October 14 Lisbon, Portugal

   Arrival in Lisbon, Portugal, (Lisboa in Portuguese) was two hours later than scheduled, but an extra hour was added fro the departure time. There is no changing our watches as Portugal uses the same time zone as Britain. Sunrise was 7:44 a.m. with fog and the temperature was 15° C with a predicted high today of 26°C. The geographical location for Lisboa, Portugal, is 38°42.49’N & 9°07.67’W.   

    We went to the buffet in Silk restaurant for breakfast right as it opened at 8 a.m., then went to the other end of the ship to the Diamond Club for cappuccinos. It was still foggy out but there was some sunlight getting through. Shortly after returning to the stateroom, six decks higher, blue sky was visible but looking down it was still foggy. The fog lasted about another ten minutes, then you could see distant land and over half a dozen airplane contrails.

   As the ship entered the wide entrance to the Tejo River going to Lisboa harbour, we walked around the Deck 15 track as more people spilled on to the deck to watch the 45 minute sail-in.  After four times (3.6 km) we gave up, as the crowd blocked the narrow walkway trying to get pictures. The Tejo River can be as much as 16 kilometres wide, but at its narrowest the Ponte 25 de Abril bridge crosses the river. The ship slipped under it with some room to spare. As the ship got closer to docking, it passed the Belém Tower, the monument Padräo dos Descobrimentos and Constitutional Square with the Arch of Rua Augusta. Anthem docked about 11:30 a.m. and people were allowed off the ship by noon. The P & O ship Ventura and a World Traveler large yacht were already in port which is close to the container port.

   We waited 15 minutes then went down to Deck 5 for the gangway. The area was teeming with people organized into a snaking line. To get to the end of the line, we walked back from the aft staircase, to the forward staircase, by the Royal Theatre, from there the line meandered back past the aft staircase then turned back again to finally get to the gangway leading to a long covered walkway to the terminal. It took 461 steps within the Royal Esplanade to exit the ship and almost the same number of steps to get to the terminal. The terminal had Wi-Fi which cost €3 for 60 minutes, but to register it would not accept our information in some fields which made the purchase incomplete. We will use our other complimentary 24 hours of Wi-Fi on the ship tomorrow. Most cruise terminal have free Wi-Fi or a simple access process.

   Lisboa has a subway system, plus trams and busses for public transportation. The face mask mandate for public transit was just removed six days ago when we were visiting Funchal. The sky was sunny with a few clouds, and windy 15 knots (25 km/hr).

    We had an afternoon tour Stroll Through Lisbon with a group of 16 plus André, our guide. We had already logged our 12,000 steps today and added another 10,000 to the count with this tour. The tour started in the nearby neighbourhood of Alfama, one of the 16 traditional neighbourhoods of Lisboa. The sun was shining and the temperature was 24° C. There have been people in the area since the Phoenicians, then the Romans, the Visigoths and for 800 years the Moors. The Moors were Muslims and brought their knowledge of mathematics and science with them. The tiles on some buildings are a reminder of the Moors influence in Portugal. Portugal became a republic in 1910.

    The Moorish tiles have geometric themes, Blue and white are the colours of Portugal. Portuguese tile depicts landscapes. The first example of a building façade in Moorish design was in the first part of the tour, once we crossed into the Alfama neighbourhood. The pattern cannot be perfect since in the Muslim religion only God is perfect, so there is one tile of a project that is turned at least 90° making the pattern imperfect. It was not too hard to find the one on this building.

    We waked past a patio within a courtyard where the entrance was covered in flowers. Our guide said that having a courtyard was very rare in the city.  This was another example of Moor architecture, where a houses were built in clusters with a courtyard so the women could get air and sun on balconies overlooking the courtyard. Moorish woman were not allowed to venture from their homes without a male family member. There are remnants of the old city walls incorporated in newer buildings. Like many other European cities, Lisboa’s old town is no longer right on the waterfront.  Land fill has been added to the area which allows for the building of subway systems, roads and docks. There was a small gateway to the old waterfront.

  Next, we ventured to the former Jewish quarter. There have been no Jewish people living in Portugal since the Spanish Inquisition that spilled in from Spain beginning in the early 16^th century. At the time the Portuguese king married a Spanish princess and part of the marriage contract was the Inquisition be continued in Portugal which meant the massacre of Jews in 1506. In the late 20^th century, Portugal passed a law that any person who was Jewish and could prove that they had Portuguese ancestors, could receive Portuguese citizenship immediately after verification. A teenage tour number from Israel, who knew of his Portuguese ancestry, was in one of André’s tours and had not known about the law. He went to the Israeli embassy in Lisboa after the tour and within three hours had Portuguese citizenship. The Portuguese, by André’s admission, were brutal in enforcing the Spanish Inquisition, but changed their ways after 1755, when an earthquake struck Lisboa measuring 9.5 on the Richter scale.  Its epicentre was just eight kilometres offshore. Besides a devastating earthquake, there were fires and a tsunami roared up the Tejo River from the ocean., killing half of the population. The people took as a sign from God to change their ways for good.

    At one point, property taxes were based on the square footage of the ground floor, so imaginative residents built homes with small ground floors and cantilevered the higher storeys out. However, this was not a smart practice in an earthquake zone. Very few examples of these houses still exist and André pointe one of the last four still standing.  Next, we found St. Michael’s Church. Then it was more stairs upward to the Arch of Lisboa History. It gives a brief history of Lisboa including the invasion in 1806 by Napoleon’s French army done in comics style panels.

    Did you know that the Portuguese navy was known as the Oranges, by different seafaring nations? In other cultures the name for the Portugal means orange. The reason is that back in the day of sailing ships and long voyages, the Portuguese stocked up on oranges on their voyages to remedy scurvy – like the British Navy did with limes.

    The official patron saint of Portugal is St. Vincent, but St. Anthony (of Palma), the patron saint of marriage is more well known. He was baker in Lisboa. There currently is a three year waiting list for couples to marry on June 30 -  St. Anthony Day. If you wish to divorce in Portugal but you were married on this date, there is a € 75,000 penalty to divorce, which is more nine times the average labourer’s annual salary. 

   Having been climbing uphill for half an hour using stairs or slopes, but stopping for commentary, we arrived at Santa Luzia viewpoint to see the old town and our ship in the harbour. There are over 100 churches in Lisboa, St. Vincent church can be seen and the dome of the pantheon. There are nine Portuguese kings buried in St. Vincent’s church. St. Vincent’s statue is near the viewpoint. Also at the viewpoint was a Portuguese tile mural of a famous battle. I am not sure but it could be the 1147 battle when the Portuguese recaptured Lisboa. Happily the next place was the small café, Checkpoint, where the group stopped for a cod cake and beer or wine.

   Then we were back to the narrow streets of the old town. We found St. Anthony Square, this time the church was the Basilica Santa Maria Mairo. It was built between 1179 and 1214. The tower on the right, with the clock was part of the original design, the left hand tower was added later.  St. Anthony’s bakery was not far away. Further downward was St. Peter’s Square which in Roman times was the Hippodrome, where among other things, chariot races occurred. At the north side of the square was the palace, which has been used as a treasury and government offices for centuries. At the time of the monarchy, a shy king kept a zoo in the palace grounds. On a festival day, to impress his noble friends, he arranged for a hippopotamus and a rhinoceros to be brought to the square, which at the time was just dirt covered. His idea was for them to fight, but instead they created chaos and the noble men and women fled dirtying the elegant clothing, which embarrassed the king.  Then he ordered that the plaza be paved in cobble stones in a two colour wave pattern so that never again would noblemen get dirty clothes in the space. This is known as the Pavement of Portuguese and can even be seen in former Portuguese colonies. We were given 30 minutes here to look around, it was almost 5 p.m., and the cafés and shops were starting to get busy.  Most of the group was back in 20 minutes, but the Bulgarian couple, were five minutes late returning. Just as André was deciding to proceed to our next café stop with us and return to wait for them, they came running toward us. Within a few minutes we were ushered into Fábrica da Nata up the stairs to their tearoom, for their famous custard tarts with a demi cup of strong coffee. Outside their patio tables had a mural of the Belém Tower and their name on them. As this was close the end of the tour and we had walked the next portion of the tour on our last visit, we left the group and returned to the ship along Rua Augusta through the Arch to Constitutional Square then back to the ship. It was just 1.3 kilometres.

   We quickly changed for dinner and within ten minutes were walking into the dining room to join Sue and John just as they were finishing their main course. Sivakumar quickly took our order but delayed taking Sue and John their dessert until we could all have it together.  We sat together later to watch the almost two hour Broadway show We Will Rock You featuring the music of Queen.  It will be presented again tomorrow afternoon and evening.  We had a nightcap in the Music Hall where Tropical Band was playing dance music.

   The ship had left Lisboa just after 8 p.m. and was now heading north and the temperature was 17° C, the doors to Deck 5’s promenade were closed due to a strong wind.

   Total steps 24,688 

Labeling will be later today if all goes well