Lisbon

Thursday 3^rd October

I had booked a tour, seeing I had been to Lisbon a couple of times before. My alarm clock went off at 7:30, and I only just managed to get to the meeting point by 8:50 (5 minutes late as a maintenance man had arrived as I was putting on my make-up, and I had to explain it all over to him).

The tour was four and a half hours, visiting Sintra, Guincho and Cascais. I have been wanting to visit Sintra for some time. I had envisaged spending more time there (like Jean who stayed for 2 weeks) but decided I’d better accept that perhaps a tour is the only way I’ll manage it. The 7.5-hour tour would have given me longer, but I thought it would have been too tiring.

Our coach dropped us in Sintra and the guide took us to a central spot and left us for an hour. It was so easy to just wander and take photo after photo. I know there are many interesting palaces and ruins to explore, but there was no time to go into any of the buildings. I made the most of what I could see.

 I really appreciate instances of kindness in a foreign city. With the number of tourists that must visit, it is lovely when a local takes the effort to go beyond what is needed. Our guide had pointed out some trees and said the public toilets were there. I went looking and could not find them. I ended up walking into a five star boutique hotel and asking the receptionist to point the way to the public toilet. Her response was to use the hotel’s toilets. That was so much nicer! Unfortunately the light in the toilets is motion-activated from the basin area, and on a time switch, so went off while I was still in the cubicle! Utter darkness. I was glad I could remember where the door knob was.

Next was a photo stop for Guincho. We stopped by the beach and cliffs and were shown views of the westernmost point of Europe – sail straight from that cliff and you will reach New York!

The town of Cascais (Kash-kysh) was too big for the hour we had there. We were pointed in the direction of shops. I walked instead to the harbour and enjoyed the sun and the statues. It was a beautiful day – the first sunny day there for over a week. We were fortunate. I then explored our area of the town but really only saw shops and no interesting architecture.

I was ready to get back on the bus and go back to the ship for a rest.

Of course I took photos galore of the iconic bridge and statue.