Lisbon, Portugal

April 27, 2024 - We arrived in Lisbon about 1 PM on Saturday 27th. A cloudy, cool day which given the heat we experienced in other parts of the trip, was a most welcome change and one we can expect to have for the remainder of our trip. Our sail in gave us some great vistas with the beautiful weather and we docked next to two other cruise ships, the Norwegian Star and the Costa Fascinosa. Since we were just in Lisbon in September, we opted to skip any Viking excursions on Saturday and just explore on our own, catch up on this blog, and start writing our many Thank You notes for the staff who have done so much for us as we shared this journey together.

We were overnight in Lisbon, a great opportunity for guests to have dinner out after their tours. The staff too were all very excited to be here overnight as many of them got to go out as visa’s were not required and there was no curfew (onboard requirement) as there was in Agadir. In Africa, some crew were not eligible for visa’s if they were from another African country, and for those who were eligible, it was cost prohibitive for them. We think there were many tired, but happy crew members Sunday morning. For those of us who stayed onboard this evening we had a wonderful Destination Performance of Fado music.

Jeronimos Monastery which we visited last September

April 28, 2024 - Day two in Lisbon - Our tour today was a Culinary Tour by Tuk-Tuk. Our Guide Miguel, was excellent . We toured one of the oldest parts of the city, which we did not get to see when we were here last September. We were up an down many narrow cobblestone roads allowing us to see so much more of this beautiful city. Our guide said we were getting a free massage on this trip with all the bouncing about from the cobblestones, Our first stop was an overlook to the city below and we learned how the city has grown over the last few centuries. Our second stop was a small cafe, where we were treated to samplings of their cheese, cured ham, Portuguese bread and wine. Our hosts were most welcoming and the decor in this old cafe was wonderful. Our final stop was at a tiny storefront were we were given samples of a cherry liquor called Ginjinha. It was both too sweet and too strong for us so neither of us finished ours, We then headed back towards the ship. Our plan was to remain in town and maybe enjoy an outdoor cafe for an hour, but it started raining again so we opted to just return. We have been very lucky on this trip with the weather. Other than Bora Bora (aka Poura Poura), we have only had limited rain showers and most of those have been while we were in buses, or in today’s case, while we were in our Tuk Tuk. We are so lucky and blessed!

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