* LIVE from the Rotterdam - 30 day Passage to Spain and Western Europe - Mar. 30th*

Just a few more of the outside of this magnificent Church and we will go inside...

 

 

 

 

This church has many famous people buried here including Vasco de la Gama, the great Explorer. entrance to the church is free. The monastery has a small fee as does the Maritime Museum (8 euros) and the Archaeology Museum (5 euros). Our guide recommended we not waste time in the archaeology one as she said there was better and, in her opinion it wasn't great. We followed her advice.

 

This is Vasco de la Gama's crypt.

 

 

More later - I don't want to try DH's patience with free wifi and it is time to move on.

 

Warning...there will be FOOD PORN later.

 

 

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LOVELY pictures, Jacqui! Lisbon is one of DH's and my favorite cities in Europe. It's such a beautiful place with the friendliest locals and most delicious food. Please tell me you tried Pasteis de Nata in Belem!!

Jacqui I'm reading and loving the reports. :) So glad your trip appears to be going marvelous.

Your architectural photos are fabulous ! Loving every minute of your reports - can you clarify something for me, though? How do you pronounce Huelva? Is it like Hell-va or Whale-va?

If you've only had 2 nights of less than smooth seas, I'd say you were pretty fortunate!

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

Gerry

Your architectural photos are fabulous ! Loving every minute of your reports - can you clarify something for me, though? How do you pronounce Huelva? Is it like Hell-va or Whale-va?

 

 

 

If you've only had 2 nights of less than smooth seas, I'd say you were pretty fortunate!

 

 

 

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

 

Gerry

 

Hi Gerry.

Thanks for the kind words.

LIke H as in hay - emphasis on the H and then whale va.

Hope this makes sense.

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Jacqui I'm reading and loving the reports. :) So glad your trip appears to be going marvelous.

Thanks. We are having a great time.

Planning is worth it!

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LOVELY pictures, Jacqui! Lisbon is one of DH's and my favorite cities in Europe. It's such a beautiful place with the friendliest locals and most delicious food. Please tell me you tried Pasteis de Nata in Belem!!

Is there anything we haven't had? LOL. DH prefers the chocolate croissant.

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Well, our second wifi spot wasn't too productive so I am back at the ship and will have to use theirs <sigh>

I couldn't get pics to upload at the 2nd wifi spot. Not sure if it was tap a talk or the wifi but the guy did say that the wifi was spotty with too many people on.

Anyways, here will go with inside the ship. Let's hope the wifi on board is working decently.

If it isn't, there will be only one post. If it is, there will be several.

So, back to the inside of the chapel.

I am going by memory, so I hope I don't repeat pics.

The church is dark so hard to get good pics, but the architecture and the history is all in these churches so worth going to.

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I was a bit lax at pics today as DH had his camera that I can download the card. I just need to steal the memory card from him.

We went to a beautiful view point.

And then our group was busy listening to our guide's talk on the cork tree and touching it. I thought they were going extinct, but apparently here, they just take a piece off and the the bark grows back. Amazing. Cork is a huge export in Portugal.

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Beautiful monuments and buildings all through Lisbon.

And then we were at the church of Santa Maria Maior.

Sorry, this is taking far too long to upload pics. I really wanted to get to our food porn and Fado show but it will have to wait. The minutes are ticking by. I will try early tomorrow in the hopes it is faster.

there may be no gap for many of you with the time difference.

thanks so much for following along and sharing our journey with us.

Tomorrow we are in Vigo and heading to Santiago de Compostela - a major bucket list item for us. Cheers as we sail towards there to all of you from here.

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We stopped at the monument of the "Discovery".

It's relatively new as the Portuguese want to remember all those who helped find their way in the seas. It's a maritime remembrance and very beautiful.

What is amazing is that both sides are totally different

A close up for detail:

And the front:

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At the same place where the monument was you had the option of "Wine with a View".

I am not kidding. The glass was yours to keep (plastic but could twist). One of our tour partners inspired us and we said "what the heck".

Felippa said we could all have wine in the van - no problem. Amazing. We could never do that in Canada.

the only rule "don't spill". Thankfully I had white wine - LOL.

The person running this little spot is going to be rich my DH said. He gave us a taste first to make sure we liked it.

It was kind of a fun thing to do. DH and I shared a glass as we continued on our trip.

Where else but in Lisbon would you find "Wine with a View".

the sights we saw...

Soon it was time for lunch.

DH's croquettes

My oysters:

The bread that was served on the side. Yes, that is an egg yolk.

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A few more sights if they are of interest from day 1 in Lisbon.

This day was everything we expected and more. We had been to Sintra and Fatima before so this time we got to see more of Lisbon up close and personal with more planned on own on day 2.

But for now, it was going to be time for our Fado show.

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Frederica kindly dropped kennycat off at the ship and took the 4 of us off to Alfama to be close to our Fado show.

Yes, after a long day, we are attempting to stay up and had a long standing reservation with Senor Fado.

We found a little spot to have a drink a wait for the opening (not long) and were at the door promptly for our 7:30 reserve.

the people in Europe really know how to use space and Senor Fado is no exception. It only seats around 35 people and for good reason.

But, it's a cute spot and the wife (the lady doing the cooking) is a premier Fado performer and her husband was the leader (the 12 string rules the way the performance is done).

But first, I know, you are all suffering from a lack of food porn, so I don't want you deprived.

Look at the antipasto that was waiting for us. A huge piece of cheese, plus older cheeses (all good), bread, ham, salami and olives. Yummmmm.

Wine was included in the meal as was the water

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The daughter (who would be performing later) explaining the menu & serving us:

We chose the seafood for the 4 of us.

OMG....

This dish arrived...

With this inside

Dessert was perfect....

Two very happy campers that were with us

The food was as good as it looked.

The Fado show was fabulous. Really fabulous.

Too dark for my camera so I will try to get DH's memory card and post later. I think he had the camera I can download from.

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Just playing catch up reading your posts. Looks & sounds like you're having a good cruise.

Allan & Marlane

Wish we had had 2 nights in Lisbon. A few hours is just not enough time to see everything there.

Wish we had had 2 nights in Lisbon. A few hours is just not enough time to see everything there.

You are right. In1991 we spent four days in Lisbon on our Portugal/Spain trip celebrating my 50th birthday. After taking the Ho Ho bus one day in Lisbon, getting off at various stops, we walked our feet off another day, then the next day took a tour to Oporto and nearby places. The next day we went to Fatima, a highlight for me. Then finished our Lisbon stay with more walking to sights we hadn't yet explored before taking night train to Madrid.

Thank you, Kazu, for sharing your fantastic photos with us. Although we'd seen the Discoverers Monument from a distance, we hadn't seen it up close. So I'm glad those closeups were among the photos you shared.

Oh my! Your fado meal looks incredible! Sure beats the standard touristy fado meal! We too really enjoyed Portugal! You have brought back a lot of memories, thank you!

The daughter (who would be performing later) explaining the menu & serving us: We chose the seafood for the 4 of us. OMG. With this inside AH, yes,grillled sardine. I was hoping one of you sampled it. I loved the way they cook and serve it.............. and. Did any dfyou have e the green wine? Sooo good :) Your photos are terrific and this is a great thread. Dessert was perfect.... The food was as good as it looked. The Fado show was fabulous. Really fabulous. Too dark for my camera so I will try to get DH's memory card and post later. I think he had the camera I can download from. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Sorry all,

Internet on board has been really bad. Guess we can blame it on the weather. I came back from Vigo with full intentions to use the ship's wifi and nada, nothing.

Nothing again today. In the Bay of Biscayne (I think I got that right?) and we are having some motion in the ocean and thunderstorms.

Tried posting late last night, 6 am today. You name it, I tried it. Nada.

I think it is working so I have to go back. Far too many posts...so let's hope this works and I can at least get a few done.

You are right. In1991 we spent four days in Lisbon on our Portugal/Spain trip celebrating my 50th birthday. After taking the Ho Ho bus one day in Lisbon, getting off at various stops, we walked our feet off another day, then the next day took a tour to Oporto and nearby places. The next day we went to Fatima, a highlight for me. Then finished our Lisbon stay with more walking to sights we hadn't yet explored before taking night train to Madrid.

 

 

 

Thank you, Kazu, for sharing your fantastic photos with us. Although we'd seen the Discoverers Monument from a distance, we hadn't seen it up close. So I'm glad those closeups were among the photos you shared.

Glad you didn't mind the close ups. It's a pretty amazing monument. The detail is fantastic and covers all aspects of Portuguese maritime history.

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Oh my! Your fado meal looks incredible! Sure beats the standard touristy fado meal! We too really enjoyed Portugal! You have brought back a lot of memories, thank you!

Senor Fado makes it clear in their emails that it is only "regular Portuguese food". I could take that food every day.

It was really very good and delicious. I warned my friends it was just the standard Portuguese stuff but that is what we all wanted.

We like savouring the flavour in countries.

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I got my hands on DH's camera card so now we have a few pics of our Fado performance.

The first is the father who is a well known Fado performer. Beautiful voice. His instrument is the one that "leads" the others. Kind of like a conductor in an orchestra.

Here is the daughter who served us. Another beautiful voice full of emotion.

At the beginning of one song, surprise! Sound came from the other side of the very small room and there was the mother. She had prepared the meal and was now ready to perform. She is a premier performer of Fado and well known.

The range of her voice was simply amazing.

An absolutely amazing experience and, despite the very late night, it was well worth it.

We even bought a cd to bring home (I'll find room for it somehow - LOL) as she has a number. She kindly autographed it for DH.

We had originally planned to take a cab back to the ship (and they did offer at Sr. Fado), but Alfama is VERY close to the ship and Lisbon is very safe at night so we all walked back at 1 am.

Our day 2 in Lisbon was going to be very easy going. We had found the areas we wanted to explore more on foot and that was the plan. No alarm, no panic. It was very late by the time we hit the sack.

Here is our marvellous guide that we had...

And one of our tour companions hitching a ride from the tram or tuc tuc

And a better shot of the wine with a view truck.

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Dam, it's either the internet or tap a talk, but I can't get pics uploaded. Will be back later with more soon, I hope. Otherwise I will get confused as I have too many to do. LOL.

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Day 2 of Lisbon was a relaxing fun day

We started out seeking a specific area and found ourselves going uphill, downhill, uphill, downhill. Kazu was getting worn out after 45 minutes. I have to admit that if we had gone a different way, we could have mostly been on level ground with just one hill. On the way back to the ship, we discovered how high we had gone.

But, we did finally arrive and we browsed different areas. And we saw lots of neat spots along the way.

Everywhere we went delectable pastries tempted us.

DH could not resist and the outside cafe did not mind if he went to the pastry shop and brought it to the table since we were having drinks there.

It was one euro for this chocolate croissant. It was a BIG chocolate croissant and DH managed to polish the whole thing off.

And fresh fish abounded.

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