Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Cruise, part 4

I had this all ready to go last night, but the internet link on the ship went down. Here it is a bit later than I'd planned. So now I'm posting it at 8:00 am, which is about 1:00 am back home.

We woke up Monday morning finally on the continent of Europe, coming into the harbor of Lisbon, Portugal. So we’ve crossed the Atlantic on a ship! Crazy, eh? It was chilly this morning, but good to see the hills of Lisbon.





We got dressed and went down to the ship’s theater to await the start of our tour, which was titled “Lisbon by Tram”. They were slow getting everyone out, and our tour started an hour late. But Carter was amazingly patient, even though the theater was crowded and hot. He practiced going up and down the stairs and was sweet and charming to everyone.

We finally got going and took a bus through the streets of Lisbon to the point where we got on the tram. The tram was lots of fun and went up and down steep hills, through narrow streets. They fed us lovely local pastries and glasses of port wine. Carter seemed to really enjoy the ride.







We got off the tram after about 15 minutes to check out a beautiful view of the city.





From there we walked down the hill to check out a church. By this point, Carter had fallen asleep, and stayed asleep for a good 45 minutes, despite being walked around on hilly cobblestone streets, by car horns honking, a loud pipe organ playing inside the church, etc.



From there we got back on a bus for another 2 hours. That 15 minutes was all we got for the tram, apparently. It was nice, but not exactly what we were expecting. Still, we got to see a lot of the city and Carter was extremely patient and a good tourist.









Here Carter is checking out the old-fashioned stone pavement.



And in keeping with Portugal’s maritime heritage, here he is looking at a gigantic anchor.



We’d hoped to have lunch in the city, but it was pretty cold and the port (where our tour ended) was a ways from the charming part of town. So we got back on the ship and ate there. We went back to the room, and Carter once again took a nap through most of the departure, conveniently allowing Doug and me to enjoy the champagne and chilled shrimp Rikki had brought us.



We wrapped ourselves in coats and watched the city fade away as the ship departed. It was really, really cool.





Carter woke up eventually and joined us on the veranda.



We’re halfway through, and I am seriously SO used to this sort of travel now. I can’t believe I will have to go home in a week and won’t be waited on hand and foot. I’m really going to miss having a butler who organizes everything you want. I mean seriously, we just order the gourmet food we want, and it’s delivered to our room at the time we want it, with the table beautifully set. We don’t have to clean up after ourselves, even after Carter. Our room is cleaned 3 times a day, laundry is done, all travel arrangements made. It’s like all the inconvenient parts of life are done for you, just leaving you the enjoyable parts. Who wouldn’t enjoy that?

Today (Tuesday) we’ll be in Seville, Spain. I’ll try to post more pictures then.

1 comment:

Debby said...

Rick wants to know if you have seen any pirates, except for the cute one in the last picture with the red hoodie on? Rick also wants to know if you have had any problems understanding Portugues and are you able to talk to the locals since you speak Spanish? When I saw the picture of the tram, the older gentleman standing close to the tram looked alot like Papa...I had to look twice...ha ha.

I love the pictures and I know I could SOOOOOOO get used to that treatment... You will probably never look at a regular vacation again...Thanks for all the pictures as we live through your words and eyes... Love you all!! Mom/Nana