May 30, 2012 - Lisbon, Portugal

May 30, 2012 - Lisbon, Portugal

We don't dock until noon. This is a port where we saw a Starbucks 2 and a half years ago but couldn't get to because we were on a Hop on Hop off bus and it was too far from the stop. I have located 4 on a map and we will see which is the closest to where we will be to get a mug. We will take a taxi to the shopping area from the port. The cruise port is right on a wide boulevard with a very pretty city scape.

We had breakfast with Sabesteanio, who won the dance contest last night. Very nice young man. He has worked for Princess for about four year and MSC before that. If my grand daughter Isabelle were here, she would be following him like a puppy dog. He's really cute and with that Italian accent he is the whole package, and you can tell he works out too.

We are now sailing into the Lisbon harbor area. Very pictureque, it is the first time we have been awake as we docked. The seas are calm and the temperature is in the mid-70s.

We left the ship just before noon and took a taxi to the city center. The first taxi we asked wanted 20 euros for the ride for the 4 of us. we laughed and found one for four euros. He dropped us off in the central square of the old town and we walked the pedestrian street window shopping and checking out the various cafes for lunch. We found one we liked and order sandwiches and Evelyn had a salad. Don and I each had the very large beer. With tip the lunch was 40 euros.

Portugal like Spain makes very fine olive oil though less available in the states. We purchased some on the walk back to the ship.

After lunch we looked for the Starbucks which was close by. Evelyn was able to buy her mug. We stopped for ice cream and Don wanted to buy one of the hats the employees wear. It was a red English style driving cap, the ice cream guy went in the back and gave Don a bag and wouldn't take any money. The hat was inside and inside the hat was the name Ana, who either doesn't work there anymore or is missing one hat. Don looked very debonair as we walked back to the ship. It was less then two miles and was good exercise.

Lisbon is a very beautiful city and with more time we would explore more. We would even try the underground system they have. The architecture is a mixture of old and new. You see the typical architecture of residential above and retail on the ground floor with interior courtyards so familiar in Paris and other European cities. It is truly a beautiful city, it has many monuments and interesting street art. We passed their Museum of Modern Art and it had a large mural covering a space at least 2 stories high by 200 feet made from colored post it's....

I decided to confirm our pickup in Dover and I called them. No problem as they had our reservation. I changed our pickup time to 9am. I checked the weather in London and I think we may need an umbrella.

We had drinks at the suite party. There are a large number of passengers who can take advantage of the party, but not many do. Today there we less then 10 people in the room.

We had dinner in the buffet and the sat there as the ship sailed from Lisbon. Lisbon is not on the ocean, but is on the Tejo River. It took over an hour until we reached the Atlantic. With the sun setting it was a nice show. The economy of both Spain and Portugal are hurting, but it was hard to see it in the areas we were in. We did notice a number of for rent and sales signs on buildings in the commercial district in Lisbon and maintenance of some looked to be forgotten. On the other hand, in viewing the city scape as we left we saw a number of construction cranes.



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Hal