Day at sea. Scheduled to arrive this afternoon in Lisbon, Portugal 6:30 pm.
M/S Prinsendam one of the smallest ships. About 900 passengers. Very nice to be able to get in the smaller cities and waterways.
As predicted by the Captain we had a rough night at sea. The waves are 12-18 feet and more and winds of 48-55+ mph or Force 9 Gale, and temperature of 62 degrees. The ship was rolling from side to side up and down. It was difficult to sleep and we woke up several times during the night. It was not the gentle rocking we had previous nights. This morning the waves and wind have calmed a little and not as bad as last night but it is raining and conditions are much the same. We must be going at a different heading as the ship in not rolling and rocking as much (yes, it is still difficult to walk) but not has noisy as it was with the up and down motion. This will be another day of staying in the cabin or inside the ship. We are happy to have our nice size room and the balcony. Although we can’t sit comfortably on the balcony but we can go out and check the temperature and sea conditions by just walking a few steps. I’m watching the French Open and typing and Edward is reading his book on the Kindle.
We arrive in Lisbon about 6:40 –m and it is very nice weather. We decide to get off the ship ad see some of the old town since it is near the ship. We do not know where we are going except we can see buildings up the hillside.
Aqua DuctsLocal Portugal Beer
Street Cars all over the city
We follow several people from the ship but soon they scatter in all directions and we are wondering around on these small narrow steep streets and can’t see any reference points. It is very frustrating and then we get to a street with a small street car. We get on it and just start riding it and looking at a map we have to see if we can find a street name. Finally I see a name and we start getting a reference point and finally the street car comes to a plaza with taxis, metro and sidewalk cafes. We are so relieved to realize where we are so we take a break and have a glass of wine. 2 glasses of wine for a 4 Euros.
Not a bad price. Now that we know where we are we walk to one of the main pedestrian walkway DOWNHILL to the ship. The walkway has many restaurants and sidewalk cares and they all want us to stop and eat. They are quite persistent so finally instead of trying to tell them we didn’t want to eat or that we had already eaten we finally decided it would sound better if we just told them “Maybe tomorrow” That seemed to be a much more polite way to get them to leave us alone.
Finally we get back to the ship and eat dinner. After dinner we went out on our balcony to see the lights of Lisbon and have a glass of wine. We have to be ready for the tour at 8:45 am so we finally get to bed.
Friday, May 27, 2011
We took a tour today of Lisbon provided by Vacation Vignettes. We had 2 buses. We could not believe how they could maneuver those big buses around the small turning and steep roads in the old part of Lisbon. We went out to the Presidential Palace then to the very famous bakery and had their famous “cakes”. It was a small custard tart – delicious! And we also had a Coca Cola or mineral water, etc. It is a a very large place and has many rooms. I guess over the years they have continued to enlarge it. There were several tour buses and tourists in this area.
Bakery with the custard pastry
Very small Coke 
Custard pastry on the right About a block away is the large Cathedral and a park and not far away is the Monument to the Explorers on the river. We really got to see a lot of the city Old and New on this tour. I know we would not have seen several of these as they were too far away to walk and I’m not sure we would have even taken a tour.
Depart Lisbon, Portugal 5:00 pm
The weather was very warm in Lisbon but after we got out in the Atlantic again it cooled off and the waves were high again but not as much on 7-12 feet.
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