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[kazu]

What a glorious time we had last night.

 

A simply fabulous dinner.  The escargots were the best I have had on land and sea that I can recall.  I totally confess to having two servings of them. 😉 The tenderloin was as tender as tender could be. 

 

I will post that pic shortly once I get on land where they upload faster. 😉 

 

For those worried about singers and dancers disappearing, they haven’t left this little ship yet.  

 

Us?  We headed to the Crow’s Nest to snatch a happy hour wine (found one I really like).  With happy hour prices the $15 glass only costs $17 for two.  We basked in the music of Tim at the piano (quite good) and then took the long walk down the hall to relax and then savoured the remainder in the room before we hit the hay 😄 

 

We are in Cadiz today.  DH has full permission to sleep in as it’s Palm Sunday here so not much will be open.  We plan on just enjoying the city and savouring some flavour before the Flamenco show this afternoon with 39 of our roll call members.

 

 

[kazu]

Going to play a few minutes of catch up here and take you back to Lisbon...

 

The beautiful cathedral of Lisbon.

 

 

It actually has 3 different types of architecture

 

 

 

Here you can see the special architecture of the pillars.

 

The cathedral was built with Italian ingenuity and the top of the pillars extending down below the line was a new technique at the time.

 

You’ll see the strong lines - nearly military as well.  The Cathedral was built to withstand invasions and show strength.

[kazu]

 

Just a bit more of the church:

 

 

 

 

The tile on this house was really pretty.  The photograph doesn’t do it justice, sorry.

 

 

This is the very old tile work.  The romantic style dates back to the time after the earthquake.

 

[kazu]

More of the mosaics and beautiful tile work on our walk.

 

 

part of this :

 

Bougainvillea was absolutely incredible here.  This is a “watch your purse” spot but gorgeous.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then we headed to the Roman theatre.  They are working on excavating it now.  This city is very old.  And, as we were to find out later, older than Rome ruins.  

[Krazy Kruizers]

Just catching up with the all the reports.

 

I don't like the dark of the railings.  I love light colors -- 95% of all our furniture is light colors.

 

The appetizers look great -- getting those wines during happy hour makes them a great deal.

 

Beautiful flowers.

 

Great pictures.

[kazu]

Walking downhill (thankfully at last) we saw this lovely spot in the middle of the walk.  So nice!

 

 

The great cathedral of Lisbon.  It’s massive and yes, if it looks like a fort - it was also built to protect Lisbon

 

 

Very imposing

 

And beautiful inside.

 

[kazu]

A couple more pics of this church (if you don’t mind).

 

You can see the Roman influence with the very thick walls to fortify it.

 

 

 

And we ended up at the main square.  Our Alfama tour was over.

 

 

Warning to all, the tiles are slippery when wet and going up and downhill (although it was mostly down) is tricky, so take your time.

 

Our guide told us the Time out market was only 5 minutes away (you know those famous European “5 minutes”?  

 

thankfully we made a pit stop first

 

You did have to pay for this washroom but it was worth it 😉 

 

[cat shepard]

Spectacular photos! Those Bougainvillea are lovely.

 

Were most of the streets cobblestone?

[sansterre]

Enjoying this thread.  My brother will be on the Prinsendam.  Thank you for all your posts!

[kazu]

15 minutes or so later (not 5), we were at the Time Out Market.

 

Kazu was outta’ there in 5 minutes.  Too loud, too noisy, too busy.  We weren’t eating there.  So the 6 of us had spotted what looked like a nice place just outside of the Time Out Market and we headed there.

 

We scored 🙂 

 

I can’t seem to find pics of that meal?  So I know there are some food porn addicts suffering out there.

 

Here is our meal the next night at the tapas bar.  Honestly, the other one we found that I posted earlier was better IMO but we enjoyed the food just the same 😉 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kazu]

12 minutes ago, cat shepard said:

Spectacular photos! Those Bougainvillea are lovely.

 

Were most of the streets cobblestone?

 

They are tile - not cobblestone.  Tile is far more slippery and can be uneven.  Some pieces were fine and then you could hit a slippery one.  It was raining off and on when we were in Alfama (which is very hilly - but most of Lisbon is). Alfama is at the top of Lisbon.  The oldest area and very intriguing.  Our walking tour was supposed to be 2.5 - 3 hours.  It ended up being nearly 5 as our guide seemed to be enjoying the company and our interest.

 

There were 6 of us on the tour.  Very nice and intimate and an excellent guide.

 

 

[kazu]

12 minutes ago, sansterre said:

Enjoying this thread.  My brother will be on the Prinsendam.  Thank you for all your posts!

 

I hope he loves it as much as we do.  Our “newbies” on our roll call seem to be enjoying it very much so far 🙂 

[kazu]

And now, the end of the food porn for that night and then I think I have to move on to catch more processions:

 

Yummy,  yummy cod cakes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was really unique.  I hadn’t had it before in Spain.  You actually eat the wrapper.  (Can you tell I took a bite before remembering food porn?).

 

Delish!

[SJSULIBRARIAN]

Jacqui,

When next you are in the Pinnacle Grill, if the manager is still the lovely young woman from South Africa, would you please tell her that the solo woman traveler, Barbara, on the Holiday Cruise sends her regards. Thanks. Barbara

[cruisemom42]

Hi Jacqui, just got all caught up on your adventures so far. Alfama is my favorite quarter of Lisbon (of course... it's the oldest!). Hope you enjoyed the Roman theater 😉 and nice museum there.

 

Last time there I stayed in a small place just below the Sè cathedral and scored one of only 25-30 tickets to hear an evening performance from a Fado guitarist in the cloisters of the cathedral, which were opened specially for the event. It was magical.

 

 

[kazu]

4 minutes ago, SJSULIBRARIAN said:

Jacqui,

When next you are in the Pinnacle Grill, if the manager is still the lovely young woman from South Africa, would you please tell her that the solo woman traveler, Barbara, on the Holiday Cruise sends her regards. Thanks. Barbara

 

I would if I could Barbara.  We have gentleman now though that is the host.  Tomas.  He’s quite good 🙂 

[kazu]

2 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

Hi Jacqui, just got all caught up on your adventures so far. Alfama is my favorite quarter of Lisbon (of course... it's the oldest!). Hope you enjoyed the Roman theater 😉 and nice museum there.

 

Last time there I stayed in a small place just below the Sè cathedral and scored one of only 25-30 tickets to hear an evening performance from a Fado guitarist in the cloisters of the cathedral, which were opened specially for the event. It was magical.

 

 

 

NICE - you did score.

 

We hit Senor Fado that we love.  I’ve been trying to upload the videos and think I will retry while we are at dinner.  After an hour and 1/2, maybe on will load.

 

Not wifi as I am in Cadiz so I think it’s CC.  😞 

[*Miss G*]

Mmmm cod cakes.

[puppycanducruise]

That food looks great.

I want to go to Lisbon.

 

[cat shepard]

2 hours ago, kazu said:

 

They are tile - not cobblestone.  Tile is far more slippery and can be uneven.  Some pieces were fine and then you could hit a slippery one.  It was raining off and on when we were in Alfama (which is very hilly - but most of Lisbon is). Alfama is at the top of Lisbon.  The oldest area and very intriguing.  Our walking tour was supposed to be 2.5 - 3 hours.  It ended up being nearly 5 as our guide seemed to be enjoying the company and our interest.

 

There were 6 of us on the tour.  Very nice and intimate and an excellent guide.

 

 

 

Thank you!

 

Wow, imagine laying all those tiles, and then maintaining them.

[kazu]

 

So our last full day in LIsbon was a walking tour with Paolo.  If we thought yesterday’s walking tour was good - WOW.  This one was truly stupendous.

 

Paolo is a University professor, a writer, a lecturer to other universities and an avid historian.  He does these tours for the love of it to share his passion (and boy, is he passionate).  He’s only available certain days of the week.  But if you can get him, do it.

 

None of us but one are of Jewish heritage but we love the Jewish history and find it all so intriguing.  So, I had signed up and found another roll call couple to share.  Another Canadian couple had joined in with yesterday’s walking tour and enjoyed so much they asked if they could get in on this one.  

 

I dashed off an email hoping it would be possible and the 6 of us arrived and Paolo welcomed us.

 

He quickly took us to this area of the park to do the introductions.  I was totally enchanted with the tree we were standing under.  It is over 100 years old.

 

 

The stuff you see in the middle is the rubber oozing out.  Yes, it’s a rubber tree.  The park is loaded with plants from the New World and South America.

 

The tree is so huge that it actually has a pergola type support for the leaves.  You could hold a wedding here and not get wet if it rained.

 

 

Along the walk:  Paolo asked us to go in this little bakery.  Look at the architecture.  It was astounding.

 

 

 

Then we came upon this building.  It was being taken down to build a new one and the designer had to stop.....

 

 

When they were preparing for the sewer, they found ruins and all kinds of great architectural finds.  They date back over 6,000 years - older than Rome itself.  The building is on hold while they explore.  We could only peak in the door but you could see the archaeologist at work.

 

[DeeniEncinitas]

Good morning here in San Diego Jacqui!

Just now was able to catch up! It is amazing how ruins are discovered when replacing sewer pipes or new construction 

min Europe! When we were in Tirer Germany on business the city road construction workers found ancient Roman ruins ! I’m so into your food porn! 

It has been a long time since I had a cod cake😊 I want one!!!

Denise😊

[Krazy Kruizers]

Just got caught up in all the latest reports, food and other great pictures.

 

Looks like you all had a great time.

[myjillian]

9 hours ago, kazu said:

A couple more pics of this church (if you don’t mind).

 

You can see the Roman influence with the very thick walls to fortify it.

 

 

 

And we ended up at the main square.  Our Alfama tour was over.

 

 

Warning to all, the tiles are slippery when wet and going up and downhill (although it was mostly down) is tricky, so take your time.

 

Our guide told us the Time out market was only 5 minutes away (you know those famous European “5 minutes”?  

 

thankfully we made a pit stop first

 

You did have to pay for this washroom but it was worth it 😉 

 

don't mind at all...and the Scandanavian (sp) countries also have sexy WC's LOL

[cat shepard]

My burning question du jour - what makes a WC sexy?