Vineyards and Castles on the Oceania Marina
9/17/19 to 9/29/19
Click on the above link buttons that will take you directly to a particular page or area of the review; or you can just click through to the next page at the bottom of each page.
Page 1 - Pre-Cruise in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Embarkation, Ship
Page 2 - Ship (Continued), Cabin, Dining, Entertainment, Activities
Page 3 - Ports of Call: Dover, England; LeHavre, France, St. Malo, France
Page 4 - Ports of Call: Brest, France; La Rochelle, France; Bordeaux, France - Day 1
Page 5 - Ports of Call: Bordeaux, France - Day 2; Bilbao, Spain
Page 6 - Ports of Call: Ferrol, Spain; Oporto, Portugal; Post-Cruise in Lisbon, Portugal - Day 1
Page 7 - Post-Cruise in Lisbon, Portugal - Days 2 & 3
Ferrol, Spain
The weather report was not great for our last port stop in Spain. It was to be cloudy with a chance of rain; but it was also supposed to reach 70 degrees. We had booked another tour with Spain Day Tours (www.spaindaytours.com/spain-shore-excursions/ferrol-shore-excursion/) to take us to the town of Santiago de Compostela.
The town is well known as the destination for the Way of St. James, which was portrayed in the movie, The Way, with Martin Sheen. I had watched the movie before my first visit there in 2014 and watched it again with Craig when I was in Dallas a few months before this cruise to understand why the town was such a revered religious site. The remains of St. James are believed to be in the crypts of the cathedral. Also, many miracles have occurred at the cathedral over the years. Each year thousands of people travel to the cathedral on designated paths that can be as far as 500 miles. That is a very long walk. They can also use bikes; but most walk the pilgrimage routes.
The 8-hour tour was to begin at 9:30 AM and we were off the ship early as usual. The rain had started, and tour companies were huddled under a tented area close to the ship to direct their clients to busses or vans. We quickly found our guide Maria. She checked off our names and told us to go to a particular bus. Spain Day Tours prides themselves on giving personalize tours with group sizes of no larger than 14-18 people. For this tour, they would put three groups into one large bus for the drive to the town and then break up into 3 groups with separate guides. I had done the same tour five years earlier, except from Vigo, Spain and thoroughly enjoyed it.
There were a lot of people on our bus and Maria had not come back on it to let us know when we would leave. People were getting frustrated as was I, so got off the bus to try to find her. She was not in the tented area. I went back on the bus and called the main tour company office to find out what the problem was. They said that they would find out. Finally, at around 9:55 AM, Maria got on the bus and said that she was still waiting for one couple to check off. We told her we needed to leave to be able to get the tour done on time. She said that she would have to get permission from the office, and she couldn’t just leave. Then one couple on the bus told her that they had not seen her when they came in and just came on the bus. They were the missing couple. We couldn’t believe that she never came to the bus to see if they were on it. She apologized profusely and felt very badly about it. But it was a rookie mistake that should never have happened. It is the only time I have ever had any kind of issue with this company. Her error actually turned out to be a good thing, since we would be there later in the afternoon when the sun came out and the photos were so much nicer. I will be using the sunny photos rather than the cloudy ones where possible; which will explain the difference in their appearance.
It took about an hour and a half to get to Santiago de Compostela. Instead of arriving there at 11:00 AM, it was 11:30 AM. Maria told us that we would be coming back a half hour later than originally planned to make up for her error. We broke up into three separate groups for our tour through the city. We had a very pleasant and knowledgeable guide named Iris.
The first beautiful building we came to was the Convent of San Francisco. We didn’t have time then to check out the interior and I forgot to later in the day. Maybe next time.
We then walked to the Plaza del Obradoiro where the city’s main attractions are. The Cathedral of Santiago dominates the square and is the destination for the all the pilgrims arriving there. When I was there in 2014, much of the front façade was covered with scaffolding, so I was thrilled to be able to see it this time. Unfortunately, I had read while doing research that the interior was being worked on and severely restricted the view of its beauty. It has a very ornate interior.
Directly opposite the cathedral is the beautiful Rajoy Palace. This is the seat of the town hall and president of the collegiate body of Galicia.
To the right of the palace is an open area where you can see the top of the Church of San Fructuoso further behind the palace. By walking across the open area, there is a nice photo op of the building that I got later in the day.
To the left of the cathedral is the five-star Hotel Paradores. The hotel was constructed as a religious work by Ferdinand and Isabel. Yes, the same ones that sent Columbus to the Americas. It is widely considered to be the oldest continuously operating hotel in the world, and has also been called the "most beautiful hotel in Europe".
Before we left for our tour of the rest of the area, we saw some pilgrims arriving.
We walked around to the left to the north side of the cathedral, where we saw another entrance that was not being used. Also, a rather pretty sight.
Across the street was another gorgeous building, Mosteiro de San Martiño Pinario. The interior is supposed to be quite spectacular; but one that we didn’t get to visit.
We continued around to the back or east side of the cathedral. More beauty!
We continued our walk down from the south side of the cathedral to the Plaza de Platarias, with its beautiful Fountain of the Horses. The Baroque façade of the Casa del Cabildo provides a beautiful backdrop for the fountain.
We came back to the south side of the cathedral where we would enter it. Unfortunately, there was some restoration work going on there also, but the beauty still showed through it.
The line got pretty long going in, but it moved quickly. I was so sad when we entered the basilica and saw all the sheets and scaffolding. In addition, the place was packed with people making hard to even move around. Iris had told us earlier to come back after 2:00 PM and it would be less crowded. We decided to take her advice and go find a restaurant for lunch.
She was right. It was much less crowded when we returned. The photos don’t show the beauty near as much as the ones in the 2014 review, but you can still tell that it is an amazing place.
There are two things that many visitors do when visiting the basilica. One is going up stairs to a room overlooking the altar to hug a statue of St. James while saying a prayer. I had done that in 2014. The other is to go down the stairs to the crypt to see what is proclaimed to be the remains of St. James in a gold box. I missed doing that in 2014, so I was hoping to see it this time. There was a long line that went first up to the statue and then down to the crypt. It was much shorter than when we came by it before lunch, but it would still probably take close to an hour wait for it. Iris had told us to tell the guard that we only wanted to go to the crypt, and they should let us break through the line to do that. I tried that when we were there earlier with no success. This time the guard let us through with no issues. There weren’t many people in the crypt, and we were able to quickly say a prayer, take photos and leave.
We still had an hour before we were to get back on the bus. The sun was shining, and I was able to take many better photos of the beautiful buildings in the town, some of which I used earlier in the review. Many pilgrims had arrived and were laying down in the square after ending their long journeys.
I was able to get some photos of Church of San Fructuoso that is next to the Rajoy Palace.
There are two plaques at the end of the trail in front of the cathedral.
The day turned out to be better than expected after a frustrating and rainy beginning. As we cruised down the Ria de Ferrol away from the port, we passed by what looked like a fort. I tried to find out what it was, but it didn’t show up on any maps.
The cruise part of the vacation was almost over and we only had one full port day left.
Porto, Portugal
This was a port that I had really been looking forward to, even if it was the next to last one on the cruise. Carol and I had always wanted to do a Douro River cruise, which would have started in Porto. Had she lived, we probably would have gone on one with friends who are doing it in 2020. So, I was very much looking forward to the visit. The town is called Porto and Oporto, but Porto is easier to say and type. We arrived at the very modern new port. This was one very unusual looking cruise terminal.
At the other end of the port was an ancient looking lighthouse. Quite a contrast from the modern terminal building.
As we left the ship, I had to do something that I normally don’t do, take photos of the interior of a cruise terminal. They normally aren’t photo worthy; but this one was more like an art museum. Most impressive!
I had to take a photo of the Marina next to the terminal as we exited.
My original intention was to just walk around the city on our own, since it appeared that there was a relatively small central area to explore. A couple days earlier while having dinner with our friends Orv and Teresa, they said that they had booked a free walking tour with Take Porto (www.takeporto.com). That sounded like a great idea. It could greatly help us find the most tourist worthy places. With the ship arriving at 9:00 AM and the tour at 10:30 AM, it seemed like we would have plenty of time to get there. Bad assumption! Oceania provides free shuttles into town, which was most appreciated. It was announced that the first shuttle would begin running at 9:30 AM and the ride into town would take 30 minutes. Depending on where we were dropped off, it would either be plenty of time or not. I looked around the bus to see if Orv and Teresa were on it, but they weren’t. I hoped that they would be able to get on the next bus; but that wasn’t scheduled for another half hour. They needed more busses in Porto.
Well, we got dropped off next to the Douro River. Not what we were hoping for. Google maps said that it was about a 20-minute walk to our tour starting point, the Fonte de Encuentro or Fountain of Youth. We quickly left the bus and started walking up the road with others heading to the main part of town. Needless to say, we were climbing as much as we were walking. The main part of town was on top of the hill and we were at sea level.
The streets weren’t clearly marked, and the map app wasn’t being as helpful as I had hoped, but I knew we were going in the right direction, up. Craig wanted to stay behind me so that I could go at my own speed with my knee issues. He was also looking at the hard copy map we had gotten at the cruise terminal to make sure that we weren’t going too far off track. I kept looking behind me to make sure that he was still there. As it got closer to 10:30 AM, I could see that we were getting closer to the main part of town and I stopped looking behind me, since I was having to weave through the crowds to make better time. I got to the Fountain of Youth statue at 10:31 AM. It was unfortunate that someone felt that they had to add graffiti to it. We did see a lot of graffiti in Porto, which is a real shame, since it is such a pretty city.
We were in what is regarded as Porto's city center, Avenida dos Aliados. The street was lined with ornate buildings.
At the end of the avenue is the Câmara Municipal or town hall.
It also seemed like there were more homeless people in Porto than we had seen in other ports. This fellow was sleeping on the ground with his dog.
But the bigger concern was that Craig wasn’t behind me. Oh Oh! Somehow, I had lost him. He never did find me, but he did get to see many of the same sites on his own that I saw during the day.
I was surprised that the tour didn’t use the King Pedro IV statue that was right in front of the smaller statue as a meeting place, since it would have been much easier find.
We were told to look for the guide with the blue umbrella. There were several guides with blue umbrellas at the meeting spot. I soon realized that there were several tours being done at the same time, but in different languages. My English speaking guide was Flavio. He really knew his stuff.
We didn’t begin the tour until 10:45 AM. Orv and Teresa never made it there, since they had to get on the 10:00 AM bus, which got them to the bottom of the hill around 10:30 AM, the tours starting time. I hated that they missed it, since they were the ones that found it. After Flavio telling us about what we were seeing in Parque da Alfandega where we met, we walked toward the Clérgios Church and tower. I had passed by this impressive structure while hurrying to the meeting place earlier. It was built between 1735 and 1748. The campanile, the tallest in Portugal, is 249 feet high. There are 49 bells in the carillon, which must make quite a sound when they are all ringing.
I had hoped that we would go inside the church, but Flavio moved on to the nest stop. Along the way, we saw another sleeping homeless person. The only reason that I am mentioning him, is that while we were there, he lifted his head, took the money out of the container and went back to sleep. Pretty painless begging.
The next stop was at a place that I had been looking forward to visiting, the Livraraia Lello or Lello Bookstore. It is a popular tourist destination, since it is supposed to be the inspiration for the Hogwarts library in the Harry Potter book series.
The photos I have seen of the interior of the bookstore look incredible, but there was no way I would get to see it that day. There was a massive double stacked line waiting to get in and very few people were coming out. Flavio said it could take several hours to get in.
We moved down the street and saw a very unique church, or should I say churches. It is actually two churches that are separated by one of the world’s narrowest houses. The house was built to prevent any contact between the monks and nuns. The Carmelitas Church on the left was built in the 17th Century and was part of a convent. The Carmo Church on the right was built in the 18th Century and has a wonderful blue tile mosaic on one side.
Once again, we didn’t have time to go into the church. I asked Flavio if we would go into any churches and he said that we wouldn’t. It was probably a good idea, since everyone would want to stay different lengths of time or not at all and it would take away from this tour. We then went into a large park area, The Cordoaria Garden. The trees had unusual trunks on them. The trees were apparently devastated by a 1941 cyclone and have grown back in this way.
Flavio pointed out a marker on the ground with a seashell on it. The seashell is the sigh of St. James. It was pointing the way to Santiago de Compostela for the pilgrims.
Along the side of the park were several different sections of people statues sitting on a bleacher type platform laughing. Flavio said that they were supposed to be politicians.
Across the street from the park was the modern Palace of Justice, with a very large bronze statue of Lady Justice.
Continuing our journey through the streets of Porto, I enjoyed seeing the many tiled houses along the way. The streets were quite narrow. I sure wouldn’t want to drive in Porto.
For our next destination, it appeared that we were descending back down the hill. Flavio said that he was taking us to a great scenic viewpoint of the city.
When we got there, we found out that it was indeed a very good one. It was a shame that it was a bit hazy. I have dehazed the photos some in my photo editing software to make it look a bit better.
Flavio then told us that we would be walking down to the Douro River for our next stop. That is when I thanked and tipped Flavio and said goodbye. I wasn’t about to walk all the way back down to the river and then back up to see the churches I wanted to visit. My knee was already complaining, and I wanted to make sure it would hold up for a few more days.
I headed to the twin churches, since I definitely wanted to see them. With them being two different churches, it was confusing as to how to see them. I walked into the narrow house between the two churches to the ticket office and purchased the 3.5€ ticket for both churches. They told me to walk up the stairs and follow the trail to see the Carmo Church. Good grief, the last thing I needed or wanted to do was to walk up a bunch of stairs. With my knee situation, I was having to take one step at a time, so that I didn’t have to bend my right knee. Since I was there, I guess that I would just toughen up and do it. The narrow house was basically just a staircase, with an occasional narrow room on each level.
There were more levels than I thought there would be. I wasn’t pleased with this situation. Rather than continuing up more levels, I came down and took a different path which led me to the very ornate chapel. Now this room was worth the price of admission. The various chapels were also heavily decorated. The photos make it looke rather gaudy, but it was quite beautiful in person.
I continued trying to figure out where to go, since I wasn’t going to climb any more steps than necessary. I saw a sign to the catacombs, so down I went. It was very small and had a skeleton under glass. That was about it and it was difficult to even move around in it since another couple was in there taking photos too. I was anxious to get out of that place.
The signs were directing me up, so I took a chance and climbed a bit more. There was a large dining room.
I had seen enough and wanted to go to see the Carmelitas Church. When I was finally able to get back to the ticket office area, they told me that it closed for lunch and I could come back at 2:00 PM when they reopened. Since it was only 12:45 PM, I decided to go see the interior of the other church I wanted to visit, the Clérgios Church with the tall bell tower. On the way there, I passed by a strange statue of 16th Century Portuguese poet António Ferreira. It looked more like a mad Max Headroom statue. Google him and you will see what I mean.
When I got to the church, there was a charge to take the 200 steps to the top of the tower; which was of no interest under the current circumstances. The chapel visit was free. I had definitely saved the best till last. The place was an opulent looking gorgeous room.
I was so glad that I had returned to the church to see the interior. Since I couldn’t get into the Carmelitas Church until 2:00 PM, I decided to find a place for lunch. I wasn’t having much luck looking for a place to have a light lunch until I stumbled across the Porta do Olival café. The staff was very friendly as I picked out a couple items and ordered a beer. After finishing the meal, I decided to try one of their Belem custard tarts that looked so good. When the waitress brought it to the table, she brought some cinnamon too. She told me to put it on the tart. What an awesome idea that was! It made it even better. I was very appreciative of the fine service I had received. While finishing up my beer, I noticed a sign on the wall that said that it was the oldest café in Porto city. Doing some research, it was referred to as the oldest café in a 1926 Porto newspaper. I hadn’t realized that I had eaten at a famous place.
With it being 1:30 PM, I had to decide if I wanted to walk back to the Carmelitas Church to see it at 2:00 PM. I would have to kill a half hour, probably walking. I would then have to spend some time looking around the church taking up more time. With the Marina leaving at 6:00 PM, I had to get back to the ship at 5:30 PM. I was worried that there could be a big crowd waiting for the bus transfer back to the ship if I waited too long, plus Craig had texted me that he was back on the Marina. I decided that I would go back; but rather than walking, I would take an Uber back to the Douro. The driver picked me up in less than 2 minutes and we were on our way down the very narrow streets. The ride cost less than 3€ and was worth every penny. When I got to the meeting place there were several people waiting for the bus. A lot more came after me. I had to wait about 15 minutes, and I was heading back to the ship. During happy hour, I heard of people having to wait a very long time for the busses. As at other ports, they really needed more busses. Being back earlier than normal was also beneficial for packing for our disembarkation in the morning.
I had to take a photo the cruise terminal in the sunshine. I took another one as we were leaving port to show the complete dock area.
Post-Cruise in Lisbon, Portugal - Day 1
We had lovely sights for our arrival in the beautiful city of Lisbon as the sun brought the city to life.
The cruise was over, but there was no post-cruise depression yet, I still had three days in Lisbon and Craig would be there for two of them. When Carol and I visited Lisbon in 2014, we said that we would definitely come back, since we enjoyed the city so much and wanted to spend a lot more time there. I was looking forward to sharing that time with Craig. Disembarkation was easy and quick. I was going to take an Uber to our hotel in town. I ordered it and we waited close to the terminal where the taxis were picking up. It wasn’t the right place to wait. The app showed someone arriving in 2 minutes and then it would change to someone else arriving in a few minutes. This happened about 4 times and the Uber finally did arrive, but it was across the terminal road on the other side of the street. I should have gone there in the first place to make it easier on him. The ride cost less than 4€. What a bargain and so easy. I love Uber and Lyft. The driver wasn’t sure where the hotel was, but knew it was very close. The problem was that only taxis were able to come down the logical way to get to the hotel. It wasn’t a big deal since the hotel was a half block away. We were staying at the Hotel Portugal Boutique Hotel (www.hotelportugal.com/en/). Since we arrived so early, they held our luggage until we came back around lunch time.
I must say that this was probably one of the best hotel experiences I have had service wise. The staff was overflowing with assistance and just couldn’t do enough for us or be sweeter about it. The hotel had a modern décor and was very comfortable in every way and so convenient to almost everything we wanted to see.
There was a nice decked area in the courtyard for relaxing and whatever else.
We were given a room upgrade, and a very nice upgrade it was indeed. It was very comfortable and a nice size.
The closets were in a separate hallway to the left as you entered the room. Very nice and large closets.
The bathroom was the major upgrade with a huge round bathtub. For this stay it was just a benefit for the look of it, since Craig and I weren’t interested in it.
We could look down to the courtyard from our room, which meant that we didn’t get any street noise, which was a plus.
It was 9:30 AM and we were ready to see as much of Lisbon as we could that day. The following day we were having a private tour that would take us to places we weren’t able to walk to. In the next block over from the hotel was the Praça da Figueira or Square of the Fig Tree. In addition to a large market area, there was large bronze equestrian statue of King John I. It was the first of many beautiful statues we would enjoy looking at in Lisbon.
In the next block over was King Pedro IV Square, which is commonly called the Rossio. Now this square had statues. The first thing that draws your attention is the bronze statue of Pedro IV that sits atop a 75-foot tall white marble column.
On the south side of the square was a beautiful fountain, that was not operating, but pretty just the same, especially with the D. Maria II National Theatre as a backdrop. The tile decorations in Lisbon are everywhere. I particularly liked this design that made the ground look like waves.
One of the tourist sites I missed on the 2014 visit was the Santa Justa Elevator. Since it wasn’t that far away, we found it pretty quickly. The metal structure was built in 1901 to help people from one neighborhood with a lower elevation to get to another one that was on a hill. It is quite an interesting looking structure. We would have liked to ride up in it, but with the line it would have taken about 45 minutes to do it. It wasn’t that important, since we had lots of other places to go.
Ever since we left the hotel, we had been walking downhill. We knew that meant that we would eventually have to climb back up. Walking around Lisbon is a continual uphill downhill adventure; but the streets have so many beautiful ornate buildings. This one caught our eyes several times while we were there.
We finally got down to sea level along the Tagus River, a couple blocks from the cruise terminal where the Marina was docked. We were in Commercial Square, which is the largest square in Lisbon and one of the major photo spots in Lisbon. The royal palace once sat on this square, but it is now mostly government offices along with the drop-dead gorgeous Arch de Triumph and a massive equestrian statue of King Jose I.
The elephants on the statue are normally a point of discussion for first time visitors to the square. It is unusual.
We continued our walk looking for the Lisbon Cathedral. On the way there, we saw the Magdalene Church. With it being Sunday, they were having services, but I still wanted to see what it looked like. We took a few photos and left quietly.
The Lisbon Cathedral was in the next block and crowded with tourists. It is the oldest church in Lisbon having originally been built in 1147 AD. Unlike many churches, it has survived many earthquakes. It has been modified, renovated and restored several times, but it is still an 872-year-old church.
The interior is quite impressive with its very high nave and ancient look to the whole building. Once again, with the service still in process, we didn’t stay long.
We were in Lisbon’s Alfama District, which is the oldest part of Lisbon. It is also on a hill. As in Porto, there were many houses covered in tile.
We were headed up that hill to visit Castle St. Jorge, which sits at the top of the hill, which meant lots of uphill walking. On the way there we saw a small church that had been repurposed into something else. But there were lots of people going to it since it was a very nice viewpoint over the city. We could see the Marina at the dock below us.
It also was just a very pretty place. The Bougainvillea and the blue tile made for a beautiful setting.
We continued walking up the hill to the castle, when we reached the outer walls. Once again, as in Amsterdam, there was an outdoor urinal. It was smaller than the ones in Amsterdam, but I got a kick out of the sign above it with a young boy taking a leak.
The walls were really tall. It would certainly help to keep out invaders. The hill itself almost kept me out.
We came to a large archway that I thought would be the entrance to the castle; but it was just the entrance to another street leading to the castle, and we weren’t the only people wanting to go there.
We had to wait in a line to get tickets, but to my surprise it went really fast.
We came to a large terrace with beautiful evergreen trees, where people were lined up taking photos of the city below.
We quickly saw why they were there. It was quite a view. We could see some of the places we had just visited like the Commercial Square and the Santa Justa Elevator.
We walked around the outside perimeter of the castle getting different views of the city. In the below photo, you can see how the castle is perched out over the city where people are leaning over taking photos.
The castle also had canons. I loved the name of the business that was nearby, Wine with a View. Most appropriate for this place with so many panoramic views of the city.
As we continued on, we could see that we were getting closer to the main castle fortress.
When we entered it, there was even more to see. This was one of the prettiest fortresses I have been to; plus with it being on top of the hightest peak in the city, there were many reasons to visit it.
I passed on going up to the upper level. I didn’t need a better view than I had already seen.
We got a laugh out of the kids being shown how to use the small ballista or catapult for throwing things at a Styrofoam wall. They loved it!
There were several statues around the castle that were photo worthy.
After we left the castle to go back to the hotel to check in, we had to walk down a whole lot of steps. They seemed to go on forever. I only had the energy to take photos of a couple of sections of them. I was not enjoying the walk down at all.
After we got settled in our hotel room, we headed back to the streets to find a light lunch. We were very close to several streets that had many restaurants. We chose a pizza place and had a delicious meal.
After lunch we were on a quest to find some monuments. During the quest we passed by the beautiful 19th century Rossio train station. Lisbon does have some amazing architecture.
We then came to Restauradores Square, with the Monument to the Restorers as its center piece. The monument celebrates Portugal’s independence from Spain in 1640 AD after 60 years of Spanish occupation.
This square was another one that was covered with gorgeous tiles.
On one side of the square was a beautiful police station building. It could use a power wash, but the beauty of it did come through the grime.
In the center of the square there were hundreds of spinning bikes. It was some type of promotion for spinning.
Close by was the Elevedor da Gloria, which is the best known of three funiculars in the city. It goes up to the Bairro Alto district which has a great viewpoint over the city.
We were soon walking on the wide tree lined Avenida da Liberdade or Avenue of Liberty. It is famous as being one of the most expensive shopping streets in Europe. On this day it was the location of a very large celebration and street market. The street was totally closed down and packed with people enjoying the beautiful weather.
There were wide tiled sidewalks on either side of the main street.
On the main street, there were electric go kart tracks, musicians and lots of food trucks, along with a myriad of other activities. I could see why so many people were there.
About halfway down the avenue is the Mortos da Grande Guerra or Monument to the Fallen of the Great War. It honors the Portuguese soldiers who fought in World War 1.
The main reason we were walking the almost one-mile long avenue was to see the monument dedicated to the Marquis of Pombal. This 118-foot-tall monument honors the man who brought Lisbon out of the devastating 1755 earthquake and tsunami that destroyed much of Lisbon. While people were shell shocked by so much tragedy, he quickly handled the crisis and began the restoration and healing of the pain. He is famous for his response to the question of “What do we do?” after the earthquake. He said, “We bury the dead and feed the living.” He did that and more and is revered in Lisbon. The statue certainly does that.
On our long walk back toward our hotel, we passed by probably the prettiest of the tiled houses I had seen.
When we were getting close to the hotel, we came upon a small shop with a line of people standing in front of it and people taking photos. I thought that there must have been a celebrity there, but it was just the shop itself. I had to wait for the crowd to disperse before I could even take a photo of it.
The reason for the shop’s popularity is that it sells a cherry liquor called Ginja. The name of the shop is Ginjinha sem Rival, which means Ginjinha without rival. That is funny in that there was another shop close by also selling Ginja, but it was not crowded. The drink is served in a very small glass. I think it cost 2€ for it; but I had to taste it. It was pretty good.
Nearby we saw a church. It was one that I had been trying to find, but somehow missed it, Igreja de São Domingos. I would try to find later, if we had time, to see the interior.
When we got to the hotel, we took a short power nap, since it had been a very physical walking day. When we were awake and ready to start thinking about dinner, we decided to go over to the rooftop bar at the Hotel Mundial. It was affiliated with our hotel and we could see it out of our window near the hotels terrace area. While walking there, in the distance we could hear music but couldn’t figure out what it was.
The rooftop bar was a great location to see the city with the glow of the setting sun; but the place was way too crowded. We had planned on having a drink up there, but there were no seats, heck not many places to even stand; so, we left. It was nice to be able to look up at the castle we had visited earlier in the day and down to the market area next to our hotel.
When we left the hotel, we found out where the music was coming from. It was some type of political protest. We got a huge laugh from the fellow pushing his son down the street in a lounge chair that didn’t have wheels. There must have been an easier way to bring the kid to the rally.
We headed to the restaurant area nearby and found a place that had some traditional Portuguese food. We went to bed early that night, since we were exhausted. I had walked over 28,000 steps, which was a new record for me. Unfortunately, with my sore knee, it wasn’t the time to be setting any records.
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