May 25 –Lisbon, Portugal

random cool building

Lisbon flag

Weather – 31º

Steps – 13,809

Humidity – 37%, I’d guess higher, based on my personal observations, but…science

We may be delusional, but our hope is that our jet lag is over and we’re on a European sleep schedule. Maybe not quite (it’s only been a day, but other than a few winks on the plane, we stayed awake until last night at regular bedtime and were up today at regular time. I expected to be up at 3 or 4 in the morning ready to go, but nope…8AM I was up. Time will tell, if I’m right. I was pretty sleepy all day despite having a good amount of sleep last night, so maybe my body it’s ready for Europe time.

One of the hotel’s sustainability efforts (which makes total sense) is that their included breakfast is al a carte rather than buffet. Al a carte   is much nicer. Grazing has it’s charm also, but sitting at a

Chris buying the ginja

table with fresh fruit, bread, meat, cheese, and pastries waiting for you to sit while the juices cart
wheels over (we both had passion fruit and mango) before your order is taken is significantly more civilized as compared to the usual buffet situation of elbowing and jostling. In addition to what was waiting for us on the table as we sat down, I ordered yogurt with fruit, nuts and chia; Chris had a couple of eggs – both meals were of a very reasonable size. Little went to waste.

salt cod shop

cool square with even cooler tilework

After breakfast we joined the hotel’s free walking tour. We started the tour in the basement of the hotel. The hotel opened in 2017 - during construction, they unearthed 14^th century walls within these walls were also artifacts. Ana, our tour guide talked about the walls, the artifacts and the massive earthquake and following tsunami of 1755.

The theme of today’s tour was the "Shops of Lisbon". This wouldn’t be out first choice of tour, but it was really a general tour of a few areas near our hotel with shops pointed out along the way.

These shops were quaint and charming in old historical buildings. We saw
linens, stationery, food, salt cod, jewelry, booze pastry, shoes, gloves etc.

Along the way we stopped at the ginja

St Domingos (I think)

castle in the distance

seller – the same one we stopped at a last year on our walking tour. Ginja is a Portuguese liqueur made by soaking ginja berries (sour cherries) in alcohol and adding sugar together with other ingredients with cloves and cinnamon sticks being the most common. Ginja is served in the form of a shot with a couple of cherries at the bottom of the cup – €3.20. We saw other shops selling it for €1 – I was fine with 3.20 for the historical charm of this tiny place.

post tour refreshment

Other than the ginja and a chocolate covered lemon gelato on a stick, we bought nothing. On the way back we saw another kiosk in a square near our hotel similar to last night’s kiosk that seemed like a good spot to whet our whistles…Chris had a beer; I had a sparkling wine.

Although it was ‘lunch time’ we weren’t remotely hungry, so headed back to the hotel for naptown. The room wasn’t yet done, so I ended up blogging while we waited.

I never know how to deal with the whole room cleaning situation. I dread coming back to the room mid afternoon and the room isn’t done. Not the end of the world, some rooms have to be cleaned later in the day, but I want that not to be mine. I’ve been known to call housekeeping to ask that it be done as soon as we are leaving, but I didn’t this time.

ham tasting

The blogging time is down time too…the room is cool and quiet.

One of the hotel’s free activities is ham tasting. This was our late afternoon activity. It turned out to be a private

sign should have said pizza and wine

tasting just for us! Miguel, one of the restaurant waiters explained to us about ham that comes from Portuguese black pigs. We tasted this and Parma ham from Italy and discussed the differences. This is much more like Iberico ham from Spain than the Parma ham. It was dryer and less salty than the Parma ham. This all came with a glass of wine, some bread, and grapes. After about 20 minutes Miguel left us to our snack and wine. It was lovely.

outside hotel

Another one of the hotel’s free activities is a gin tasting which followed the ham tasting. This time there were 6 of us. We learned some basic facts about gin,

the ship's already here

tasted 3 Tanqueray gins, learned how to make a cocktail, learned about tonic waters and garnish, and then one person from each couple made a cocktail behind the bar – that was fun. I made my cocktail with Tanqueray 10 and cucumber tonic. I didn’t realize that only one from each couple would make a cocktail or I wouldn’t have used cucumber!

After all of our lessons, we visited the hotel’s lobby for cocktail hour. Tonight’s cocktail was red sangria – very delish. We drank these along with a couple of small cod fritters at a small table on the hotel’s outdoor seating area. This area is basically a handful of tables outside the
hotel. There’s no grand entrance to this hotel as it is in the historical area of

chuch by dark

Lisbon. We sit and watch skateboarders across the small square along with the comings and goings of hotel guests.

sangria please

Our hotel is close-ish to the cruise port terminal. Not as close as the 5-minute hop from the hotel we stayed at in Southampton, but close – about 20 minutes. We could very easily take an Uber, but we will likely walk. Tonight we checked out the walk without suitcases – it’s doable.  

Then we wandered up into the Al Fama area – very hilly with bars and restaurants. We found a place with outdoor space for our first European pizza. It
was good, which pleasantly surprised me when I saw it come on a paper pizza plate. All of this was washed down with a Portuguese rosé.

Portugal's ready for World Cup!

After dinner we decided to go back to last night’s kiosk for one last white sangria. This kiosk serves drinks in reuseable plastic cups that you return for the deposit
you paid when you bought the drink. We weren’t charged last night, but tonight we were…a simple process.

cocktail lesson

We made it back to the hotel in time for their mid-night snack time – small sandwiches, cheese, cakes, fritters etc. It hit the spot!

cool place to work out

May 23/24 – Calgary to Lisbon, Portugal

Weather

onboard champagne!

– 23º in Calgary, 28º when we arrived in Lisbon

Steps – 10,966

Humidity – 74%

WestJet isn’t the fanciest airline in the world, but after experiencing Emirates, last year I’m perfectly happy with WestJet. I’d almost say you get what you pay for and that is true for WestJet, but I’m not sure (in my opinion) for Emirates.

WestJet is fantastic for direct flights from Calgary. To only need to get on one plane to get someplace is a luxury. This sort of applies to us today. In the fall, we (we being Chris) saw a good price on return business tickets to Barcelona that
he snapped up. We filled in the hotels and cruises after the fact. We (we being me this time!) found a cruise that fit our time frame departing from Lisbon.

Pyrenees mountains

Coming into Barcelona the views were terrific. We were looking at the Pyrenees mountain range.

Because these 2 flights were booked separately, we had to exit security, take a shuttle to a different terminal, check bags and go back through security. After all of that we had time for a couple of hours in the airport lounge for a drink, a snack and a shower – I LOVE an airport shower.

Lisbon seems not that far from Barcelona (2 hrs by plane, 12 by car) but if for some reason (jet fuel issues) the flight is cancelled the other options are few – no trains and the bus takes 10 hrs and I don’t think the bus has pods! We were crossing our fingers that the flights operate. Even if ours doesn’t there are others scheduled for that day. Plus, the cruise doesn’t depart for a couple of days, so we’ll be fine…hopefully!

In the end we were fine. The flight to Lisbon was an hour late, so we missed the evening wine hour at our hotel! But we survived.

airport shower!

Vueling Air seats are TIGHT! These are no Westjet, business pods! I suppose taking uncomfortable flights reminds us how comfortable we really are on some flights. I don’t think I need the reminder, but it can’t hurt. It really wasn’t bad at all for a 2-hour flight

sea of humanity waiting for Vueling!

We are not big folks, and this flight was tight for us. The woman seated next to me couldn’t fit either of her bags under the seat and by the time she arrived the overhead bins were full. She kept one bag at her feet (not under the seat and the other on her lap!) None of this impacted my space, so I didn’t care and the flight was less than 2 hours, but WOW!

We had a checked bag included in the fare we bought, so we checked the bags we carried onto the Westjet flight. This was our plan all along…no worrying about if we would have to gate check our bags, plus then we weren’t schlepping anything other than our backpacks. In retrospect our whole “carryon only plan” wasn’t as advantageous as we thought. Of the 4 flights we will take before we get home, we will check bags for 3 – the 2 small inter-Europe ones and probably the one home on Westjet. The “carryon only plan” definitely limits what we bring and I’m always in favour of bringing less. Cruising these days is not as ‘fancy’ as it once
was for us and although I’d like a reason to wear some of my ‘fancy’ things…I’m happy for less packing angst.

waiting for bags

a tad tight

The distance from the airport to the Corpo Santo Hotel is 10Km, but takes 30 min. Streets are windy and steep – I forgot how absolutely nuts the hills are in Lisbon.

We were checked in and taken to our room in a matter of minutes. This hotel is interesting in that there is complimentary food/drink at all times. Breakfast is included, but so is soft-serve from a self-serve station, pastries,

nuts, fruit, sparkling water etc, etc… Our room’s mini bar is also complimentary. We knew all of this going in, but it is interesting to see. Of course we pay for

welcome snack

everything in the price of the room.

As soon as Ruben, the check-in guy who brought us to the room left, I could have passed out we decided to go for a walk.

We ended up at a small square with a kiosk selling drinks and snacks. We had a couple of white sangrias and then it was passing out time.

drinks and snack kiosk

Spring 2026 vacation prep

cruise route

Springtime in Europe? Sure, sign me up! 2 of the most appealing bits to this is that spring should mean cooler temperatures and fewer people. Well…maybe not. I’ve been monitoring temps for the last while and found historical temps when we booked the trip – historical temps say it should be highs hovering around 20º - ha! The forecast for the next 2 weeks has highs as high as 35º - OMG! That’s not every day, everywhere…but – OMG! As everyone knows, I am NOT a lover of heat…Chris in the other hand...

Spending time in Europe in spring will be new for us. Before I stopped working full-time it was summer or nothing…another perk of retirement.

cruise itinerary

Tomorrow evening, we board an overnight flight to Barcelona followed by a shortie flight to Lisbon for a 24-day European adventure. We will be 2 days in Lisbon on our own. Then we will be on the Windstar Legend for 15 days along the Atlantic coast to Rouen, France. From there we will fly from Paris to

What it’s SUPPOSED  to be

Barcelona and finish with a few days on our own in Sitges, Spain before heading home.

This trip we are taking only carry-on luggage. We’ve realized that if we have access to laundry facilities (and really, who has 24 pairs of underwear anyway??) we need very little. Toiletries are always tricky, but for 3 weeks less than 100ml of everything is perfectly doable. Carry-on only makes us be disciplined with what we bring – no fancy clothes or shoes but sacrificing that for the freedom that comes with no large luggage is fantastic.

🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵

Our itinerary will take us to some places we’ve been to and some that will be new for us. I’m looking forward to more pastel de nata in Lisbon and oysters in Bordeaux. I’ve always wanted to visit the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao and this time it looks like I will. Other look-forwards-to for me are sitting in a pub in Guernsey and shopping for dish towels in Bordeaux.

♨️♨️♨️♨️♨️♨️

Again, a really big looking-forward-to is being in Europe when it isn’t as hot as the face of the sun and packed with people – time will tell.

Ps…this is the 20^th anniversary of the BLOG! I know, I know…I should find a better, newer platform. Or should I? March 23, 2006, was the first ever post and on May 10, 2006, we were in Lisbon!

I’m thrilled to have as many of you along with us!

January 12 – Fort Lauderdale to Calgary

Weather – 25º, cloudy and some rain

Steps – 7,936

Humidity – 75%

The last travel day for this trip. The flight is at the reasonable time of 3:30, so no early alarm for us.

We took a bit of walk around the area where the hotel is and then had a bit of lunch.

The trip to the airport is only about 15 minutes so that is another reason I prefer Fort Lauderdale to Miami for cruises.

By 9:30 we were home. As usual, I’m glad to be home.

Thanks to everyone who followed!! Until next time!

January 11 – Fort Lauderdale

thud!

Weather – 27º, sunny

Steps – 10,211

Humidity – 70%

Today was disembarkation from Princess. All in all it was a great experience. exxtreemly different from Regent, but nonetheless...good.

We had to be out of our rooms by 8 and off the ship by 910. This is pretty standard in our experience. We have no where to be until tomorrow, so we head to the Sanctuary lounge for a small breakfast.

For the first time, we have decided to ‘self-disembark’. Typically, you chose a time you want to disembark a few days before the end of the cruise based on your plans for the disembarkation day. Most people are heading to the airport, some to a hotel, some live near and are driving home (although I don’t want to live in Florida, I’m jealous of that!) and a few are ‘in transit’ – staying on for the next cruise. Of the 4,360 people on this ship, 200 are staying on. Your disembarkation plans can have the ship take your large luggage off of

waddling away

the ship where it will wait for you in the terminal before passport control, but good if you don’t want to schlep large cases through the ship.

Having the ship take care of your luggage is a bit more of a production and you are sort of subject to when you selected to leave. If you self-disembark, as long as you are OK handling your own luggage and need no wheel-chair help, you can leave anytime you want from the time the ship is cleared (good if you have an early flight) until the last possible moment you can stay. Although we have large luggage, we are fine taking it off by ourselves. Regent doesn’t really encourage this…not sure why. It is very convenient. Had we been given this option on

sightseeing boat

Regent, we wouldn’t have been as late as we were to meet our ride because we would have just gotten off when ever. Really, we could have just left…no one is going to tell you to STAY whey then really want you off. Next time (although I plan to only have carryon) we will make this an option.

BTW…because we were so late getting off of Regent in Miami and were late meeting our ride, the ride company charged us a waiting fee. Regent ended up giving us future credit to compensate for this. They should have just paid the fee, but we will definitely be on Regent again, so the credit is fine.

Passport control was slick facial recognition. Infinitely simpler and faster than Miami. Sheesh…that Miami situation is nuts, especially when Fort Lauderdale is

Hat Trick...too big to get a good shot of

so slick. Maybe other terminals in Miami are better, but the 2 we’ve been through are brutal. I’d avoid Miami and go through Fort Lauderdale if that was an option. It isn’t really…some cruise companies use Miami, some use Fort Lauderdale.

We got in a very small Uber…one big case and one small had to sit in the front seat, blocking the driver’s view of the side mirror…seems like he doesn’t even need this mirror…we made it.

We were at the Riverside hotel on Las Olas blvd before 10. We were able to check in early for $50…fine…so much simpler than checking our bags etc…We arrived at this same hotel last year around the same time and checked in early without a fee…oh well.

on the grounds of the hotel

We headed to the pool to relax and watch iguanas fall from the trees. I thought iguanas in Florida only fell from trees in cold weather…today is lovely and warm – to us that is…maybe it’s still too cold for reptiles. A couple of times we heard rustling in the trees behind us before hearing a thud and watching a large iguana waddle away.

Around noon we thought we’d get lunch at the hotel restaurant on the canal but it was busy…we decided to get on the wait list and check out the action on Las Olas. Being a Sunday, there were lot of other people out. Last time we were here we arrived on a Tuesday which wasn’t nearly as busy.

We finally got a dockside table – right at the edge of the water for a front row seat for watch boats go up and down. These boats range from kayaks to 2 seaters, to sightseeing hop-on-hop-off, to mega yachts. Could have sat here all day.

The biggest boy we saw was called Hat Trick. We had to do some googling. All the interwebs can tell us is that it is owned by someone connected to the hockey world…duh!

After lunch we went back to the room to relax.

In the evening, we wandered up and down Las Olas again, stopping at Vino Wine Bar. They had Sunday night specials and a guitar/singer playing. We sat outside, for a spritz and a small pizza. The temp by now was about 24…it was lovely.

On the way back we found ourselves at Earls…yes Earls. Although we can still afford to miss a meal, that small pizza wasn’t quite enough, so we thought we’d check out how different Earls here is…it is EXACTLY the same.

And that…was that.

January 10 – AT SEA, Cruising The Atlantic Ocean

our balcony

our way of participating

Weather – 26º, sunny

Steps – 7,659

Humidity – 70%

Last day of the cruise and second last before we are home. At the end of each vacation, we are often asked if we are ready to come home. My theory is that I am ready to come home when I know the vacation is ending. If I were to be here for another 2 weeks, I wouldn’t be ready…it’s over in 2 days…so I’m ready.

Instead of our usual sea day pool time, we decided to visit a few places on the ship we haven’t been to yet.

Deal or No Deal

We started our personal ship tour at O’Malley’s. We have been here before for drink, but they offer a food menu a couple of times a day. We stopped in for a drink and onion rings. I am a sucker for onion rings…I’ve had better.

not nearly enough

Next, we stopped to watch Zumba in the piazza. This is a great place for it rather than out of the way in a fitness studio. This was a serious fitness class taught by Cole the cruise director. Sometimes resort fitness classes are more for entertainment then actual exercise…this class was for exercise. It was also entertaining to watch and looked like fun for the participants in as well. Next time, I’ll participate. I assumed this would be like the usual resort style mostly for entertainment...I was wrong!

BTW...speaking of the cruise director...we did some googling, seems like he makes upwards of $200,000USD! He does work his ass$$ff, every single day...but I was a bit surprised.

Deal or No Deal was in the piazza right after Zumba, so we stayed for a bit. It’s interesting that many (or all) bigger cruise ships have Deal or No Deal.

We then went to Name That Tune 90’s version. We thought we were doing well with 32 out of 40…nope…one team scored %100. One of the songs was Crash Test Dummies! We were just talking about them the other day.

pondering...NSYNC or BSB??

pool party

The last event for us for the afternoon was the farewell dance party at the pool.

By this time, I was ready for a nap. I included a photo of our balcony. It's big, but the furniture could be more comfortable. I guess they want you off your balcony and out somehwere on the ship.

Dinner was at Alfedo’s the pizza place again. Then we went to the farewell show. The most entertaining part of the show was the fight that almost happed involving the 2 people sitting next to us. They were mad about saving seats. It didn't get to the fisticuffs stage, but it was tense. The show was followed by a final go at the casino. I still had about $100 to spend. I started with

not colossal in my books

$40 in credits played for 3 nights and finally got my bank down to $0.

one last sunset

trying to get my steps up

January 9 – Georgetown, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

Weather – 28º, sunny

Steps – 15,406 (5,000 dancing!!! – I think I should do more dancing in general)

Humidity – 75%

I feel spoiled when I say that this is the third time that we’ve been to Cayman Islands. We did a lot of the tourist things on our last 2 visits, so today we decided to wander the front street and get a beer.

I was also in search of Wi-Fi. I wanted to download a new book for my Kindle, but ship Wi-Fi never gets along with our Kindles – too many log-in hoops to jump

Kindle and beer

through, so I brought mine with me.

We chatted with a bar tender (from Vancouver funnily enough) about our previous visits to Cayman. When we told him what we did on previous trips he said “yup, you’ve pretty much done everything.”

In addition to the rum punch we had at the port bar, we had conch fritters and a local beer at a place overlooking the water, served by a guy from PEI. Meeting a bar tender from Vancouver is interesting, but from PEI…now that is something!!

Georgetown is a tender port…this is a first for us this entire time we’ve been

conch fritters

away…no tenders on the Regent trip at all. Tenders are kind of charming the first or second time you do them…then they are a pain in the A$$. Usually, tenders are operated by the ship. In a few places (like 2 that I can think of in all the times we’ve been on tenders) they are local tenders – for the economy I guess.) In my

local tender boat

experience, local tenders are better…bigger and more comfortable – comfortable might be a stretch…you are still sitting on hard wooden benches, but the local ones are roomier.

One of our suite perks is priority tender embarkation. We’ve done this once before when we were on a Celebrity cruise. You show up at the suites lounge and someone takes you to the front of the line. On Celebrity, it was more obvious to those you were jumping in front of that you were jumping…here it’s less obvious. This is a nice perk. If there were no tendering ports that would be better, but if we have to get on a tender…it’s nice to not have to line up or get tender

candle light guitar

tickets – makes the whole tendering process more palatable.

aerialists

Once back on board we relaxed in the room after our arduous day by splitting a smoked bourbon cocktail in a can. Another suite perk is a one-time mini bar set up. We got a selection that we could have exchanged for what we actually wanted, but we drink plenty on the ‘outside’ that we don’t care what’s in our room. I’m not sad I don’t have more of these bourbon ones…not great.

Then we set out for something to eat. We can definitely use to miss a meal, but split a sandwich.

The pre-dinner entertainment was a candlelight guitar player at the pool…it was lovely.

sax player

Then it was dinner in the main dining room. Followed by a Broadway style show, then it was the ship’s White Luminescence party. About half of people were dressed in white – Chris has a light shirt; I had nothing remotely close to white.

This party was something else! It was in the 3-story piazza, with a band, a roving sax player, a pait of aerialists  and what they described as go-go dancers. The cruise director on this ship, Cole, is something else! He’s young (probably 35ish) from New Zealand, overflowing with energy and really pretty awesome. We’ve experienced many cruise

of course there had to be the locomotion

directors and he’s the best. He was one of the go-go dancers. He and a woman danced hard for at least an hour! We were on the second level and did our own share of dancing

Then we spent some time in the casino…I am still up about $100. By 1230 I had to go to bed…Chris stayed at the casino and joined me about half an hour later.

Christina – just trying to get the step count up with the dancing…it’s quite motivating!