Lisbon of the Seven Hills

Tuesday 9th December

It was difficult to wake up in time to meet with friends for breakfast at 9:30. I am not an early riser! After a leisurely breakfast we set off to explore Lisbon but then found that we wanted to do different things. We had originally agreed to go on the HoHo (Hop-on-hop-off) bus but the other two had decided they needed to shop instead. We therefore parted ways at the port gates.

Two buses were present from different companies. I queried each driver about price and frequency of buses and chose ‘The Grey Line’ as it was cheaper and its buses were more frequent. The bus left almost straight away and took us a few stops to a park where we needed to change. The bus at the port was on the blue route but I wanted the red route for the old district. There was a wait of about 10 minutes before it left and the bus took 90 minutes. It was good to finally see around Lisbon. We went to the Belem district. I saw the shop that sells the best custard tarts in the world. I chose not to get off at any of the stops. It was cold and I was tired.

When the route finished, we were all faced with a dilemma. How do we get back to the ship? We would need to go on the blue route, almost to the end of it. The woman at the stop said it would take 40 minutes; the bus driver said it would take 80 minutes; the map showed it as being closer to 100 minutes if the route really was 2 hours. Most of us decided we did not want that. Some set off together to take a taxi (as advised by a local policeman who said it was too far to walk). I went back on the red route for 5 stops and reached the point that was closest to the ship. I knew I could have walked it; I’d done it before at the end of a day of walking around Lisbon. However, today I was tired. I saw a tuktuk and decided that would be more fun than walking. He only charged €10, and was kind enough to take me on a little side stop to show me the cathedral. He was not supposed to call into the port but stopped there for me, and the man on the gate actually opened it for him and let me get as close to the port as possible. That was great.

I sat on the couch to read but soon realised I was tired. I went to bed about 4pm and slept. I got up for the toilet at 5pm and listened to the Captain’s announcement (bad weather the next day through the Bay of Biscay), and then went back to bed and dozed again. In fact, when Judith knocked on my door at 6pm I was too tired to answer it. I was in that semi-paralysed state that I reach when I try to sleep in the afternoon. I finally got up at 6:45. 

I ate in the King’s Court at 7:30 and then filled in time until the dancing started. I had the pleasure of dancing the last waltz with Brian, a retired dance teacher from Wales. It was good to move around the floor with decent-sized steps and to move lyrically. It all felt so easy.