4 July 2013 Lisbon

We sailed into Lisbon on Thursday 4^th July.  A very pretty first impression as we sailed into the port.  We were tied up and received clearance by about 8.00am. We were booked on a walking tour which began at 10.00.  Our guide Annabella gave us a brief history and then took us through the old town. 

The likely founders of Lisbon were the Phoenicians around 1200 BC.  These were followed by the Romans and then occupied by the Moors between the 8^th and 12^th centuries.  A large part of the city was destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami in 1755, which also killed 30,000 people. This enabled the city to then be rebuilt with wide streets, in a geometric pattern, including many large beautiful squares.  These wide streets were frowned upon by many as a waste but today the town supports a great population and these wide streets, squares and buildings which were only permitted to be built to a height of four or five levels make Lisbon the lovely place it is today.  The ship was moored within easy walking distance of the old and new city.  

Our walk took us to see the birthplace of St Anthony, there has been several churches built on the site over the many years.  St Anthony of course is the patron saint of things lost and women wanting a husband often prayed to St Anthony to find them a husband, hence the current church still sees many many weddings.  Fifty percent of the population are still practising Catholics.  Across from this church is the Cathedral of St Mary Major, quite beautiful also, there is a most amazing chapel within the Cathedral all done in gold leaf.  The patron saint of Lisbon is St Vincent and he was the patron saint before St Anthony was born, but everyone looks on St Anthony as their patron saint.

We then took the funicolare up one of the seven hills on which Lisbon is built, a stunning view indeed.  We then wandered back down through the artistic and theatrical area, this is where all the high end shops were.  The women in Lisbon are quite lovely, trim and well dressed, I pointed this out to Sam but he was ahead of me and had already taken note.  Pretty much the whole group said good-bye to our guide and made their own way back to the ship.  Sam and I found somewhere and had a beer, I found a very tiny supermarket and bought a few hair colours and some handcream for a lady on the ship and a pair of sandals as well.  It was then 2.00pm which is their siesta and about 42 degrees, we made our way back to the safety of our ship.  Unfortunately about 8 people from the ship were robbed whilst in town, unfortunately a hazard of going anywhere these days. 

We had a formal night on the night of the 5^th and today the 6^th the choir did their performance for this leg of the journey.  We dock in Cobh, Ireland tomorrow, we do not have a tour booked, Cobh is putting on an Australia Day party for us tomorrow, how lovely.  We will wander into town and perhaps take the train to Cork with Yvonne and Warren our buddies from Adelaide.  We had a full house for our performance today, it was very lovely.  This leg of the tour ends this coming Friday in Dover and 700 disembark and 800 newies embark.  Quite a number of the people disembarking would like to be continuing on.  Talk soon  Love Sabine and Sam XXX