Chefprefers BLOG

In Lisbon, It was a long walk from the bus station to the Metro. It appears that our trip is the Explorer version and not the Grand version meaning that you take public transport when you travel between cities and hotels. When we did the intrepid Vietnam tour, we must have had the Grand tour because we had a minibus to ourselves. Although this trip our tour leader made it known that this is the cheaper travel trip. Can’t wait for Morocco.

Anyway, Lisbon is a 11 century city which had a face lift in the lower part after the 1755 earthquake. Making the streets laid out like a NYC grid. It has an abundance of outdoor cafes and shops within the grid. The occasional statue square and a ruin castle at the peak over looking the city. The very wide Tagus river also has a major container shipping port. Although the major icon, Christ the Kings overlooks the river erected in 1958. It’s similar to the statue in Reo de Janeiro. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_the_King_(Almada)

On our free day, a few of us from the tour taxied to the Maritime Museum and then after we walked down to Belem, the river shores and took in the sea air. It was too long to walk back to the hotel so we took a river taxi. There were 6 of us and we paid 20eu each. It was a small boat which could hold about 15 people, there was a host and she served us drinks and at the end serenaded to us. It was nice to get onto the water. The wind was warm and fresh. I learn the history of Portugal having explored the seas in the 17 century which established a few African settlements Cape Verve and the Congo otherwise known as Angola, Guinea, known as Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique. Then of course the South American country of Brazil. And the Indian peninsula Goa, Daman and Diu. But this isn’t a history lesson anyway the museum showed a lot of historical boats which they used back then to explore. Lisbon a very busy tourist place because you had to either book or line up to most attractions. Like there is a monastery next to the maritime museum and the line was very long and there was nobody in the museum line. We didn’t end up going to the monastery, beside I was over looking at ruins by then.

We had only 2 days at Lisbon so we were back onto the bus the next day. Although, there is one extra thing about Lisbon It’s their cherry Brandy. “Ginjinha” they have these special standup bars off the street were you order a shot with Cherries for 1.5eu. The cherry absorbs the alcohol, so I ordered the shot with the cherry and truely felt the buz afterwards. Next up the coastal beaches of Algarves.