The Best of Portugal Day 11
The Best of Portugal
Day 11 - September 13, 2002 - Lisbon
We got up, had our breakfast and were out of the hotel at 8:45 on a sightseeing venture with our guide, Jouiz. She is the regular tour guide for the Best of Portugal trip but is expecting a little girl in December. She was good but not as fluent and diverse in her presentation as Miguel.
We took a bus tour of the city beginning by seeing Rossio Square, the waterfront, the President's Palace and then going to the Belem Tower and the Monument to the Discoveries. We then visited the Hieronymite Monastery and then to see the Monastery of Saint Jerome and its splendor and Vasco de Gama's Tomb.
The bus took the group north along the coast where we saw the Estoril and the very rich homes on this coast of Portugal. We were able to visit nearby Cascais where we had an hour and a half for lunch with Tom and Sue. Gennie had a tuna salad and I had a Greek salad. Both were excellent and as we had a little time, we walked around looking at store windows and taking pictures.
All along the sidewalk they had two foot high by foot square cement blocks to limit traffic. As I did not see one of these, same color as the sidewalk and I was not paying attention, I cracked my leg against one of these and received a big cut and bruise just below the right knee.
At 2:30 we got back on the bus and went up the coast toward Sintra where we saw an old town and Palace of Sintra used by the royal family as their summer home. What was so interesting was that it had the original furniture from the 1500's on. We sat at an outdoor café and had an ice cream and coffee and watched people.
What made it so crowded was that there were three cruise ships in the Lisbon port for the day. We got back on the bus, drove back to Lisbon and the Metropolitan Hotel where we showered, sent an email to Eduardo and got ready for the optional tour in the evening.
At 7 PM we met the group at the lobby where we gave Miguel and Joao their tip and talked about the Honda S2000. We took our bus for a ride to the Lisbon
waterfront and got on an orange ferry for a trip to the quaint fishing village of Cascais across the harbor.
This is the transportation used by the common people to get from one side of the Tagus River to the other. When we arrived we went directly to the Vale do Rio Restaurant on the waterfront for a traditional shellfish dinner.
We started with cold boiled shrimp, then had shrimp soup, clams, and cooked shrimp in butter and garlic. The main course was white cod cooked with potatoes, onions, eggs, parsley and garlic. Very tasty. It was followed by Açorda de Mariscos, which is shrimp, clams in shell, lobster, crab, squid and
vegetables cooked in rice like a heavy stew.
Along with all of this there was bread, water, soft drinks, and wine. For dessert we had flan souffle. Coffee was served and we got back on the bus and returned home by 10 PM. We bid everyone goodbye and went to our room to pack. We were in bed by eleven.
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