Lisbon, Portugal

This morning, we arrived at Lisbon, in Portugal. The weather was pleasant and sunny, if a little cool. We arrived at about 10am, and because Tracey and I had been assigned escorting duties on a tour starting at 1pm, we decided to spend the spare time we had on a local meander.

From the Apollonia cruise terminal, it is but a short walk, through cobbled streets and up a couple of hills, to the Lisbon’s National Pantheon; basically a very large domed church that looks like it should be a cathedral but it isn’t, which houses the remains of some of Portugal’s most notable figures and heroes (Eusabio, the footballer, for example… is the only one who I can think of right now…)

We were lucky; it being the first Sunday of the month (not including the previous one, which was a Bank Holiday), entrance was free (normally 4 euros each).

We headed straight for the stairs that took us up to the terrace and gallery. The terrace gave us excellent views across the roofs of the nearby buildings, and across to the Marco Polo, berthed in the River Tagus.

Inside, the circular gallery provided us with excellent views down into the body of the church, and up into the interior of the dome.

We didn’t have long, because we had to get back to the ship for a quick lunch before joining the tour buses on our afternoon’s excursion.

The excursion was billed as ‘Lisbon Highlights and Estoril’. For the most part, that meant a coach trip through the city and to the viewpoint at the top of Prince Edward VII park. A fountain of modern design (call me a dinosaur, but I think it’s ugly) celebrates a visit to the city by Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip in the 1950s, and the view across the city is really quite awesome.

From here, the coach took us to the city’s Roman aquadeuct which not only holds the record for having the tallest stone arches in the world, but it was also built before, and survived, the devastating earthquake of 1755.

About half an hour later, we arrived in Estoril, a small seaside town boasting a massive casino, famous for being a hangout of spies in the Second World War, and being the place where Ian Fleming first got the idea for his greatest literary invention, James Bond (although, Bond was allegedly based upon a very real person). The Casino of Fleming’s first 007 novel, Casino Royale, was in fact based upon Estoril Casino.

I’ve been here on tour several times before, and have never quite understood the attraction of the place. It being Sunday, there were a lot of visitors on the seafront, so Tracey and I found ourselves a small promenade bar where we passed away a relaxing 45 minutes or so with a drink and watched the world go by.

Back on the buses (we were escorting a coach each), the tour headed back towards Lisbon along the coast road, past Belem Tower and stopping off at the monument to the Portugese Navigators.

It’s been a very pleasant day in Portugal’s capital city. We’ve been blessed with good weather (apparently, they’ve had some horrendous weather recently), the Pantheon was free, and the city tour went smoothly and without any problems.

We’re still enjoying having our cabin on deck 6, despite the noisy neighbours… such good fortune simply can’t last… or can it?…