European Circle Tour # 12: Touring Outside of Lisbon

Our port call in Lisbon lasted barely 9 hours, and that was a real shame. I can think of few cities better suited to an extended two-day port call, not least because the ships dock right in the heart of the city, and not miles away as in Barcelona or (worse) in Rome or (worst of all) in London.

 

But you take what you can get. Having spent time in Lisbon on my last too-short port call, in 2022, I opted for this visit to broaden my horizons. There are many smaller towns around the city that could well be worth a visit, but two in particular draw the attention of many visitors. In part, this is because both of these places can be easily reached by train from Lisbon, so taking a day-long coach tour or paying an eye-watering taxi fare are not the only options.

 

It's also down to the differences in character between these two places, although both are fascinating. The first is the old central district of Sintra, a smaller town up in the hills. Small, old, crammed with shops, cafes, bakeries -- in a phrase, a tourist trap -- but a beguiling and lovely one all the same. Sintra has CHARACTER, all in caps and bold faced italic like that!

 

The old centre of this village gives you the feeling that it didn't so much grow as it happened by accident, with each successive builder squeezing in wherever they could get a footing. Streets that are wide enough to be used by motor vehicles are a rarity.

 

 

Yes, the alleyways in the old part of Sintra really are that narrow -- and that steep. The fiendish white and grey cobblestones which become slippery like ice when wet are everywhere too. When the alleyways get really steep, they've built in some steps -- but the steps still slope underfoot, just not quite as steeply as the alleyway would slope without steps. Truth be told, Sintra is definitely not the place for you if you are unsure of your footing or dependent on crutches, canes or wheelchairs. 

This is a good place to mention that Princess Cruises (and Holland America, my other favourite line) rate the tours they sell as Easy, Moderate, or Strenuous. This one was rated "Strenuous", and Sintra was the reason why. We had one couple on our coach walking slowly with canes, but I don't think they got far at all. The steep cobble-stoned alleyways are not for the faint-hearted or mobility-limited.

 

Among the alleyways, you can come across architectural treasures. Our tour guide started us on the square in front of the Palácio Nacional de Sintra. It's a good focal point, and was just a short distance up the road from the spot where our coach let us off. The oldest parts of the palace were built by the Moors back in the twelfth century.

 

Other architectural details and treasures pop up here and there. In order to see them, of course, you have to be able to take your eyes off the cobblestones and shop window displays. As in so many places in Portugal, brightly coloured paints and patterned ceramic tiles are popular methods of finishing the exterior of a building.

 

Oh, those shop window displays. Tempting, and in some cases downright dangerous. I've been known to gain 2 kilograms (nearly 5 pounds) just by looking into the window of a Portuguese bakery.

 

 

The people in our group who tried the Queijadas gave them a unanimous two-thumbs-up!

 

I automatically thought of a friend of mine who loves to wear colourful socks.

 

My late husband, Massi, would have made a beeline for this shop as soon as we got off the coach, not because he saw it but because he sensed its presence in some other mysterious manner -- and he probably would have bought one of these cute ceramic cats. "Cats call me, you know." That's what he used to say and it happened more than a few times in our travels together.

 

 

We had an hour of free time to explore the historic district. Then we returned to our coach and drove south, some twenty minutes or so, to the city of Cascais on the north shore of the ocean bay into which the Tagus River empties. 

Interlude: Language Lesson

Our guide took a few moments to explain to us how Portuguese uses stressed and unstressed vowels, also known as long and short vowels. He didn't mention the other key detail, but Portuguese pronunciation tends to soften many hard consonant sounds by combining them with an "h". The results sounds a bit slushy by comparison with languages that make extensive use of hard consonants. Which brings us to the city we were now going to visit.

 

"Cascais" is pronounced, more or less, as "Kesh-KYYYY-sh." That's how the guide said it, and I'm willing to take his word for it.

 

Now that we were at the shore of the ocean, Cascais was a much more level place, and that made it a lot easier to walk and really get going, which I did. The main landmarks in Cascais are the expensive seafront hotels -- some very modern, some quaint and old-fashioned but beautiful none the less.

 

Most of these hotels are grouped around the plaza in the centre of town which faces the bay and its beach. Perfectly turned towards the south, and the heat of the sun, it's no wonder that Cascais is such a popular area for a beach getaway from the big city. Even on an early spring day with the temperature only reaching 20°C (68°F), the beach had its sunbathers and there were even some people a bit later on getting right into the water and swimming or relaxing at length. Of course, the water could very well have been warmer than the air!

 

And yes, the sunshine was very warm and pleasant. As a by-the-way hint, cruise lines love to identify the tour groups on their tours with these stickers. It's best to wear utilitarian clothes which can't be damaged in any way by the stickum on the labels. I once had one become permanently glued to a synthetic t-shirt, and couldn't remove it.

 

One feature of Cascais, which you also can see in many public spaces in Lisbon, is the placement of the light and dark cobbles in this peculiar wave pattern. My guide in Lisbon back in 2022 swore that some people would get motion sickness from walking on them. 

My most lasting memory of Cascais, without a doubt, was the flower gardens. The city really puts an effort into maintaining these public gardens with their diverse varieties of colours and patterns in the blooms. Most of all, it reminds me of going to Niagara Falls during the spring and summer, and seeing the similar range of floral displays in the parks along the river. Here, the city's coat of arms is ringed by a flower display at the main traffic circle in the centre of town.

 

 

Later on, I saw these flowers bedded out at the square behind the beach.

 

Those dazzling colours were on my mind for much of the remainder of the day.

 

Lisbon was our final port call of the cruise. The tail end of the nine-day voyage was a stretch of two days at sea, from Lisbon north past the Bay of Biscay, and then up the English Channel to the port of Southampton. The Bay of Biscay and the English Channel are both names respected by sailors and experienced cruise passengers alike as notorious generators of rough weather. In this case, we had no real problems at all. We certainly encountered waves with heights of 5-6 metres (16-20 feet) but they are at enough of an angle that they didn't affect the ship much at all, just the odd moment of quivering. Of course, a cruise ship like Emerald Princess, at 113,000 tons, takes a really big wave to make it begin to shift in any noticeable way. For anyone concerned about weather and motion, bigger is better -- and time of year matters a lot too. Spring and summer are much more user friendly than fall and winter. Here is a sample white water picture from the first sea day.

 

By the evening of the same day, the sea had calmed down even more, the sky remained clear, and we got a glorious sunset at sea after dinner. I can think of no better place to enjoy a sunset spectacle. It's one of the biggest reasons I'm always looking for another cruise!

 

Once we docked in Southampton, I transferred straight up to a favourite hotel at Heathrow Airport, ready to fly home to Canada the next day. Looking forward to my next trip, and to having you join me on it!

 

 

European Circle Tour # 11: Sailing Into Lisbon

Our final port of call before the end of the cruise was in Lisboa (Lisbon), the capital city and biggest port of Portugal. While Lisboa's history is believed to date from centuries before the beginnings of Christianity, back to the arrival of the Phoenicians, there's very little to see today that's any older than 1755, except in the old hilltop Moorish district known as Alfama. That's due to the great Lisbon earthquake which combined a massive tremor with a 20-metre or higher tsunami to destroy almost all of the city.

 

All of Lisbon's long and rich history goes to make this one of the most beautiful cities in the world to arrive in by sea. This first post of two for our one-day port call takes you through the approach by the Emerald Princess up the broad estuary of the Tagus River (spelled as "Tejo" and pronounced "Teh-zhu" in Portuguese). This approach is a truly remarkable experience which land-based tourists can never share. Our sail-in was blessed by uncommonly beautiful weather in the late morning.

 

Coming in from the ocean, you pass by extensive areas of modern apartments and industries. The first notable landmark comes right at the point where the estuary narrows down dramatically. This is the famous Torre de Belém, seen from angles that visitors on land can never get.

 

As the wide river mouth narrows down, it's a natural spot for the small boat to come out to meet the ship, bringing the harbour pilot to guide us in. Here's the pilot boat heading back to shore. The modern, angled building the boat is heading towards is the headquarters of the port authority. It's slanted at even more of an angle than this view makes it appear. Take that, Leaning Tower of Pisa!

 

Right at this point, we pass the famous Monument of the Discoveries. The people  standing around and looking up at it give you a good idea of the size of this sculpture.

 

Just past the Monument, you get periodic views of the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, a landmark religious site and museum.

 

 

All this time, the view ahead of the ship has been dominated by the 25th of April Bridge. The bridge was originally named after the man who commissioned it, the dictator António Salazar. The name change came after the remnants of Salazar's Estado Novo regime were overthrown in a bloodless coup six years after his death, an event now celebrated each year on the 25th of April as Liberation Day, but also popularly referred to as the Carnation Revolution. The bridge was the first fixed crossing of the Tagus, and carries both road traffic on the upper deck and trains on the lower deck.

 

As we approached the bridge, the air was filled with a strange, unearthly humming sound which got louder and louder as we drew nearer, sounding reminiscent of the weird chanting music from the light show in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

 

It's caused by the sound of car tires on the two centre lanes of the bridge, which consist of open steel grid decking rather than solid pavement. It's a feature that makes a long suspended span like this much less resistant to wind and therefore less likely to sway dangerously in stormy weather.

 

After passing the bridge, we drew nearer to the centre of the city and the dramatic Praça do Comércio, as much the monumental centrepiece of Lisbon as the Arc de Triomphe is of Paris. 

Beyond the plaza, we come to the hilly Alfama district. The summit of the hill is marked by the fortress of São Jorge (Saint George). Among the crowded streets, you can pick out what looks almost like another fortress, the twin towers of Lisbon's cathedral. The far end of the hilltop is crowned by the monastery church of São Vicente da Fora. Nearby stands the proud, tall dome of the Panteão Nacional, burial place of famous and notable people.

 

And it's right at this point, just below the Alfama, that the ship arrives at the sizable cruise terminal and ties up to the pier below the Panteão Nacional. Welcome to Lisbon!

 

I didn't actually spend any time in Lisbon on this visit, opting instead for an out of town tour to the west, visiting the unique historic town of Sintra and beach resort of Cascais. That visit will be covered in the next post. For those interested in a detailed look at the city itself, here's a link to the blog post from my first visit to Lisbon, back in 2022. Enjoy!

 

 

Major City, Hit and Run

 

European Circle Tour Part 9: A Great and Mighty Wonder

Our third port call was at Barcelona, a city which I have visited and enjoyed before. This visit showed that Barcelona isn't always the sunny spectacle which online photos would have you believe. I tried going out on deck for a while after breakfast, and I got one brief sunny break between showers -- but it was still windy and chilly. Definitely not "Sunny Catalonia!"

 

During one brief moment in the morning when there was a bit of sun before the rain, I stepped out on deck and took these two pictures. Check out all the lined-up taxis and tour coaches outside our terminal -- and then multiply that by five times for the five cruise ships in harbour in Barcelona that day. 

The unfavourable state of weather continued until about 2:30 in the afternoon. By that time, many passengers had given up and were slogging back onboard, wet, chilled, and unhappy. And this is where I got my lucky break. My tour was leaving at 3:15 pm, and in fact actually left about 5 minutes early because all 17 passengers on a full-size tour coach had already joined the party. Nice -- the least crowded tour I think I've ever been on in my entire cruise career. But we didn't stop in Barcelona. We drove right through the city and out into the Catalan countryside on one of the main highways.

 

This was our destination:

 

Photo by Josep Relalias -- own work.

This extraordinary jagged mountain (mountain range is perhaps more accurate) is called Montserrat -- the Catalan name comes very close to the English translation of "serrated mountain." The highest peak of the range stands 1,236 metres (4,055 feet). Yes, there are taller mountains in many places. But since Montserrat rises with almost no preliminary ascent straight up out of the Catalonian coastal plains, the relative height as you approach it seems much greater.

 

I wasn't at all surprised when we had arrived in one of the deep canyons, and our guide told us that this place, this mountain, had been a site of sacred activity time out of mind. It's a powerful, dramatic landscape. The power seemed to me to manifest in an an irresistible urge to look up, to direct your eyes towards the sky where so many religions have placed the abode of divine power. You don't even have to be especially religious to want to follow the classic phrase from Psalm 121, "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills." Montserrat will likely find you doing just that. It certainly had that impact on me, the instant I stepped off our coach.

 

 

Our actual destination was a monastery, built onto a sizable ledge of rock between two of the higher peaks. The Benedictine Monastery and Sanctuary of Santa Maria has existed here in one form or another at least since the 1200s (confirmed by an official survey) and is reputed by tradition to have been around since the 800s. Due to the frequent and surging tides of warfare in this region so close to the Pyrenees, the monastic buildings have been destroyed and rebuilt on multiple occasions. What you see today is almost entirely constructed in the 20th century. It's still an active monastery.

 

 In addition to the monastery proper, there is a music school, an assortment of shops and restaurants, and three mountain railways: one rising to the crest of the peak on the left in the last picture, one dropping down a short way to a chapel in a deep valley, and the third -- the newest -- going all the way to the base of the mountain to make for easier access. That newest railway is the ideal access to Montserrat for anyone nervous about driving or being driven on narrow, twisting mountain roads.

 

Different places along the road and walkway from the parking areas to the monastery proper offer some spectacular views looking down from the mountain as well.

 

Our visit included a tour of the monastery itself. We were first taken into the courtyard which faces the main facade of the church.

 

 

Before entering the church proper, we went up a narrow winding staircase to view the pilgrimage shrine, housing the Virgin of Montserrat, an old carving in wood of the Virgin and Child. Based on the style and features, the statue is believed to date from the early medieval period, before the year 1000. The faces and hands are believed to have become discoloured and blackened over the centuries by chemical reactions to paint or by smoke, and have been covered over or touched up on several occasions with black paint. Many Catholics, and even Catalans who are not conventionally religious, venerate the Virgin of Montserrat's miraculous interventions. She is the patron saint of the Montserrat monastery, together with Sant Jordi (Saint George), and Catalans refer to her affectionately as La Moreneta ("the Little Dark One").

 

In front of her is a glass window facing out over the nave of the abbey church. 

 

 

In this interior view from the rear of the church, you can see the window with the Virgin of Montserrat in the background, high above and behind the main altar of the church.

 

We also attended a brief audio-visual show about the nature of the monastery, the life of the monks, the choir school, and other aspects of this community.

 

There's a strong legendary link between Montserrat and the tradition of the Holy Grail, a relationship emphasized in Richard Wagner's final and most mystical opera, Parsifal. Wagner even designed the sets for his hall of the Holy Grail Castle based on the design of the Montserrat church.

 

I would have loved to ride the funicular up to the high ridge above the monastery and back, but it's rather slow and runs only three times an hour, and I was afraid I wouldn't have enough time before I would need to be back at the bus. However, here's an internet photo which shows the entire complex viewed from the upper end of the funicular line.

 

By Richard Schneider - aufgenommen, fotografiert von Richard Schneider, CC BY-SA 3.0, httpscommons.wikimedia.orgwindex.phpcurid=587310

 

Our start time for the drive back to the Barcelona cruise port was 7:00 pm, and it could have taken quite a while if the traffic had been bad. It wasn't. We whipped right through the city and down to the cruise port with no delays at all, and arrived beside the ship in 59 minutes. That meant we were actually early enough for me to do a quick change and have a proper dinner in the restaurant, as usual!

 

The monastery of Santa Maria de Montserrat is a truly remarkable institution in a truly remarkable place. I'm very glad I took the opportunity to go there and see both the mountains and the shrine for myself.