May 16 - Cherbourg, France

I would have to say that today was one of the most moving days I can remember experiencing.  We docked early in Cherbourg on the western coast of Normandy.  Today we had booked an all-day tour of the D-Day landing sites and beaches.  We set out at 8:30 with our guide Valerie through the really beautiful Norman countryside.  Along the way there were lots of happy cows (I love cows!) and apple orchards.  The exit signs had names like Saint-Lô and Sainte-Mère-Église which are familiar from the history of the battle for Normandy.

Our first stop was Arromanches, the site of one of two Mulberry Harbors the Allies constructed after the D-Day landings.  Because there was a need for harbors to bring in supplies and equipment for the troops invading and because all the ports were in German hands, the Allies designed artificial harbors to be used until real ones could be captured.  The construction of these began on June 9, just three days after the D-Day landings. They consisted of caissons and causeways sunk and placed in an arc.  There was a major storm on June 19, 1944, which irreparably damaged the harbor built near Omaha Beach, but the one at Arromanches was more protected and, while damaged, was still useable.  A few of the caissons can still be seen.  Arromanches has a small but very informative museum about the harbor and the D-Day landings.

 

Remnants of the outer perimeter of the Mulberry Harbor sunken caissons

Closer view of one of the artificial breakwaters

The most interesting thing about our visit to Arromanches though was something else.  In the parking lot in front of the museum there was a group of uniformed French military.  It turns out we were there at the swearing in of a group of French marines who had just completed their training.  The group marched and sang as they marched and then marshaled in the parking lot, were sworn in, given their hats, and sang the Marseillaise.  I think I got a short video with my iPhone and I’ll try posting it.

After leaving Arromanches we had lunch and then made our way to the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach.  The cemetery is situated  in Colleville-sur-Mer atop the cliffs overlooking Omaha Beach.  The land, some 200 acres, was donated by the French government but is maintained by a commission of the US government.  9387 US service members are buried in the cemetery.  An interesting tidbit of information is that 9386 were WWII soldiers. Quentin Roosevelt, a son of President Theodore Roosevelt, who died in WWI and was buried elsewhere in France  was exhumed and buried next to his brother Theodore Roosevelt Jr. That only represents about 40% of the soldiers killed during the battle for Normandy.  Those killed were buried in a number of different sites in Normandy.  When this cemetery was established, the families of the fallen were given the option of repatriating the remains of their family members or having them moved to this cemetery. 

At the east side of the cemetery is a semicircular colonnade with a loggia at either end and a garden with a wall on which are inscribed the names of 1557 Americans who were killed in the Normandy campaign but whose remains couldn't be located or identified.  In the middle of the semicircle is a 22 foot bronze statue entitled The Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves.  It's a fitting tribute to those who gave their lives.

Bronze statue

View to the west across the reflecting pool to the chapel in the distance

The place is beautifully maintained.  The lines of white marble crosses, some with a Star of David instead, stretch into the distance around a non-denominational chapel.  The fallen are buried in no order except for 35 sets of family members who are buried together.  Besides the two Roosevelt brothers perhaps the most famous are the Niland brothers who are the basis for the movie Saving Private Ryan.  Each cross is engraved with the name, military unit, home state and date of death of the individual. As we walked through the cemetery we came across two graves of Virginians who were members of the 29^th Division.  That division was in the first waves that landed on Omaha Beach and included a number of young men from the small town of Bedford, Virginia.  Proportionally that little town suffered more casualties than any other and the fallen came to be known as the Bedford Boys.  We wondered if these crosses belonged to some of those brave young men. 

Field of crosses

Inscription on the Chapel wall

If you look you can see about five crosses back a small American flag at the foot of a cross. A relative must have been here to place it recently.

I’m the daughter of someone who served in the Army as a soldier and a civilian employee for more than 50 years and I can say honestly that I thought as I walked through this place that anyone who thinks about war should first have to pass through a cemetery like this.  It was extremely moving to us.

From the cemetery we next drove down to Omaha Beach below the cemetery.  This was one of five beaches on which landings were made and the deadliest that day.  Our guide told us that the tides along this coast can vary by 40 feet.  The invasion was timed to occur at mid-tide.  Had it been at high tide the landing craft could have been blown up  on the beach obstacles which had mines attached atop.  Had it been at low tide the troops would have had to traverse 100’s of yards more with no cover at all.  As it was, they had to jump into water which for some was chest high and wade ashore amidst a blistering and unrelenting barrage of fire.  As I looked and thought about it I couldn’t imagine the terror the soldiers must have felt as they ran down the ramps from their landing craft.  Just as horrible to conceive was what the second and third waves must have thought as they came ashore with the bodies of the earlier troops lying on that terrible beach.  Each of those young men was a hero.

Omaha Beach from the heights above.  Imagine these high places filled with German pillboxes and bunkers all with guns trained on the beach below

Omaha Beach - We were there at approximately the same stage of the tide as the first wave that landed.  Way in the distance there are people walking at the water's edge.  Think about men going  off a landing craft out there, loaded with their guns and gear, and having to run while under constant fire from the heights above and with the beach covered with obstacles.

Les Braves Memorial  on the beach was commissioned by the French government to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the landing

From Omaha Beach we traveled back to Cherbourg and our ship.  Cherbourg itself was a major port and before it fell to the Allied forces the Germans virtually destroyed it so that their foes couldn’t use it immediately.

This part of France has so much history to explore that I think it’s someplace we should visit again.  It’s from here that William the Conqueror launched his invasion of England.  If Ancestry.com is to be believed Al’s ancestors 900 years ago came from here.  There’s a lot to see that we haven’t yet, so we’ll have to come back.

Now our cruise is at an end.  Tomorrow we’ll arrive in Dover, England.  We have a car and driver picking us up and taking us to Heathrow.  Home and Emma await us.  This cruise has been wonderful in all ways.  So, bye for now.  Next time we’ll be heading to Dubai for another trip through the Suez Canal.

May 14 & 15 - Rouen, France

 We arrived here around 2 AM on the 14^th (we weren’t awake to see it) and we’re here for 2 days.  This morning dawned cloudy, windy and pretty chilly.  Eventually it got up to 63° but with the wind it felt much colder.

As an aside, the systems are still not totally fixed on the ship.  The phones don’t work so no wake-up calls.  The TV works intermittently.  This was apparently a major hack which is taking time to sort out.

Rouen is the capital of Normandy and currently has a population of about 113,000. It has a very long history.  During the Middle Ages it was variously under Norman, French and English control.  During the Hundred  Years War in the 15^th century it returned to English control from the French.  It was in Rouen that Joan of Arc, who had been captured by the Duke of Burgundy and sold to the English, was tried for heresy and burned at the stake.  Decades later her trial was examined and  she was declared innocent (too late to save her obviously) and in the early 20^th century she was canonized and became St. Joan of Arc. She is considered a national symbol of France.

So after breakfast we took the shuttle bus for the short ride to the center of the old city.  It was a short walk to the Cathedral which was one of the things I most wanted to see.  Monet painted the façade many times in different lights and it was incredible to see it in the flesh, so to speak.  The cathedral was begun in the 12^th century and with fires, additions etc work on it continued for a couple of centuries.  During WW II it was bombed a couple of times by both British and Us forces and portions were destroyed.  The building’s exterior has hundreds of figures of what I’m guessing must be saints carved on the walls.

The Gros Horloge, a 14th century astronomical clock over an arch near the entrance to the cathedral square

 

Gros Horloge close-up

Rouen Cathedral

Close-up of the façade

Another close-up of the façade (Can you tell I love this building?)

Unfortunately for us on Monday many things are closed including the cathedral until later in the day.  We took a little tourist train through the old city and got to see many old half-timbered buildings and narrow streets.  After we got off the train the wind had really picked up and it was cold and looked like rain any moment.  We went to the square around the old market.  This is the place where Joan of Arc was actually burned at the stake.  We found a café and decided to have lunch.

 

A few of the many half-timbered houses in the old city

Vieux Marché (this is the market we went to on our second day in Rouen

Cross at the Vieux Marché marking the spot on which Joan of Arc was burned

The restaurant was a seafood place and the food was great, but too much food.  The other thing is that the French love to use butter in their cuisine so everything was incredibly rich.  After a nice lunch with a house wine served in a ceramic jug we decided that since the weather hadn’t improved it was time to take the shuttle back to the ship.  We were actually so full that we changed our dinner plans and had only a very light meal around 8:30 PM.

Tuesday morning (the 15^th) we were scheduled to go shopping with the Chef, always a fun event.  Since the phone system still doesn’t work, we had to figure out another way to wake up at the right time.  I’m almost embarrassed to say that I have never used my iPhone for an alarm clock so it took me a while to figure that out.  We also asked at Seabourn Square (guest services for a wake-up knock at the door which is what they are doing since the system crash).  We didn’t sleep well because we weren’t sure of either wake-up method.  The iPhone worked out well; the knock on the door came an hour late.

So at 9:15 we met in the main dining room and 20 of us set off in a bus with Chef Chris.  This chef is one who looks like he enjoys his cooking, always a good thing in my opinion.  Who can trust a skinny chef?  The bus driver brought us to a drop-off point for what was supposed to be the main market and gave us directions to get there.  Perhaps the driver wasn’t really from Rouen because we wound up walking in a circle almost back to where we started where we found the Old Market where Joan of Arc was burned and we had eaten yesterday.  Mind you we were a group of 20 trotting along a narrow sidewalk with a couple of galley staff following us with a cart to carry what the chef bought and a big plastic bin with ice for any cold things.  The locals really looked us over.

The market was quite small; I can’t believe it is THE  market for Rouen.  There were some nice produce stands, a lovely fish vendor and a great cheese stand.  I think we made their day.  Chef Chris bought all the sea bream at the fish stand.  At the cheese place we got to sample 4 or 5 cheeses and then he bought boxes of them along with a bunch of quail eggs.  At the produce stands we sampled cherries and he cleaned out their supply of those and strawberries too.  At the last produce stand he bought all their tomatoes and cucumbers.  When we were finished, the cart was overflowing and we paraded back to the bus with the last produce stand guy leading the way with a dolly stacked as high as he was tall with boxes of tomatoes and cucumbers.

 

A lovely produce stand.  The chef basically bought out the stand

The shopping trip took up the morning.  We thought about going back into town in the afternoon, but tomorrow is our last day and we have an all-day tour booked to the D-Day sights in Normandy.  We decided the smart thing to do was pack most things instead of rushing after a long day ashore tomorrow.

We didn’t think Rouen was as pretty a place as some of the other stops along the way.  I would like to come back though because we really didn’t get to see all that much.  I wanted to get to Giverny and see Monet’s house and garden but yesterday the weather didn’t really cooperate.  As it turns out some of our fellow cruisers went and said while it was lovely it did rain while they were there.  There will just have to be another trip to Normandy in our future.

May 12 and 13 - At Sea

These are our last two sea days before our arrival in France.  Saturday the 12^th the Bay of Biscay was letting us know it was there.  We bounced and bumped along.  It was pretty clear that some passengers are really not enjoying the ride.  The internet and TV were working, but the phone system and several other things still weren’t.  Some people go with the flow; others are perpetual complainers and have been moaning about the fact that they can’t call for room service; they have to physically hand an order to a staff member. I can only wonder how they live at home.

We played Team Trivia at noon.  Sadly our team dropped from 1^st place to 4^th from the bottom.  There’s always hope, though, because we’re only 40 points behind which is nothing.

Lunch was one of our favorite events on a Seabourn cruise, the Galley Market Lunch.  During this luncheon we go into the galley which is set up with various stations and you can pick whatever you would like to eat and go back as often as you like.  The variety is incredible.  One station had cold seafood appetizers including shrimp and crab claws.  Of course there was a huge salad station with prepared salads like pasta and potato salad as well as the fixings for a tossed or Caesar salad.  At the pasta station a singing (literally) chef prepared whatever kind of pasta you wanted with a variety of different sauces. There was schnitzel, bratwurst, sauerkraut, roast beef, roast pork, and on and on.  There was even a sushi station.  Of course there was a huge dessert station.  Finally there was a station with nothing but a huge assortment of cheeses.  Perhaps most amazing of all is the hard work the galley staff puts into everything and the enthusiasm with which they served us.

After a nice lunch (we actually tried not to overdo it) we decided to continue our great Scrabble tournament.  We split the two games we played.  Then it was time to get cleaned up  for pre-dinner drinks and, you guessed it, another meal. While we sat up in the Observation Bar for a pre-dinner cocktail we passed through a couple of rain squalls and then the sun came out and we saw two beautiful rainbows.  That’s supposed to bring good luck.  We shall see. We had reservations for 8:30 PM in the Thomas Keller Grill.  For several years I’ve been reading online about the roasted chicken for two that is served there. We decided to try it and were we ever glad.  We agreed it was probably the best chicken we’ve ever eaten. 

 

The first rainbow we've seen on this cruise

This morning, Mother’s Day, we awoke to much calmer seas.  Yesterday Captain Steve told us that he had speeded up so that we would arrive at the mouth of the Seine by around 6 PM this evening (the 13^th) so we would have about three hours of daylight traveling up the river to Rouen.  It should be amazing to see as we pass the French countryside.

Meanwhile right after breakfast all the guest systems went down again.  The natives are restless.  Peppi, the Hotel Manager, told me that the ship’s library has never been so busy.  Hopefully they will be able to get everything back up again soon.  Right now no one can check anything, like shipboard accounts or flight reservations after disembarkation on Thursday.  Pretty soon people will be demanding a free cruise for the inconvenience.  We’re taking this downtime as an opportunity to write, clean up photos and just chill out.

More later.

Back again.  The bad news is our team lost at Trivia.  Oh, well, as they tell us every day – it’s only a game!  The good new is it’s a beautiful sunny day and on our side of the ship it’s actually quite pleasant sitting on the balcony.  In the late afternoon we were very close to the coast and could see villages and towns all along the way.  Around 6 PM a pilot came aboard and we entered the Seine River.  Let me tell you, the channel is not really wide.  For sure one of the megaships couldn’t do this.  It was light outside until after 9 PM and both before and during dinner we could see the countryside.  We went past of farmland with plenty of cows (necessary to make all those wonderful cheeses and the butter so prevalent in French cooking).  I also saw more swans than I can ever remember seeing.  Along the other bank there were lots of little villages with half-timbered houses.  Very picturesque.

 

The first of several big bridges under which we passed

Village along the Seine

Some of those cows needed for the lovely cheeses

Some stately swans

Anyway, that’s all for now.  We’re in Rouen for the next two days.

May 11 - Vigo, Spain

The phone rang at 6:30 AM with our wake-up call for an all-day tour to Santiago de Compostela.  It was pitch black outside and we were tired.  We decided we needed a day of rest so the lights were turned off and we went back to sleep.

While we slept, the ship suffered a complete failure of the server controlling TV, internet, restaurant ordering, telephone, and general guest services like accounts.  Navigation and ship operations weren’t affected and with plenty of food we were in no danger of starving (LOL).

When we finally awoke we were docked in Vigo in the northwestern province of Galicia.  It was a gray day  with low-hanging clouds.  Vigo is a city of about 300,000 built on the hills around the bay. Since we’d ditched our tour we played it by ear.  When we finally went ashore we thought we’d walk around a little in the old city.  Right across the street from the cruise terminal there was a political demonstration going on with a very loud PA system and lots of chanting and yelling.  They were apparently protesting labor practices at a hotel.

We walked up the first portion of a steep hill and decided this wasn’t a good plan.  We made our way back down and found a taxi to take us on a little tour.  (I forgot to mention that I neglected to bring my iPhone so I couldn’t take any photos.)  Back to the taxi.  Once again we lucked out.  Our driver was Pedro, who spoke no English, but with my Spanish, which is coming back to me, we had a great time. 

Perhaps because it was such a gray day we couldn’t really say that Vigo is a very pretty city.  Perhaps if the sun had been shining we would feel differently.  There are some plazas with statues which are attractive and there is a nice park with an old fort at the top of one of the hills.  The buildings downtown looked kind of tired though.

Pedro drove us out of the city proper along the bay and I have to say the beaches along there looked very nice with pure white sand.  Across the bay are two islands, one of which he told us has the same white sand and crystal-clear water like that in the Caribbean.

The best part of the day was yet to come.  He asked us if we wanted to have lunch someplace and when we said we would like to go to a local as opposed to a tourist restaurant, he took us to a gem and of course we invited him to join us.  Along the Playa de Samil we stopped at the Restaurante Basilio Toralla.  It’s a family owned place.  The chef is the 89 year old Abuela (grandmother) and the Maitre d’ is the 60 something son.  We were early by Spanish standards (1 PM) but by the time we left locals were coming in.  We didn’t see a menu; the waiter just began bringing dishes out.  It’s a seafood restaurant and the food was divine!  We had a little empanada stuffed with cod. Then came a platter with tiny baby squid sautéed with onions and paper-thin potato slices.  It was exquisite – not rubbery or chewy.  Next was a bowl of baby clams in a light tomato sauce seasoned with chives and other herbs.  There was a rustic bread to soak up the sauce.  Finally (as we hadn’t enough already) came a platter with three kinds of fish lightly sautéed with asparagus, carrots and tiny new potatoes.  To complement the meal we had a bottle of local white wine called 2 Amigos.  Al and I agreed that it may have been one of the best meals we’ve ever eaten.  Before we left, the grandmother came out and we shook hands and did the traditional European cheek kisses.  It was a wonderful and unexpected experience.

Enjoying 2 Amigos wine at the wonderful restaurant (Pedro took this one)

Pedro drove us back via a different route.  Along the way we saw one of the largest Citroen plants in the world.  It directly employs nearly 15,000 people and indirectly 140,000!  It stretches on and on and must be an economic boon to the area.

When we arrived back at the cruise terminal we got hugs from our new Spanish friend.  Pedro took a few photos with his iPhone and when I figure out how to get them in a format I can add to this blogpost I will.

 

I got a few photos from our balcony when we got back aboard. They aren't great but they'll give you an idea of what the waterfront looks like on a gray day.

Another view. The long blue roofed building is where the fishing boats come in each morning and unload their catch.

The weather later in the afternoon went from steady rain to sunshine by dinnertime.  We didn’t sail until after 11 PM and truthfully we just couldn’t stay up late enough to see the sailaway.  So that was bye-bye to España.  We have two days at sea ahead of us traversing the Bay of Biscay which can often be rough.  Internet and TV were still down when it was bedtime.

May 10 - Leixões (Porto), Portugal

-->

This morning we arrived in Leixões, which is the port for Porto.  Porto has a large sandbar offshore so shipping has to come to this next-door neighbor.  It was a beautiful sunny day with  a pretty warm temperature (it got  to close to 80° by the afternoon).

This is the area famous for its port wine so we booked an all-day tour to the Douro Valley and a famous winery there, Quinta da Pacheca.  Almost immediately after leaving the port area and city we began climbing into the mountains.  On the western side of the mountains there are lots of fields of grape vines which look like the ones we’re used to seeing.  These vines produce a wine called vinho verde, green wine,  which is drunk when it’s young.  The mountains also had large eucalyptus forests.  The tree was imported from Australia and the Portuguese use it to make paper.  In fact they are the largest producers of paper in the E.U.  The trees have also been a curse to the country though.  Last year was very dry and there were huge forest fires.  The eucalyptus trees proved to be a perfect fuel source for those.  As we drove along we could see huge areas of black, charred trees and completely defoliated spots.

Our first stop was in a mountain town called Amarante.  The town had lush vegetation, a charming church dedicated to São Gonçalo, the patron saint of the area.  Interestingly he’s not really a saint.  He was beatified but never canonized.  Apparently that doesn’t make any difference to the locals.  He is the patron saint for people wanting to have children.  There’s also a very old  bridge spanning the Támega River.  The bridge is said to have helped fend off an attack by Napoleon's forces when they invaded the country in the early 19th century.

Amarante, the old city

Old bridge over the Támega River

After a brief stop we continued on our way to the Douro River valley.  It is in this valley that the type of grapes used for port wine are grown.  The vines are lower to the ground.  As with all European grapes, these vines have American roots onto which are grafted European vines.  That’s because in the 19^th century the European grapes were wiped out by a disease called Phylloxera.  American grapes are resistant to that and they now form the base of the vines all over Europe.  Anyway, the countryside is incredible.  The hills and mountains around the valley are very steep, but they are entirely covered with terraces of vines.  We had never seen so many.

I should also comment on the river Douro.  It’s one of the longest on the Iberian Peninsula and several companies do river cruises here.  In fact there were two ships docked as we drove down into the valley. 

The Quinta da Pacheca winery is one of the oldest, dating back to the 18^th century.  The winery has a hotel and a restaurant.  A kind of oddity is that they have some guest rooms that are actually in very large, very old wine casks.  I don’t know how I’d like that.  We took a tour of the vineyard and then went into a building with old stone vats.  If our guide is to be believed (and I have no reason not to), the grapes are still crushed by foot in these huge granite vats.  All I could think of was the old “I Love Lucy”  episode.  Apparently depending on which wine is being produced, grapes are stomped for different numbers of days to allow for different levels of fermentation.  I think the maximum number of days was 10.  This winery produces red and white wines, as well as different kinds of port wines.  I think the winery guide actually gave us more information than we could ever remember or in fact ever needed to know.  He was clearly passionate about his work.  After hearing about the production we went down into one of the cellars and were served a nice lunch among huge casks and a sampling of several of their wines including an incredible tawny port.

Grapes, grapes and more grapes! The hillside in the background is covered with terraces of grapes.

A granite crushing vat.  Can you imagine it full of grapes and Lucy stomping around?

If you click on this photo and look at it enlarged, you'll see that this is an old sycamore tree that has been carved into a port wine bottle and a bunch of grapes.  It was endangering the house nearby so rather than cutting it down, they did this.

After lunch and an opportunity to buy some wine we headed back to Leixões and the ship.  It was a nice but long day again.  This was our last stop in Portugal.  Tomorrow we’ll be back in Spain for a day.

I'm sorry this photo isn't closer up, but Al's photos somehow won't import to my laptop.  The white circular building is the Leixões cruise terminal.  It has an amphitheater in the top section used for concerts and is completely covered in white glazed tiles meant to represent fish scales.  It's quite spectacular really.

May 9 - Lisbon, Portugal

-->

A couple of follow up photos from yesterday are in order. As we sailed away from Portimão we saw docked near us this French man-o-war with cannon out.  On the shore it looked like they were getting ready for some French festival. I can tell you the rehearsing in the afternoon was trés loud.

Captain Steve kept the French pirates at bay allday !

Coastline at Portimão

Our port today was Lisbon, the capital of Portugal.  This city is high on our list of favorites and one which we could see visiting for several days.  It is the westernmost capital city of continental Europe and the only one on the Atlantic. It lies at the confluence of the Atlantic and Tagus River.  The city itself has around 550,000 residents, but the metropolitan area has more than 2 million population.  It also happens to be one of the oldest in western Europe predating London and Rome.  Like the rest of the Iberian Peninsula it has been under control of various ruling countries and groups.  Julius Caesar founded a municipality here.  Later came various Germanic tribes, Moors,  Spaniards, Portuguese kings and even for a period of time the French under Napoleon.  Following what is known as the Carnation Revolution in April 1974 it is the capital of the Third Portuguese Republic.

We have been here several times before so we decided to arrange through a tour company we’ve used in the past for a car and driver to take us to some favorite spots.  Adrian picked us up and we set out first for Sintra, a lovely place in the mountains west of Lisbon.  Sintra was the summer home of the monarchs in the 19^th century and there are beautiful palaces of both them and wealthy Portuguese and Brazilians who made their fortunes in coffee in Brazil, which was of course Portugal’s largest colony at one time.  We had been to the palaces on past visits, but we(I should say I) wanted to go to a special store we had been to before.  The place was still there and my mission was accomplished. 

Al at the pastry stand

We’ve been incredibly lucky with weather on this voyage.  The day was overcast and as we drove to Sintra it was misting, but when we got out to walk around it had stopped.  Later in the day the sun came out and it was delightful.

Our next stop was to Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point of continental Europe.  There is a lighthouse which is the first one ships see as they are heading eastward.  The cape is on a dramatic cliff with  huge waves crashing at the foot. It was very windy but we had to walk to the edge and take  a few pictures. It was also pretty cold.

The kighthouse

We asked Adrian if he knew a good place the three of us could have lunch.  He recommended a seafood restaurant in Cascais, one of several resorts cities on the coast west of Lisbon.  So off we went to Baía do Peixe , a very nice place overlooking the little boat harbor. The place was full and as nearly as I could tell we were the only non-Portuguese there.  The food was delicious and plentiful!  The wine was pretty good too.

After lunch we drove along the coast through Cascais and its neighbor Estoril.  The towns along there comprise what is known as the Portuguese Riviera.  Many celebrities and members of the old nobility have villas along the coast and there are lots of nightspots and a large casino.  Here’s an interesting tidbit about Estoril.  During WWII Portugal was a neutral country. (They managed to do that by playing to both sides.)  Portugal, and Estoril in particular was the center of espionage for both sides.  In Estoril German spies occupied one hotel and Allied spies another.  That way everyone knew who was who.  Ian Fleming, he of James Bond fame, was stationed there for a while and from some of his experiences James Bond was born.

Our last stop was another favorite, the Café Pastéis de Belém. I’ve written about this place after previous trips to Lisbon but just to recap, they make the absolute best little pastries I’ve ever tasted.  They are a puff pastry with a custard in the center.  They’re served warm with cinnamon and powdered sugar to sprinkle on.  The line outside the place for takeaway was enormous.  Adrian dropped us off and told us to go inside and sit at a table because it would be much better.  We took his advice, found a table right away and ordered our Pasteis.  To tell you how popular these things are let me give you some numbers.  On an average day they make (by hand) 15,000 of these pastries.  On busy days they make more than 50,000!  We ate our two and bought three packages of 6 to go.  One package we gave to Adrian to enjoy with his family tonight and two packs we brought to give to our cabin stewardess Fernanda who is Brazilian and knows about them.

Al at the Café de Pasteis da Belem

Finally Adrian took us on a short drive through old town Lisbon. Once again we saw the narrow twisting streets. What’s different about Lisbon is that many of the buildings are decorated with beautiful ceramic tiles and many of the streets have streetcar tracks running through them because there is a large streetcar system for public transportation.  One of the highlights of the little tour was visiting the Plaza de Luis de Camões , who is known as the Portuguese Shakespeare.  He lived in the 16^th century and is considered to be Portugal’s greatest poet. Among other things he sailed with some of the country’s earliest explorers and kept a journal of his travels.  Now his square is a meeting point for young people to start their nights on the town. 

Beautiful Lisbon vista

Maybe a little hard to see but after the great 1755 earthquake and tsunami the king invited italian architects to come and rebuild .  This building reminds me of Venice.

Then it was time to say goodbye to Adrian and prepare for sailaway.  Leaving Lisbon is a beautiful sight. As the ship departs it sails under the April 25 Bridge (commemorating the Carnation Revolution).  The bridge is very much like the Golden Gate Bridge except that it has a lower deck for trains.  One the opposite bank of the Tagus perched above the bridge is the statue Christ the King, which is very much like the Christ the Redeemer overlooking Rio da Janeiro.  After passing them you pass the monument to Henry the Navigator and the other Portuguese explorers and then finally the beautiful Belem tower.

Bridge and Christ the King Staue

Unlike the Golden Gate bridge this one has an added deck on which trains run back and forth

The Discoverers' Monument commemorating all the intrepid explorers who set forth

The beautiful Belem Tower, last bastion before leaving Lisbon

So ended another wonderful day.  Tomorrow we’ll be in the Oporto region.