, Metro, ferry, and of course trolley car passes for greater Lisbon. I guess he was testing my resolve or perhaps just trying to save money for his company in this time of Portugal's inability to fund civic services. I also surmised that transit workers in Lisbon have a very strong union.

Looking forward to a ride on the city's (iconic) ancient wooden cable cars, we found that the ride from the transit museum to downtown was actually on a very modern light rail system. After picking up maps at the tourist office, I wanted to show Barbara the wonderful Eiffel designed elevator that is only one of many methods for traveling from the low civic quarter to the high more residential quarter of this still charming and quirky capital city. We then photographed Lisbon's large squares, the iconic archway, and the guy on a horse statue downtown. What tourist wouldn't? And then we headed for a nice sidewalk cafe where we dined on paella (what else) before returning back to our suburban hotel for the first night in a stationary bed in 17 days.

The next morning allowed us to explore the Pestana Palace Hotel which had been recommended to us by my friend and cruise travel agent, Jim. The place, a former actual palace, is a knockout with acres of meticulously landscaped grounds, beautiful palm trees, and very helpful almost English speaking desk clerks. We had the included in the price breakfast in the Pestana's elegant dining room. It was one of the best hotel breakfasts we've ever had, even a bit better than at the K & K George in London, our favorite "find" in that otherwise very expensive city. We then headed out for a busy day of trolley riding and occasional sightseeing. Lisbon is a beautiful city, even with high unemployment, a bit of a breakdown of city services, and very crowded trams, both new and old. We toured the fort, a bunch of churches, and enjoyed the view of the red tiled roofs of the city from famous overlooks.

Skipping lunch after our huge included in the price breakfast at the hotel was the Belem district, a short but very crowded tram ride from downtown Lisbon.

Belem, a charming suburb, has a long white sand beach promenade and is best known for the Belem Tower, originally a 16th-century fortified lighthouse built to guard the port. This was, after all, the port from which famous Portuguese navigators like Vasco de Gama set off to explore the world as well make themselves rich. Most noticeable was not the old square tower and a downtrodden but charming lighthouse next to it but rather the pretentious eyesore, "Monument to the Discoverers". This 1960 structure is 151 feet long, 66 feet wide and 66 feet thick. Its total height is 171 feet, no match for the elegant statue of Jesus across the Tagus River. We learned that the Discoverers monument was intended to be temporary. That was a better idea, in my opinion. 

At Belem, we were rewarded, however, by the sight of Silver Whisper anchored near the opposite shore of the Tagus Estuary. It was nice knowing that our ship had come in, so to speak, a day earlier than we expected on its unpublished charter cruise, bringing half our belongings and removing another source of anxiety. It's was nice to know that tomorrow's cruise would not be delayed due to the late arrival of the ship as it was already in Lisbon. We returned to the hotel via another but not as crowded tram getting a glimpse of the changing of the guard ceremony at the National Museum under the additional security (and employment) of the police. 

We enjoyed our full day in Lisbon except for Barbara's new iPhone being skillfully removed from her closely held and zippered handbag on one of the very crowded trolleys. Upon discovering the loss when we get back to the hotel, I immediately disabled, wiped, and bricked the unit via the "Find my iPhone" app using Pestana's free WiFi. I guess some of the most skillful people in Lisbon may not be employed but have found a source of income--selling parts of iPhones that are otherwise unusable. [Note: we replaced the iPhone the day after we returned to Boulder for essentially no cost via a clever use of the upgrade plan for my old iPhone 5 suggested by the sales rep (a dead ringer for Matthew McConaughey, by the way, kind of scary as I had watched, "Wolf of Wall Street", on the plane from London the day before) at our local at&t sales office. We ended up actually saving money by taking advantage of at&t's new customer incentives which are not publicized but available for existing customers. We also ended up with a better calling and data plan. Take that, Portuguese pickpockets!]

On Wednesday morning we embarked Silver Whisper which had moved earlier from its anchorage to the passenger terminal at a pier a mile or so from our hotel. Our 8 Deck suite was ready, and the bags we had transferred from Silver Spirit to Silver Whisper when both ships were in Malaga the previous week were already in the room. We unpacked quickly, and I got to enjoying having a veranda again (which I refuse to call by that name, preferring "porch" or maybe "balcony"). We sailed downriver into the North Sea under the iconic Salazar suspension bridge (now renamed "The Bridge" for good and proper reasons) and by the "Christ The King" statue, inspired by the "Christ the Redeemer" statue in Rio, and then by the pretentious Discoverers Monument en route Porto as the (apparently very short) harbor pilot directed our ship.