We awoke this morning and headed down for another overview tour of Lisbon. This time with Stephen. We first went to the Viking table in the lobby and explained to Sophia that we were not able to check-in yesterday. She found our package of material and explained the contents to us. Not much new except a different color of luggage tags due to our tour tomorrow on the way to Porto. She explained it in such detail that we almost did not have time to get breakfast before our tour began.
Surprise...Surprise, our guide on the Lisbon overview tour is the same Isabel as Sarah and I had last Friday. We covered the same basic elements as on the tour last Friday, including the river customs house and the Maritime Museum.
When we got to the Maritime Museum, we discovered that today was the anniversary of the GNR (the Republican National Guard of Portugal). They were having a parade at the museum. We were able to skirt around them and get into the museum. It had not changed much since I was there three days ago. We were able to spend a bit more time in the royal yacht museum.
When we emerged from the museum, all the toy soldiers were still standing where we left them, but someone was giving a speech. I'm sure they were all paying close attention!
We had to walk a bit out of our way to get to our coach so as not into interrupt the proceedings.
We then went to the Alfama district, one of Lisbon’s oldest areas, are lined with shops selling traditional crafts and cafes. This is not a place where Sarah and I visited last week. We dismounted and walked through some of the narrow streets.
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| Very narrow passageways |
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| Isabel, our guide |
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| Blue jean planters |
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| Bitter orange tree, mother of English Marmalade |
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| Iron elevator in Lisbon |
We got back to the hotel about 1:00 pm. We ran into Maxine and several of her neighborhood traveling friends. We were all introduced and, with the next tour to the Tile Museum starting at 2:30 pm, we decided to have lunch in the hotel restaurant.
Stephen and I both ordered the Algrave oysters and steak tartare. The oysters were great even though we did not have any Tabasco sauce. They prepared the tartare table-side. The others at the table ordered other things and we did not get the food to the table until just a few minutes before we needed to leave. In any event, the tartare was excellent. This was Stephen's first try of tartare and he liked it (Gavin would be proud)!
Off we went to the Tile Museum which was originally a convent.
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| Loquat Tree |
At the end of the tour, we were allowed to create our own tile. The tiles had been already fired and we just added our design. They will be fired again and delivered to us later on the cruise.
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| My tile |
We got back to the hotel and decided not to go out with the gang for another meal.
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