With its stunning setting on the Atlantic, Lisbon has inspired explorers for centuries. Its labyrinthine streets carry echoes of 16-th century navigators who sailed on the winds of the Age of Discovery. The city gained great riches from trade and its wealthy benefactors erected grand structures to show it, including the Jeronimos Monastery, a stunning work that introduced Manueline architecture to the city. The Belem (Bethlehem) Tower and the grand Monument to the discoveries of the Tagus River also remind us of the great maritime advances that ultimately led courageous captains to the New a World. savouring local cuisine and port wine are favourite pastimes here. On any evening, the strains of "fado"-Portugal's blues-spill from clubs in the historic Aflama District.
On our tour today we were graced with thousands of travellers all in tour busses. Not our favourite things, but heck this is Lisbon! These guys are really good at not only navigating the small narrow roads, but also managing a bus load of rather stupid people. We went to each place and quickly took off on our own .... give us the beautiful countryside! Actually Lisbon is beautiful and we could definitely spent a few "independently " days here.
At Eduardo VII Park, named for England's King, who visited here to improve Anglo-Portuguese relations. On the banks of the Tagus River, we saw the Monument of Discoveries, inaugurated on the fifth centennial anniversary of the explorer Henry the Navigator's death. Also saw a cool bi-plane, prior to WW2.
You cannot go anywhere in Spain or Portugal, and I suspect all of Europe without visiting the Cathedrals. The one is Belem a Tower, a UNESCO Site and a reminder of the great maritime discoveries that laid the foundations of the New a World. There had to be a hundred tour busses here, but the interior was rather amazing.
Lisbon is a beautiful city, but we were totally done in by the tour busses. Actually we took few photos as everywhere had tourists. We went back to the ship and enjoyed a late lunch with some cool crisp white wine and a Eric's marvellous selection of European beers!
We actually did a couple geocaches before we went on our tour and when we got back from our shore excursion Eric set off on his own to do a few more. I REFUSED as I suspected they would be a waste of time. Eric did get one, but had a great tale to tell when he got back. The streets are narrow, cut off, no proper corners and generally nuts. One cache he had to walk up 76 stairs, then come to a dead end. He walked back down a narrow street and still could not find it. The GPS was all over the place. When he finally gave up, he could not figure how to get out of the maze, back to, he ship. He followed a father and son down a small alley way ndt at the end had to turn sideways to get out. So much for city caches.
I am actually going to do a blog entry on the ship hopefully soon.
Love to all and look forward to my blog from Porto ..... loved it there!
It's indeed a very condensed city!! It was the only place where we felt stress driving. Agreed that some of the sites are worth it though. :)
ReplyDeleteToo funny about Eric having issues finding his way back to the ship. I got into the habit of dropping a pin on the map of where we parked the car. Helped a few times to get orientated again after exploring up and down streets.
Looking forward to your next post!!!