Day 50 - Lunching in Lisbon.

Now out of the calm waters of the Mediterranean, the Atlantic reminded us we are at sea.  Nothing like the Australian bight, but we certainly knew that we were at sea again, with abit of movement.  The Captain made an announcement whilst we were at breakfast, telling us we'd be an hour late getting into Lisbon, but to compensate, we'd leave an hour later.  We suspect that was something to do with the lengthy refuelling at Barcelona plus the strong currents that were against us.

We'd arranged to meet the others of our afternoon trivia team at 8:30am, partially to discuss the meeting time before going ashore.  With a 1pm arrival time, we settled on 1:30pm.

Morning trivia was next – and  still no win.

We watched the sail-in from our balcony (and saw 1,000's of jelly fish!) and this is still one of our European favourites.  We berthed on the port side again and like one or two other ports, had to wait whilst the local dock workers fluffed around with their own cumbersome gangways, when we all know full well that the ship's own gangways are usually in place within a couple of minutes.  Presumably, a union issue.

On-board talk is that at several ports, money or bribes of some sort are often required to effect a smooth stopover.  Sad that the ethics of some countries are somewhat antiquated and do nothing to make tourism easy.  (Maybe those in very high places are unaware, maybe they are in on it, who knows?)  Someone in authority (or maybe recently retired?) may need to do some whistle blowing and expose these corrupt practices, so that we are all aware of what goes on.

The wharf at Lisbon looks to have been extended since we were last here and we also berthed just a few metres closer to the town centre.

We met the others as arranged and just walked off, through the small terminal and onto the street.  There are at least three or four HoHo bus companies here and although we'd planned to do one, we didn't, but friends said that one of the two red buses charged €19.

They also have some upmarket tuk-tuks, which look far more substantial and roadworthy than those in Asia and they even have convertible Renault 5's.  When I worked for Hertz part time, we called them clockwork Frogs.

We walked up to the waterfront square and noted that the pavements are not only uneven, but can also be slippery, even in the dry.  Just a few seconds after I took the photograph with the tram in it, the lady in pink slipped over, fortunately, without injury.

We turned right, through the arch and headed up town.  What I may not have mentioned before is that Laura, in addition to being a tax accountant, is also an accomplished international artist, and had a couple of pieces in a Lisbon gallery, so had been to Lisbon before, as had John.

So we walked up to the next square as our mission was lunch and they were paying.  At this point, they disagreed as to which direction we needed to go.  A toss of a coin dictated 'left'.  About 30 metres further on, we turned left again.  A junction later, we turned left yet again and spied the St George's Pub!  So, we went to an English pub, with Australian and American friends, in Portugal.

Laura had mushroom risotto (Italian).  John had a hamburger (American), Alex had nachos (Mexican), Teri had a Caesar salad which I believe is also American, Paula had toasted Caprese (Italian) and I had - Indian chicken curry of course.  Between us we also had three (English) ciders, a G2O fruit juice and two (local) two beers.  The service was superb and very friendly and overall, the food also excellent.  We finally rolled out at 4pm!

We each went our separate ways and we decided that it was too late to do the HoHo, so we had a steady walk back via a very good shoe shop.  Once again, they didn't have my size of the shoe I actually wanted, but I did buy a pair of casuals, as did Paula, so all in all, a successful stop.  We still haven't seen as much of Lisbon as we would have liked, so one day, we'll just have to return.

The bag was scanned on shore (nothing in it) and they were selling port at €10 a normal sized bottle and cans of beer at €1, so had we been cruising longer, we would have taken advantage.  No photo ID was required, but this time, an announcement was made to that effect before we went ashore, which updated the list we'd previously had issued, that said we did need it.

We'd already arranged with our afternoon trivia team to meet at 6:30pm for dinner and we had a very successful one in the Traviata dining room.  Great company.  

There was a 9pm production show in the theatre called 'Encore' - with the orchestra.  We have to say that this was a bit disappointing, as there was only about 5 minutes of dancing in a very narrow area and they were also a male dancer short.  Oleg apparently had to fly home to the Ukraine (family issue) and will return in New York.  The songs chosen, although sung as well as ever, just didn't resonate with us, as we only recognised two or three of them.   The scenery once again was just a row of steps with the orchestra perched on top in a line and the drummer a bit too loud for the depth of stage, as there was nothing between him and the audience.

We finished off our bottle of port (it goes very well with the sour cherry juice!) so the timing for that was just about spot on and tonight, for France, we have to put our clocks on 1 hour, temporarily, as they'll go back again for England, in just a few days' time.

Two sea days now, with a UK Immigration face to face at 9:40am tomorrow; a start on packing – particularly for stuff we won't need until we get home; a last formal night for this cruise - and even the occasional farewell.  The temperature has already dropped and is now sunny and warm (not hot) during the day, but cooler early morning and late evening.  But, Auckland we note, has had some very heavy rain and according to our daily news-sheet, down to just 3 degrees at night and a high of 9.  We aren't complaining at all.