The boat (or is it a ship?) is today making its only stop outside of Spain, well, unless you consider Gibraltar to not be in Spain, in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon. Looking back at these blog entries there is no mention of Lisbon which means that the last time we came here must have been more than 14 years ago.
It’s Hilly!
Lisbon is not a flat city and to get around you can use one of the many trams, tuk-tuks, classic cars, e-bikes, scooters or Segways that lie in wait luring the tourists or take one of the three funiculars. For us it was the latter and we’d decided we were going first thing in order to beat the crowds.
The Gloria Funicular runs a very short distance up a pretty steep hill. I can imagine that it was a life saver for the locals when it first was installed but now it was just full of the visiting tourists. At the top there was a small open area overlooking the city where we stopped to take the obligatory pictures before coming down again, this time on foot.
It’s Free!
We then plotted a route that took us up to the old town past the Santo Antonio church, another piazza overlooking the bay and our ship and finally ending up at the National Pantheon with its impressive looking dome.
Outside the Pantheon was one of my favourite signs: “Today Entrance Free”. Who could resist such an enticement? So we climbed the steps up to the terrace that sits just below the dome and looked down on our waiting ship docked below.
Snapshot
Reading back what I have written above I realise that it doesn’t really do Lisbon justice. I really like Lisbon. In those intervening 14+ years I’d forgotten just how great a place it is. The description above just gives a tiny snapshot of the place which is just what cruising is about – get in, get an overview and decide if you want to come back and with Lisbon I do.