Lisbon

The front entrance to the beautiful Church of St Engracia

It’s been a long 24hrs.   It started yesterday at about 2.45 pm when I waved goodbye to my grown up children, (together to celebrate the 18^th birthday of my youngest), to be driven by the newly adult g child to Darlington Station.  My  journey of trains, planes and automobiles went so smoothly it was amazing.  I can tell you that St Pancras Station is awesome and the Holiday Inn Express at Luton is really nice and comfortable, although the food wasn’t the best.

 Altar inside Ch. St. Engracia, from upper level

Due to worry about missing the flight, I didn’t get much sleep though, about 3-4 hours.  Luton airport is extremely efficient, and Easyjet managed to get us to Lisbon 25 mins early.  I’m never really comfortable on an aeroplane, the slightest flicker of turbulence makes me uneasy, but today’s flight was made so much better by the little boy somewhere behind me asking questions of his mum:  When the plane banked, he asked “is it going to go upside down?”, when the captain talked about descent, he wanted to know if we were going to land in the sea. 

One of the many examples of run down buildings in Lisbon

And finally, when the plane suddenly smoothed and quietened approaching Lisbon airport and we were still a couple of thousand feet in the air, and he asked “Has it stopped?”

The taxi seemed a little expensive, but at least the driver spoke English, and bothered to ask a colleague about the location of the ship.  I’d already checked with Peter, and the Marco Polo was supposed to be at the the “Apolonia Pier”.  And it was,with Peter sat outside on the dock, waiting for me.  Awwwwwww.

So, I finally boarded the Marco Polo on a beautifully sunny day in Portugal.   

Lisbon Cathedral main entrance

No trouble getting booked on, a quick coffee and a little bit of lunch  and we went back out to explore Lisbon.  Admittedly, we have only seen that part of the city which is within walking distance of the ship, but our last visit here didn’t leave a very good impression.  And today’s walk confirmed that Lisbon is still tatty and run down.  Some areas were downright awful.  But when we got away from the graffiti and the most decrepid of the buildings, Lisbon started to grow a little on me. 

The main altar, Lisbon Cathedral

The only word I have been able to conjure up is Bohemian - Juliet balconies, carved wooden doors,  tiled walls and pavements, antique little trams and glorious architecture.  Sadly the paint has blistered, the tiles are falling off, the pavements are full of holes and the plaster and carvings are crumbled and damaged.   But the place has still grown on me a little.

Our walk today included the The Church of Saint Engracia, which is national monument, not a working church and also a “National Pantheon” which means it is a place dedicated to housing the remains of important figures from Portugals history.  It’s other claim to fame is the inordinately long time it took to build it, 1682 until 1966!  It is a wonderful, beautiful building where we were allowed travel up to the higher levels and admire the views of the altar and chapels from on high.     

We also had a quick look at the Church of St Vicente,  and the Cathedral.  I don’t understand all the nuances of the catholic religion, or why there are so many chapels in the cathedrals. 

Central monument and gateway, Praca do Commercio, Lisbon

But I do appreciate the beauty of the buildings and the craftmanship involved.  This cathedral was built about 1150  I think.  Amazing what they did without cranes and power tools.Back on board ship, our evening meal was very nice, but marred ever so slightly by the fact that our copy of the Daily Blurb detailing activities and evening dress code was in dutch!  Our guess of “informal” on a casual night meant that I felt overdressed.   Dinner was good, not a lot of choice,but well cooked and presented, and we finished just in time to go up on deck and watch the lights of Lisbon slide past as the ship left port.   A thoroughly lovely day.    Tomorrow is a sea day, and a chance for me to better explore the ship.  I’m looking forward to it.