After breakfast this morning, we went up to the Crow's Nest where Ian the location specialist gave scenic commentary starting at 8am as we sailed into Lisbon and under the 24th of September bridge and past the Christ the Redeemer statute which is like the one found in Rio de Janeiro. As we approached the dock a bit before 10am, Captain De Vries turned the ship 180 degrees counterclockwise so we would be facing outward for our departure scheduled for 6pm.
We left the ship around 10:20am and quickly found Gonzi, our guide from 'We Hate Tourism' tour company. This was a private tour I arranged for, and 4 others from the CC group were in the small 8 passenger VW diesel van. Gonzi first navigated us through the hilly and very narrow streets and by a huge flea market to a nice lookout point for our first stop where we had the opportunity to take some pictures.
We then navigated more narrow and twisty streets to Sintra and a second stop where we sampled the national treat of Portugal: Quiejada. It's a custard like treat and a bit sweet. But oh so yummy!
A little ways away found us at Quinta da Regaleira which was the summer home in the country for a very wealthy but childless businessman from the late 1800's. This estate is filled with walking paths, grottos, tennis court, a chapel, a mansion, a 3 story cistern well and much more!! It only cost 4€ each for us seniors to get in. We walked (hiked) to the top of the estate and explored a very long tunnel and passed under a waterfall. This was a super cool spot to visit and wished we had more than an hour and a half to visit it.
Gonzi then drove us a bit further to another small community where at an intersection there was a roadside produce market and he set up a lunch at a food truck that was quite tasty. After lunch we continued our drive around the peninsula with a stop at Guinsho Beach on the Atlantic coast where there was a lot of kite activity. We continued on around through the Cascais beachfront town before returning to the ship just after 5pm. Security on the pier was quite busy as many tours were arriving back too.
While listening to the Captain's sail away announcement, the couple across the hall invited us to tour their stateroom and we reciprocated. Their room definitely had more room plus a balcony and they felt claustrophobic in ours. But ours is working for us.
We did dinner in the Lido at our favorite option of the Distant Lands station. What makes this so good for us is that it's stir fry and one gets to choose the ingredients so it can be a very healthy option as we choose lots of veggies and a little shrimp, calamari, and scallops! This combined with a custom ahi spiked salad and all is well with the world. We also connected to the Internet with our Glocalme device to check email and Facebook and . . . .
After dinner we attended the 8:30pm World Stage performance by the dance cast in a show called Musicology which pays tribute to the instruments of the orchestra through dance. Afterwards we joined the crowd at the Billboard online venue with the dueling singing pianists doing a set on hits from the 70's. This is a very popular venue every night it's on the schedule!
We capped off the evening watching the movie 'Night Train to Lisbon'. It was definitely one that required one's full attention.
Before the movie, our laundry which had been sent out this morning was already back. We're loving this 4 Star Mariner benefit!
We set our clocks forward an hour!
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