Bus Tour of Lisbon

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October 2008

We awoke to a beautiful, warm, blue sky day in Lisbon, Portugal. Today we took a 3 hour bus tour through downtown Lisbon, the capital, the resort city of Estoril, and back along the Tagus River to Lisbon.

While in Lisbon we stopped at the top of the hill that overlooked King Edward VII Park. It was one of those postcard sites. We were warned by our tour guide not to purchase the linens on sale by the gypsies, as they were of inferior quality. Unfortunately, for those wishing to buy linens, it was our only shopping stop on the day's tour.

Our stop in Estoril was really a wasted stop. Both as a destination and the valuable time you have on day tours. Our bus had parked near the casino. However, it was closed, and would not open until we had long departed. For some reason the local stores in the area near where we parked were not open. It was a Monday. The beach in this area was a pitiful excuse for a beach. For being a "resort" city, I guess we were dropped off in the wrong section of the city to appreciate its resort qualities. However, we did find the Post Office within a block of the bus, and mailed the last of our postcards. So not a complete waste to our stop.

On our way back to Lisbon we made two photo stops: one at Belem Tower, a defensive tower that was built between 1515-1519 to protect the city, and the second at the Monument to the Discoveries. This was an impressive monument that was built in 1960 to honor Henry the Navigator and other heroes of Portugese history.

While a bus tour of this sort can give you an overview of a city and the area around it, it also leaves you little in the way of free time to explore. Of all the tours we took on our 16 day Mediterranean cruise, this one was by far the least enjoyable. If Lisbon is a port of call on your cruise, stay with a city tour. A side trip to Estoril is not worth the time or added expense.

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