Thursday 8 August 2013

Day 7 - Lisbon

31.07.13

We set our alarm for the first time this holiday, not too early, 8:00am! It was another full day at shore. Sylvia and Hughie came off the ship with us today. After breakfast we went to Deck 6 to exit, we had a little delay just waiting for people to disembark (everyday on board is a changeover day.) Charlie was fine, he was watching the suitcases coming off the carousel! We could see there was some Hop on Hop off buses just across the way from the ship so Sylvia and I decided that was what we were going to do! We sat on the top deck and plugged our earphones in for the commentary.
 
 
We took the red route. It was nice on the bus but not very interesting unfortunately. We did see some statues and a couple of buildings but it didn't enchant us.
 



 
That was until we saw the fortress and we hopped off! (Sylvia and Hughie stayed on board.) On the commentary it told us about a replica aeroplane that was built to exact scale and I'm sorry to say I cannot remember what it was to commemorate and can't find any information on the internet neither. It was good to see all the same.
 

The fortress was just along from the aeroplane. The Belem Tower was built as a fortress in the middle of the Tagus in 1515-21 and it was from here that the caravels set out to discover the trade routes.
 
 
 
After an ice cream stop we hopped back on the bus and completed the red route passing by the monastery.
 
 
There was a changeover point and by some crazy notion we decided to take the blue route too! There wasn't as much to see along the blue route so we spent quite a bit of time just driving through bushy streets and dusty roads. We did see the Expo area though which was held in 1998.
 

 
At one point around the expo area we spotted at cable car ride but it looked quite far away, we didn't know the start point for it so wouldn't have a clue which stop to get off at and by now we had 2 tired children, as much as we liked the idea of it we decided it wasn't do-able.
We boarded the ship again at 4:30pm and headed up for afternoon tea. Once we started sailing again Hughie and I headed up to deck 12 to take some photos. We had seen the replica of Christ the Redeemer a few times during the day but it was at this point that I took my best photo of it.
 
 
 
It was carnival party night in the kid's club and there was to be a dance show put on for 'grown ups!' So off Charlie and Courtney tootled after dinner. Straight after dropping them off we headed for the Cotton Club to ensure we had a good seat! We were early so had a treat! Cocktails!
 
Sylvia and her 'Sex on the Beach'
and I had 'Magical Island'
 
The children arrived and were all dressed up, they looked amazing! The kid's club is so good, no wonder they all love going so much! They performed a couple of dances for us, Charlie and Courtney had a fabulous time!
 

 
 
The kid's club were then going to the theatre but none of us fancied the show so we collected them and went to have a walk on the top deck.
 
Sylvia and Hughie.
'Dance like nobody is watching' So cute!
 
As we were near to the self serve restaurant we called in for a coffee before retiring to bed.
 
 
 
 

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