August 17 – Lisbon, Portugal

Sao Vincente de Fora monastery

28 degrees, muggy and partly cloudy

Good morning Lisbon. Today is the last day of the cruise, tomorrow we move on to London for a few days and then home. A week after that I'll be back at work steady...the first time in a year!!

In the morning we explored the steep, winding, old streets of Lisbon just up from the port-very convenient for us to walk. Painted tiles are everywhere...on the outside of what look like old and dilapidated buildings, the train station, churches...really everywhere. It is warm and humid today, but not oppressive because of significant cloud cover. We found a church and a Monastery of Sao Vincente de Fora. It was very peaceful and interesting.

Before heading back to the boat or lunch we find a small taverna for a beer on an outdoor, right in the street platform. The tavernas all seem to set up platforms in the small streets outside their establishments because the streets are so steep. They couldn't have any outdoor tables if they didn't – it’s brilliant and lovely. An old Portuguese woman stopped to ask us for help…who knows what for…I guess we look Portuguese – when she realized…she laughed and laughed…was she laughing at us!

One cool thing we noticed since the last time we were here (which we realized was 10 years ago! On Chris’ first sabbatical) are tourist tuk tuks. Apparently these are new to Lisbon in the last few years. Some of them are wildly decorated and the drivers give tourist commentary. Some are just golf carts.

steep streets of Lisbon

tuk tuks behind me

In the afternoon we take an excursion to a medieval town called Obidos about 90 min outside Lisbon. We opted for an excursion outside of Lisbon as we have been here before. We started with a bit of a driving tour of Lisbon on the way out of town. Once we got to Obdios we walked with a guide through the old fortified town stopping at a couple of churches and have a drink of sherry at a small hotel. The town was interesting, but it was quite a ways to go for a short visit to a small town. We are back at the ship by about 7, to pack, have a last dinner and get to bed for a travel day tomorrow.

Lisbon roof tops and the sea

I haven't seen anything like this...love it

monastery cistern