Lisbon, then Home!

Hi, everyone! After four days of island-hopping, it was time to head to our final cruise destination, Lisbon Portugal. That took an entire day at sea!

I made sure to get to afternoon tea one last time! We got our favorite spot to sit, right by the windows! My nut bar treat was yummy and I said goodbye to my favorite servers.

Grandma and Grandpa and I all had Big O points to redeem from the Art Scavenger Hunt. The time to do that was right after tea! When we took our points down to the Marina Lounge, there was already a long line of people waiting to do the same thing! On the last two cruises, Grandma had enough points to get Grandpa a long-sleeved shirt, but they didn’t have any in Grandpa’s size. This time, they did! We had points left over, so Grandma got a pair of socks, too.

The day at sea was Grandpa’s birthday! I helped the cabin attendant put up decorations while Grandma and Grandpa were at dinner. Then Grandma and I went on deck to watch one more sunset. It was cloudy and very windy!

The next morning, we were docked in Lisbon! Grandma and Grandpa planned to stay one night in Lisbon before we flew home. We got up early and took a taxi to a hotel. From there, Grandpa had arranged a private tour to Sintra, an inland resort town. The big attraction in Sintra is the Palace of Pena, a romantic castle on top of a hill. It’s so popular that the number of visitors is restricted with timed tickets. We had to walk up a steep driveway to get to the entrance in time!

The Palace of Pena looks older than it is! There had been a small monastery on the hilltop since the 1500s, but it was mostly destroyed in the Lisbon earthquake of 1755. Almost a century later, King Ferdinand II of Portugal bought the site with his personal funds and built a romantic castle there as a royal summer residence. The design is a mix of styles, including Moorish ones.

The first part of the tour route through the palace was the two story Manueline cloister — part of the original monastery.

After that, we visited the residential rooms for members of the royal family. Many of the walls were decorated with painted designs, and some of those needed restoration! I saw one artist repainting a wall as I went by!

The next part of the tour route took us outside to the balconies! I could see all the way to the ocean! The ticket-holders for the next half hour were already lining up below us!

From there, we went back inside to some of the public rooms! There was a grand ballroom for royal events with a fancy chandelier. There were stairs up to a tower and down to the kitchen! We ended up on a rooftop with Moorish arches around it.

After we visited the palace, we took a walk in the gardens around it. First we walked to the very corner of the gardens, High Cross. That was another steep walk on a shady path!

We were meeting our guide at Valley of Lakes — all the way across the gardens from High Cross! We passed the fern garden on the way. There were lots of small structures in different styles along the path. One of them was even in the middle of one of the small lakes!

Next, our guide drove us to Cabo da Roca. That’s the place on the coast of Europe that is farthest west! There are nice views to both north and south from there. I made friends with some wildflowers in the meadow.

On our way back to Lisbon, we stopped at a famous wind-surfing beach, Praia do Guincho! Our guide said a scene in a famous movie had been filmed there! It looked like there was lots of wind, but our guide said the wind was usually even stronger! Then we drove through Cascais, a resort town on the shore. We were in a traffic jam next to St. Sebastian’s Tower. At high tide, the Atlantic Ocean flows up to the base of that building. Our guide said the bridge we were on was the only one over the Atlantic Ocean!

Friday morning, we took another taxi to the airport. Guess what? I made another cow friend there! Our airplane was parked far away from the terminal. We had to take a bus from the departure gate to the airplane and climb a portable stairway to get on board! We had a nice view of the Vasco da Gama bridge after we took off.

The flight was mostly over the Atlantic Ocean, and there was a lot of ocean to fly over! Most of the way, there was cloud cover, too! After we landed in Toronto, Grandpa drove us back to Fairport. That was a very long day! When we got home, I told Katie’s lion all about our trip. We watched sunset together!

Saturday, Grandpa did some shopping and brought home local strawberries. I was glad they were still around when we got back! On Sunday, Grandma and Grandpa took me out to the bay. We watched sunset at the Point.

Today, Grandma took me on another cruise in a much smaller ship. I got my first kayak ride of the season! We paddled up Clark Creek. There are some branches in the middle of the breach in the beaver dam. I don’t know whether that’s the start of a repair or not. The water level last year was higher, so they could have been there and underwater then.

Love,

Lion-san