Trip to France, Spain and Portugal
Mike and Judy Henderson
September 1 to September 25, 2017
I'm going to leave the map on each page describing this trip so you have an idea of where we are.
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9/13/2017 We arrived in Porto early in the morning after a very calm sailing from Vigo.
After breakfast we boarded the buses for a tour of Porto. Our first stop
was this dual church. It's the
Igreja dos Carmelitas on the left and the Igreaja do Carmo on the right.
The side of the church has elaborate tile work.
Near the church is a bookstore, Livraria Lello, that the guide claimed was very famous for it's selection of books and for having it's staircase used in one of the Harry Potter movies. Not wanting to wait in a long line to see a staircase, we chose to get a coffee instead.
I went on the web and found the following three pictures of the staircase. Here's a view of the staircase from the first floor.
A view of the staircase from the second floor.
And a view looking down on the stairs.
We headed to Costa Coffee, across the street. Note the olive trees planted on the roof.
Judy had a medium latte and I had a medium mocha. They were both very good and the prices were much better than in the US - about 2.65 Euros each.
Although we didn't get to see it, we were not far from the Dom Luís I Bridge that spans the Douro River. This is a very interesting bridge because it has two decks at very different heights.
It was completed in 1886. Here's a view that shows the two road decks. Very interesting bridge. It would have been fun to walk across it.
Another bus ride brought us to Graham's, a distiller of port wine. Port is a fortified wine.
We had a tour, and an explanation of the history of Graham's and how port is made.
It's aged in oak barrels.
The port region of Portugal and Spain.
Then it was to the tasting room.
We tasted two ports, a tawny and a "late bottled" port.
We, of course, had to purchase a bottle of port. How can you go to Porto and not buy a bottle of port?
As we were waiting for the bus, someone took our picture.
Then it was back to the ship for lunch. We departed Porto about 2pm, heading for Lisbon, and hoping for smooth seas.
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9/14/2017 We arrived in Lisbon about 8am after a (thankfully) smooth and quiet night. The weather is definitely warming up. You'll probably see many of us in short sleeves in the pictures from here on.
This is near where we docked.
After breakfast, we loaded up for a bus tour of the city. As we drove away from the dock, I was able to get this picture our ship. While the scale fools your eye a bit because the ship is further away than the cars, the picture gives you an idea of how small this ship is. This was especially obvious to us as three very large cruise ships docked close to us - the Costa Magica, the Celebrity Eclipse, and, later in the day, a ship marked ADIA whose name I didn't get.
Lisbon is built on seven hills, making walking in the city an exercise of going up and down hills. As we were driving in the city, I was able to get this shot of the Santa Justa Lift that was completed in 1902 to take people up one of the hills. We didn't go to elevator, but passengers who did reported that there was about a half an hour wait to take the elevator.
Here are some better shots taken from the web.
Then a view of the top.
And a view from the top looking outward to the top of the elevator.
We also passed the Águas Livres Aqueduct that was completed just prior to the November 1, 1755 earthquake that destroyed most of Lisbon. The aqueduct survived the quake. Someone asked when the last big earthquake was, and I think the tour guide said in the 1960's.
Here's another view from the air.
We went to a park along the river where there was a replica of a float plane flown by two Portuguese airmen to make the first crossing of the south Atlantic in 1922. It was not a non-stop flight. They stopped for fuel at least twice on islands in the Atlantic.
This is the path they took in their flight.
The park was built around this fort, Belém Tower, constructed just offshore in the river. It originally guarded the river from invaders.
From the park you can see the 25 de Abril suspension bridge across the river, completed in 1966. It spans the Tagus River. It was built by the American Bridge Company, the same company that built the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco and is reputed to have been "copied" from that bridge. We passed under this bridge to enter the harbor, but it was night and I didn't get any pictures. You'll see our photos as we depart.
Next, we went to a memorial to Henry the Navigator, called the Padrão dos Descobrimentos. This memorial was inaugurated in 1960 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Henry's reign. You can see a lot more detail at the link given above, including the identity of each of the figures.
A close-up of some of the figures.
Leaving the park we drove by the "pink house", offically, the Belém Palace, which is the residence of the President of Portugal.
Then we headed to the Jerónimos Monastery.
The entrance to the church was extremely crowded, so we again went for a cup of coffee nearby.
When the rest of the group returned, Michael Jones (our tour guide) had some pastries from a bakery in the area. The pastries were stacked two high. The arrow points to one of the pastries that does not have another stacked on top of it. The pastry is a custard filling in a flaky shell, from a secret recipe saved and protected by former monks.
Here's the bakery it came from, in case you go to Lisbon and want to try the pastry. They were superb.
Our ship was supposed to leave Lisbon about 2pm, but Michael Jones heard many complaints that we did not have enough time to explore the city. He worked to change the schedule so that we would not leave until much later in the evening, giving us time to go exploring on our own.
As I mentioned, the city is very hilly and we walked some steep streets exploring. Note that the sidewalk is made of steps.
The city has a lot of small street cars for public transportation and they appear to be heavily used by both the residents and tourists.
Here's a closer shot of a different street car.
There are also a lot of these little vehicles, known as Tuk-tuks". The drivers will take tourists on personal tours of the city.
I include this particular tuk-tuk specifically for Judy's fellow musicians on The Simpsons. Bart, Lisa, Homer, Marge and their friends have come to Lisbon.
We passed St. Anthony's church and went in. Here's a picture of the altar area.
And the stained glass window at the back of the church.
We continued on, and came to Praça do Coméricio, the main square of the city.
The side opposite the river has the Rua Augusta Arch.
A view of the arch from the other side.
The street behind the arch is a pedestrian area with many cafés.
Then it was a long walk back to our ship. All-in-all, we did a lot of walking through the old town.
As we left Lisbon, we sailed under the 25 de Abril Bridge at sunset.
We expect to arrive in Portimão about noon tomorrow.