Lisbon, Cascais, and Sintra!

FINALLY! Back on land and how nice it is to be somewhere different and exciting. After being on a ship surrounded by Americans, Germans, and Canadians, it is such a relief to hear a different accent and language. Feels nice to the ear. 

Lisbon as a city is beautiful and breathtaking. The sea breeze coming in over the atlantic ocean is cold, a refreshing and well needed feeling as you walk around in the hot sun. In the city itself there are quite a few historical buildings, monasteries, monuments, and fortresses. Constantly surrounded by people, both locals and tourists. Whilst in Lisbon I visited the Monastery of St Jerome and marvelled at the architecture. The place was packed with others from the ship so it was hard to move around and get the right angle for a photo, but it was interesting to see the monastery from the tour guides, and local portuguese, perspective. They are very proud.

In Cascais we walked alongside the river and into a fortress. Unfortunately as it is a Saturday, all the cafes and restaurants are closed. There really wasn’t much to see inside. A few statues outside and an open hotel down the street.

We stopped off as a group for lunch. Instead of typically ordering your food or choosing from a buffet, everything was brought out to you and served a size of the waiters choice. A strangely nice tasting cabbage soup, followed by rice, chips, salad, and a giant pork kebab. For desert we were served an almond cake. The soup and salad were nice, the rest of it I’m not so sure about.

Back on the giant tour bus we headed out for Sintra via the coast and mountain. We stopped off at the westernmost peak on the coast for a 10 minute breather before heading off through the mountain to reach Sintra. Unfortunately, again, we didn’t see too much of it as we were restricted for time. The castle at Sintra look amazing to walk through however we didn’t manage to do that.

Portugal as a whole is a geographically diverse country. Drive a few kilometres and you’ve gone from metropolis to countryside. A few more kilometres and you’ve reached sand dunes. Another few and you’ve reached civilisation again. The freeways here are only 3 narrow lanes across, occasionally 2, and aren’t very busy at all. All in all it was both slightly educational and a huuuuuge relief to get off the ship and away from all the New Jersey and Boston accents. Tomorrow time to explore Cadiz!