European Odyssey: Lisbon

After slurping coffee and waiting for our turn to be called -- we belonged to the city tour plus hotel drop-off group -- we said goodbye to the Explorer and boarded our buses for a Saturday glimpse of Lisbon.

The first stop was at Edward VII Park, named for the King of England upon the occasion of his visit in 1902. The family tree of European royalty was heavily intertwined in that era; the King of Portugal was Edward VII's second cousin. The park commands a view down to the river Tagus/Tejo.

The upper terrace of the park, from where picture was taken, hosts monuments to the Carnation Revolution. This combination of a military coup and civil resistance overthrew the longest-lasting European dictatorship on April 25, 1974. No lives were lost, as our guides proudly explained.

A bicycle tour company was getting ready for weekend business; it was about 9:00 AM when I took this photo.

Then our bus took us to the Belém district, on the banks of the Tagus near the sea. Our first stop was adjacent to the Belém Tower Garden, or Jardim da Torre de Belém. It is in the lower left corner of this map, to which I will refer more than once.

The Belém Tower, bottom left in the map, was built in the 16th Century to participate in the defenses of Lisbon. It is considered an example of Portuguese late Gothic, or Manueline, architecture. We'll see more of that later.

Near the southeastern corner of the Jardim is a monument to the seaplane Santa Cruz, which flew the last leg of the first  crossing of the South Atlantic in 1922. The feat required three planes; each flew an independent leg, but the first two ended with that plane lost through a forced landing in the ocean.

We boarded the buses and scooted a few blocks to the Monument of the Discoveries, or Padrão dos Descobrimentos, located in the bottom right corner of the map. This version -- there was a temporary one earlier -- was built between 1958 and 1960. This places it during the right-wing dictatorship of Salazar, which perhaps explains why it was not to my taste. It seemed too earnest and self-consciously monumental; it could have had a cousin in Leningrad. One can go inside it, but Joan and I didn't.

Between the monument and the street is a terrace with a 50-meter (164 foot) compass rose made of various marbles, a gift from South Africa.

In the center is a world map showing the Portuguese voyages of discovery (click to enlarge).

A zoom-in on one section.

We reboarded our buses to cross the busy double avenue and visit the Jerónimos Monastery, in the upper right of the map. It's not labelled, but it's the complex with two courtyards next to the word 'Jerónimos' in the label 'Rua Jerónimos.' Here is the main entrance. As you can tell, we have here another defining example of exuberant Manueline architecture.

The major attraction of the monastery, and I do mean major, for it was packed with people on a Saturday morning, is the Santa Maria church within.

The Manueline style of this church was different enough from what we had seen before to intrigue me. The columns seem barely sturdy enough to hold the soaring roof, and their decorations are influenced by the Portuguese maritime discoveries of the 16th Century. The above photo was taken from the second story, seen here.

Zooming in on the chancel and apse,

Tombs of the royal and notable are here, such as this one of Vasco da Gama.

Here are royal tombs in a side chapel.

The monastery's cloister is behind the church.

The walkway above is a good example of the embedded motif, with two Romanesque (rounded) arches within a similar, larger arch. Decorations abound.

Fanciful gargoyles stand watch over the gaps between the stories.

This  gallery maintains the architectural themes of the monastery, plus some azulejos tiles.

In the few minutes remaining for this stop Joan and I tried to sample the Pastéis de Belém, famous pastries of Lisbon whose original bakery was just around the corner. It being Saturday just before noon, however, the line was long and undulated down the street, forcing would-be pedestrians to wiggle through. Instead we returned to our bus, one vehicle among dozens by now. Our destination was the Lisbon Sheraton, where we would overnight before our return flight.

After checking in, we walked to the Gulbenkian Museum to spend the afternoon. We started with lunch in the cafeteria, and then began to explore this eclectic collection, acquired by the early 20th Century oil magnate Calouste Gulbenkian over the course of his lifetime. The museum reflects his wide-ranging tastes and includes different cultures (Islamic, Far Eastern, Egyptian, European) and categories (illuminated manuscripts, rugs, ivories, precious metals, ceramics, paintings, furniture, sculptures). The museum's moderate size was well suited to our available time and energy.

We walked back to the Sheraton, and later had dinner at the hotel's restaurant, the Panorama, located on the top floor. The food was excellent, and the nighttime view of Lisbon and its lights was as good as any floor show.

Early the next morning we took a taxi to the airport, which is located within the city. Arriving and departing airliners had been a common sight the previous day.

The taxi driver knew where each speed enforcement zone was and would drop below light-speed for each one. We reached the airport with plenty of time to spare.

According to the final daily program from the Explorer, we had covered 2,467 nautical miles in crossing Europe from Copenhagen to Lisbon. We had seen an astonishing amount of culture and history, and had happy reunions with good friends.

It was a great trip.

European Odyssey: Porto

Porto, at the mouth of the Douro River in northern Portugal, has been settled since Celtic and Roman times, and today is the second-largest city in Portugal. We had walked extensively yesterday on the Islas Cíes and around Monte Real Castle in Baiona, but today buses were necessary. After disembarking from the Explorer we began our visit with a city tour, driving by churches, statutes, and such.

Our first stop was to visit the Romanesque Porto Cathedral, whose origins stretch back to the 12th Century.

One of the interior photos that I can identify is this one, a bas-relief of Jesus with St. John the Baptist.

The cathedral today reflects a mix of elements added between the 14th and 18th Centuries.

Here is the main altar.

And another chapel. Don't worry, I won't post a photo of every single one.

This connected room has been redone in the baroque style.

The cathedral has an adjoining cloister.

The cloister walls have some fantastic examples of azulejo, painted tin-glazed ceramic tiles. It has been a Portugese art form since at least the 15th Century, adopted from the Moors.

Our guide pointed out this protected Madonna statue, supposedly one of the few in the world that shows her pregnancy.

Stepping outside, I took this picture across to the tower of the Clérigos Church -- an excellent navigational landmark for the tourist.

Just a couple of blocks from the church is the Dom Luís I bridge, built in the 1880s, whose top deck now supports a metro line and a pedestrian walkway. It was a fabulous way to soak up some sunshine and admire the view up and down the river Douro.

Our view looking north from the bridge:

Below there was river traffic, mostly replicas of the rabelo boats that in decades and centuries past carried people and, more importantly, port wine. Now, in modern times, they are primarily a tourist business.

Both banks of the river are occupied by berths.

Zooming in on the above picture, we can see several types of boat, including a sculling shell near the top (click to enlarge).

There was time enough for a few more photographs when Joan and I returned to the cathedral. This statue is of Vimara Peres, declared the first Count of Portugal in the 9th Century.

Another cityscape photo, this time zoomed in.

A residential building with azulejos tiles.

This modest door did not appear to be associated with anything meaningful, though the name was curious. But now I'm thinking it is merely the back door to a reputable store.

Then it was time to reboard our buses. The Episcopal Palace is adjacent to the Porto Cathedral, where the buses waited.

At our next stop, we did not enter the Church of St. Nicholas, but it certainly rated a photo with its tiled exterior.

We visited the Church of São Francisco, across the street from St. Nicholas. I have no images from inside, however. Photography of the richly gilded interior was forbidden, but there are plenty of photos on the Web.

And while in Porto one must take a picture of the statue of Henry the Navigator, born in Porto in 1394 and considered the patron saint of the Portugese Age of Discovery.

Then it was time to cross the Douro and visit the Sandeman cellars of Porto. The Sandeman wine and port business was started in 1790 by the Scotsman George Sandeman, and in 1811 he purchased the cellar that we were touring today.

Our guide's costume is that of the trademark character, the "the Don," which was created for Sandeman in 1928.

Port wine is a wine in which the fermentation is halted early by the addition of distilled grape spirits, known as aguardiente. This leaves some sugars in the wine, and boosts its alcohol content to between 18%-20%. The port wine is then stored and aged, often in wooden barrels. Lots of barrels.

Each with chalk markings ...

A larger vat.

After the tour, we were treated to a port-wine tasting. Just as with unfortified wines, there are many styles: ruby, tawny, white, and special categories. Here are our tastings, which were ruby and white.

There was time to stroll along the pedestrian walk along the river before our buses arrived. There were gifts and trinkets being sold from tables and small stalls,

but my attention remained with the river.

Zooming in on the far bank, the large vessel on the right is the Spirit of Chartwell, which was the royal barge for Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee celebration before being sold to a Portugese tour company. It now hosts week-long excursions on the Douro River.

A heron calmly studied us from a barrel.

Then we returned to our ship for lunch. The path to and from the Explorer, at the Leixões docks, led through an older wooden terminal that is unlocked only when a cruise ship has arrived. This old train and its diminutive passenger car caught my eye.

I paused and took a photo of the plate on the side, and thereby stepped into a small adventure on the Web.

In researching relevant links for this post, as I do for most posts, I googled for "Societe Anonyme des Forges Usines & Fonderies de Haine St. Pierre," and the Wikipedia entry for this company (defunct after the Second World War) did not have this locomotive in its list of surviving engines. I had never attempted to edit a Widipedia entry before, nor submit photos, but I felt compelled to contribute even if the article was written in French. Eventually I worked my way through the thicket of Wikipedia editing commands, options, and icons. Now you will see our Porto/Matosinhos engine on the page.

After lunch we sailed away for Lisbon. The beachfront at Matosinhos includes a sculpture called She Changes, which looked interesting enough from offshore, a bit like a radio astronomy dish,

but it also serves as the center of a traffic roundabout. Our buses had driven by it in the morning.


As we sailed south that afternoon we were treated to talks by Lisa Abend, Time magazine's Spain correspondent, and by Catherine Karnow, a National Geographic photographer. There are few empty hours on a Lindblad Expedition unless you choose to carve them out for yourself.

That evening was the Captain's farewell cocktail party and dinner, and packing. Luggage had to be outside the cabin door by 6:00 AM, so packing all the stuff that had sprung out of our bags during the last two weeks could not be put off any longer. Each bag needed a colored tag according to your itinerary: one color for early transfer to the airport, another color for not-as-early transfer to the airport, and finally colors for city tour plus one of two hotel drop-offs, which was our plan. But that's for the next post.