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Published: June 26th 2017
Geo: 38.7072, -9.13552
Welcome to Easter Sunday and, surprise, surprise another day at sea. If we've only just got over six days at sea, another one comes along. Our days at sea, from now on, will be alternated with days in port. The clock went forward again (for the fifth time) making us now on the same time as the UK.
Paul, our cruise Director, had been promising a live message from the Pope for a few days now. Some passengers actually believed that the Spiritual leader of the Catholic church, the earthy representative who had been appointed by the Almighty himself had been hiding on one of the upper decks. (well at least he wouldn't have been short of a balcony or two!!)
The Pope was indeed with the good people of the Crown Princess but on the big screen in the Princes Theatre. A Sunday Mass was held with live pictures beamed from the Vatican for the Pope's Easter message. This was followed by a non-denominational service at 10:00am. Unfortunately, this clashed with trivia!! One of the questions was '
Who was known as the weeping prophet?' We didn't put the correct answer (Jeremiah). Karma?? Perhaps, as this lost us the game!!
Princess have a show televised each morning called the Wake Show. It is hosted by the cruise director. During the show he reads out peoples' comments, explains the day's planned entertainment and chats with guests from the various onboard departments from time to time. The show is filmed from a different location each day (restaurant galley, bridge, engine control room, photo shop etc…😉. A few of the passengers have written in wanting an explanation as to why the UK is only five hours ahead of Florida yet there are seven time changes. Paul, the cruise director, took this question away and the following morning explained that it had something to do with British Summer Time. I felt strongly enough to drop him a line and put him right as follows:
1) The UK is five hours ahead of Florida but one hour behind mainland Europe
2) Portugal is on the same time as the UK
3) Therefore, five time changes to Portugal, clock goes forward before we hit Spain then back again as we cross the channel to the UK
Paul is also somewhat of a graphologist, i.e. he studies hand writing. He has been analysing the hand writing of all those who write in to
the Wake Show.
‘Chris has written in from Plaza deck. Now I love Chris's handwriting. He slaps me in the face but in the nicest possible way you can slap someone in the face!!..'
Lisbon next up. Last time we were in Lisbon we had an unpleasant experience. The city itself is stunning. We even managed to get a game in visiting Benfica's Stadium of Light. On the way back to the airport I was mugged. This was, thankfully, the non-violent kind. On boarding the local bus back to the airport we were held up by someone distracting the driver. Somebody else was pushing up right against me. After trying to push him way, he eventually disappeared. The ‘decoy' also got off the bus. It was only when I sat down that I realised my wallet had vanished from my trousers. Luckily there was no cash in my wallet as I had passed over the remaining Euros to Roisin earlier that morning. It was the inconvenience of having to cancel all my cards and apply for a new driving licence. My wallet now has a thick visible chain so if nothing else, hopefully this acts as a deterrent!
We didn't dock in Lisbon until shortly after noon so at 11:00 most people were on a rather breezy deck watching the approach down the River Tagus as we passed the Belem Tower on our portside and Christ the Redeemer on the starboard, also passing under the 25th April Bridge. This bridge was built using the same principles as the San Francisco Golden Gate bridge but on a much reduced scale. The name of the bridge refers to the month in 1974 when a bloodless revolution restored democracy by overthrowing the regime of Antonio Salazar.
Originally, we were told that the Crown Princess would be docking in Alcantara about 5km from the city centre. The good news is that the vessel received clearance to dock at the Apolonia terminal only one km from the centre. There were eight official excursions advertised from a city walk and funicular ride costing $54 to Lisbon by tram and coach for $109. For those who wanted to venture a little further, an excursion had been laid on to visit the pilgrimage site of Fatima, 50 miles away. This was where the Virgin Mary miraculously appeared to three shepherds in 1917. Roisin and I had already done our research
before coming to Lisbon and had decided to visit Belem. Despite it being Monday when all the museums are closed, this is a part of the city we had not yet visited but it came highly recommended by friends and colleagues as a pleasant district of Lisbon.
We strolled through the Alfama district keeping roughly parallel to the river and within fifteen minutes found ourselves at the rather splendid Arco da Rua Augusta, the centre piece of Praça do Comércio (Commerce Square). This square leads down to the waterfront and is reminiscent of St Mark's Square only on a much grander scale. Lisbon does not have anything truly ancient as the city was devastated in 1755 by a tremendous earthquake. The Rua Augusta triumphal-like arch was built to commemorate the city's reconstruction after this disaster.
Commerce Square is still commonly known as Terreiro do Paço (Palace Yard) because it was the site of the Royal palace before it was, you've guessed it, destroyed by the earth quake. When the square was remodeled it was given its new name to coincide with the new chapter in Lisbon's illustrious history in being a major centre for trade and commerce.
It was here we picked up
the tram lines. Now we had to find where the tram 15E started from. This would take us in the direction of Belem. It wasn't long before we spotted the tram stop that showed an LED display atop the tram shelter
15E Belem 9mins. Now that's the easy part. Tickets? No ticket machine on the platform. It is unlikely that you'd have to pay the driver direct as from experience in the UK and other European countries, the driver is usually securely seated in a cabin with no communication possible. With a few minutes to go, a uniformed lady approached us with a hand-held ticket machine. Problem solved. We paid our €5.80 and awaited the arrival of the tram. It turns out that there is a ticket machine on board should you have to run for the tram. The journey to Belem took approximately 25 minutes and luckily terminated a few yards from where we wanted to be so there was no danger of missing our stop!! Within moments of alighting we were walking along side Jeromimos Monastery. Now I thought Jeromimo was a red Indian Brave who used to jump out of airplanes shouting his own name as he plummeted earthward!! That was until Roisin pointed out I was thinking of Geronimo!!
The monastery dates back to the 16th Century and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983, that's now number 99 sites visited to my knowledge. This is considered to be Lisbon's finest landmark. It features two story cloisters and ornate arches. The style is where baroque meets gothic. It is also the resting place of Vasco da Gama and other explorers.
A short walk across some gardens known as the Praço do Imperio we found the Monument to the Discoveries. This massive tribute was built in 1960 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the death of Prince Henry the Navigator. I'm certain he is the main figure looking out across the River Tagus holding his favourite toy yacht!!
The Belem Tower which we saw from our sail-in (but didn't realise it was the tower!!) is a few hundred yards from the monument. This tower harks back to the days of Portugal's maritime supremacy. The striking Belem tower is a richly carved 16th century fort at the water's edge and marked the starting point of many voyages of discovery including Vasco da Gama's epic journey to India around the
tip of Africa. You could say it was the world's first cruise terminal!!!
We stopped at that famous Portuguese coffee chain,
Starbucks do Lisboa where Americanos and two Portuguese speciality cakes called Pastel di Nata were the order of the day. These cakes are very similar to a custard tart but slightly denser. On Princess, as platinum loyalty members, we are entitled to 250 minutes of free on board wi-fi each. As I am now down to forty minutes on this cruise, Starbucks wi-fi was very welcome in order to upload the photos for this blog entry!!
On returning to the ship, Roisin's face beamed as she looked up to the bow of the Crown Princess. The reason why she likes this ship so much is not because of International café (well, not JUST because of International café!!), not just because we have met some genuine and nice people, not because of MUTS but because the ship has a smiley face!! Deck 7, the promenade deck wraps around the ship. 2.8 times around this deck equates to 1 mile and many passengers can be seen throughout the day, getting their daily exercise. The ‘smile' is deck 7 winding around the bow of the ship.
It's been a good day. Our excursion has cost us about €30 (including a bottle of wine I brought back on to the ship) An official excursion could have run us as much as $218 that makes us $188 up on the deal. I may even visit the casino tonight!!
Our heading will now be North up the coast of Portugal then after another day at sea, veer eastwards around cape Finesterre in to the Bay of Biscay to our next destination Bilbao. We have been advised to expect a bumpy ride!!
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Snarko' Polo
non-member comment
awesome way to enjoy some of the highlights of one of Europe's most pleasing cities. as you demonstrated, loads of great tourism done on shank's and tram without a parasol-bearing guide in sight - Salud!