LISBON, PORTUGAL

This is a 2 way motor vehicle street, believe it or not!

Our wonderful greeting from Lisbon. The tugboats blew their whistles and did wheelies for us.
The statue that looks over the city

Commercial cirlcel. Thru that beautiful arch is a wonderful pedestrian shopping area
The castle of St. George, looks just like a castle should

another narrow stairway. This one did not lead where we thought it would, but to someone's house
normal street
view of old and new Lisbon

The Columbus memorial

An old Moorish fort
The monastery on the other side of town, where we will go when we visit here again, which we will. We loved it.

April 16

We had a late arrival this morning. We took it easy, since we had been going ashore almost every day. Around 9am we started hearing weird noises. When we went out on our balcony, we saw a tugboat, shooting water into the air from it's water cannon. It was waving the water around. Then it started doing tricks in the water. It would so circles in the water and weave back and forth and sounding its horn in long blasts. Then our ship would blow its horn back. Sometimes passing ships would join into the chorus. We had no idea what was going on, or whether the same thing was happening on the port side of the ship. Well, we found out that it was Lisbon's welcome to us since this is the first time this ship has docked here in Lisbon. And yes, the port side also got a show. It was a fun way to wake up.

When we went into town, we were taken about 3 miles into the center of the shopping area. We spent the next 4 hours walking around the old town portion of town. We first walked up the shopping street to get more euros. Then we walked up to the castle of St. George. It is on the top of one of the hills that make up the town. To get there, you walk up stairs and stairs and stairs and then hope you climbed the right hill, because you can't see past the building all around you. The streets are very narrow. It is amazing that a car can get thru, and they have 2 way traffic. Some even have trolleys running down them. The stairs and alleyways are only wide enough for 2 people to walk astride.

Anyway, we arrived, after getting unsolicited help from locals (we must really have looked lost...actually one time we got help we had gone up some stairs, quite a bit of stairs, and found ourselves at someones front door...so, yeah, I guess we looked lost) By the way, walking around lost is some of the best fun we have had, not just here, but lots of places.

The castle has a fortress on the inside that looks just like a castle should look, with a mote, torrets and a walkway around the walls. Great fun.

Then we found some churches to look at. The first one was bland. The second was great, so here are some pictures of it.

Then we weaved our way back to the shuttle pick up place. Duane got on the bus, and I got left behind, but made it back on the next bus.

So onward to Cove, Ireland. Cove is the port for Cork. More then.