Lisbon, Portugal
Carter and I went our separate ways again today. I was assigned to escort a tour called Lisbon Highlights. Carter struck out on his own. My tour tended up being fantastic, other than the fact that there were 42 other people on the bus and it took more time to empty and load the bus than it took at each stop. I got a ton of history, saw many sights and felt good about my stay in Lisbon. Carter took the hop on/hop off bus, then found a quaint restaurant and was able to eat a true Portugese meal. Of course, he has photos of it and said it was amazing. The fish was fresh, the veggies pristine. Who could ask for more.
Carter took 149 photos and posted about 25 on the blog. I took about 50 (many for me) and posted 6. We loved the different sidewalk designs that are so Portugese, and were amazed at the varying architecture. There were the very old buildings from the 1500’s and then totally modern office buildings and malls. There were quaint areas of town, with the squares and statues of old, but then very functional apartment buildings. And they were biting the bullet and building a huge light rail system. It was a mess and traffic was at a standstill many times, but they know it will get better.
The favorite story was that in the Palace there is a man who feeds all of the stray cats. He has a following of about 30-40 and he plays the flute prior to feeding them. He walks around the castle, playing his flute and all the cats follow him. It was quite a sight. There are also a flock of peacocks in the castle. Whenever they are laying, there is a special place set aside for them. When questioned if the cats bothered the eggs or the baby peacocks the answer was, “No, the peacocks chase the cats away, so they never bother the birds.”
April 16, 2008
Funchal, Madeira, Portugal
It was strange, but it felt almost as if we were coming home when we docked here. We were here 2 years ago, had a wonderful time, and today was similar. The weather was my kind of weather. It was a high of about 62, a few clouds, a little breeze. Perfect! The white houses with their red tile roofs, the banana trees, flowers everywhere and volcanic mountains. Someone was comparing Madeira with Santorini and although there are similarities with the volcanic islands, these are lush and green, while Santorini was dry and a little dusty.
We were late getting off the ship, so we ran to the shuttle bus which took us to town, then had a plan to go see the Botanical Gardens way up on the top of the mountain. Little did we know how difficult it was to get to. First we had to ride a funicular for about 25 minutes to the top of the mountain (definitely, not my favorite activity. I just sat looking up the hill, holding onto the seat.). Then we had to walk a ways downhill to another funicular which took us down the hill about ½ way. This one was much slower and took us over beautiful green areas with waterfalls and streams all thru it. Once we got off we walked to the park entrance, only to find out that we had to pay again for admission to the Gardens. We thought the 2nd funicular fee was the garden fee as well. So, we had spent all of our Euros and they didn’t take credit cards, so we went to the shops, browsed and started the trek back to the ship. It was the day of the funiculars.
Now we head back to the States across the Atlantic. Hope it isn’t too bumpy.
Labels: Personal
posted by Hills @ 12:25 PM
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