May 12, 2012: Lisbon, Portugal (Day 2)
	May 10, 2012: A Sea Day
	Return to the Index for Our Cruise to Europe

From the Ship's Log:   Friday, May 11, 2012 Lisbon, Portugal 11:39am      Pilot embarked 12:42pm      Safely docked

Today we dock in Lisbon, Portugal, the second port on this cruise. We will stay docked here tonight, and will leave tomorrow. I am not exactly sure why, although there is a lot to see and do in Lisbon.

Unlike most other ports, the ship will not arrive at the dock until noontime; one reason is that it takes the ship a good while to go up the Tagus River estuary to the dock at the city of Lisbon; the dock is a good fifteen miles from the open ocean, and the ship goes quite slowly up the estuary.

This afternoon, we'll take a bus tour that will introduce us to the city of Lisbon, take us out to the beach resort town of Estoril, and then bring us back to the harbor with a stop at the famous monument to Prince Henry the Navigator. We think that the introduction to Lisbon will enable us to be on our own tomorrow as we explore the city by ourselves, figuring out the local transportation as we go.

Arriving in Lisbon

Yesterday was a sea day; although the Azores are part of Portugal, they are a good 900 miles from the Portuguese mainland:

I wanted to see us arrive in Lisbon, and especially see the trip up the Tagus River estuary, as we were supposed to go under a large suspension bridge, but since we weren't supposed to start up the estuary until well after nine in the morning, I had time to sleep in just a while. Still, I got up before the other guys, and went up on deck to see where we were.

When I got up on deck, I found we were just past the Fortaleza de São Lourenço da Cabeça Seca, built on a small island in the center of the entrance to the Rio Tejo (Tagus). Navigational lights were being displayed from the fort in 1693, perhaps much earlier. The island and fort were located about 2 miles southeast of the Fortaleza de São Julião da Barra that we passed a few minutes later (after Fred had joined me up on deck). A short time after that, we passed the official entrance to the Lisbon harbor (the Tagus Estuary) and the ultramodern Harbor Administration office. As soon as we passed it, I noticed that Harbor Administration had sent out the cutter with our harbor pilot. Assuming that he came on board a few minutes after this picture was taken, that puts the time at about 11:30AM.

The next point of interest that we passed was Belém Tower (in Portuguese "Torre de Belém," or the Tower of St Vincent). It is a fortified tower and a UNESCO World Heritage Site (along with the nearby Jerónimos Monastery) because of the significant role it played in the Portuguese maritime discoveries of the era of the Age of Discoveries. The tower was commissioned by King John II to be part of a defense system at the mouth of the Tagus River and a ceremonial gateway to Lisbon. The tower was built in the early 16th century and is a prominent example of the Portuguese Manueline style. The structure was built from lioz limestone and is composed of a bastion and the 100 foot, four story tower. It has incorrectly been stated that the tower was built in the middle of the Tagus and now sits near the shore because the river was redirected after the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. In fact, the tower was built on a small island in the Tagus River near the Lisbon shore.

Next, we passed the former Palace Santa Catarina, which is now an art museum and popular viewing spot right on the estuary. From a distance, we could view one of the modern sculptures outside the museum.

And shortly after that, we passed the Discoveries Monument. I won't go into detail here, as we stopped at that monument at the end of our bus tour this afternoon. In this view of the monument, you can see the ornate Archaeology Museum in the background. And a bit further on, we passed the huge Museum of Electricity. By this time, MaryEllen and Jim and Greg had also joined Fred and I here on the bow of the Noordam, and Fred snapped a picture of the rest of us.

Fred took some interesting pictures of the shoreline as we passed along, and you can have a look at them by clicking on the thumbnails below:

I didn't take as many individual pictures, but you can also look at a few of mine:

I also tried my hand at another panorama, this time stitching four pictures together. Because the boat was moving and the light was changing, the transitions are not very subtle, but you can have a look at it below:

The last landmark we'd pass before docking is the "April 25th Bridge."

April 25th Bridge - Stock Shot

The "25th of April Bridge" is a suspension bridge connecting the city of Lisbon to the municipality of Almada on the left (south) bank of the Tejo (Tagus) River. It was inaugurated on August 6, 1966 and a train platform was added in 1999. Because of its design and coloring, it is often compared to (and mistaken for) the Golden Gate Bridge. In fact, it was built by the same company (American Bridge Company) that constructed the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (but not the Golden Gate), also explaining its similarity in design. With a total length of 7,000 feet, it is the 21st largest suspension bridge in the world. The upper platform carries six car lanes, and the lower platform carries two train tracks. Until 1974, the bridge was named Salazar Bridge (Ponte Salazar).

I hope you'll pardon my use of a stock shot here; there was no vantage point from the ship or from our tours of Lisbon that could have afforded a picture of the bridge in its entirety (although below you'll see an attempt to stitch one together). Fred did get one picture of almost the entire bridge but it was from a long ways away and the morning weather wasn't very good.

From the late 19th century there had been proposals to build a bridge for Lisbon, but none was constructed- at least not at this point. But in 1958 a new Government commission recommended building the bridge, choosing the southern anchor point adjacent to the recently built monument to Christ the King (Cristo-Rei). In 1960, a United States consortium won the bidding competition, and construction began on 5 November 1962. Forty-five months later (six months ahead of schedule) the bridge was inaugurated on 6 August 1966. Presiding at the ceremony was the President of Portugal, and the bridge was named in honor of a former Prime Minister.

The bridge cost four lives (out of 3,000 workers), 2,185,000 man-hours of work and $225 million in current dollars. In 1974, Portugal saw the "Carnation Revolution," and the bridge was renamed the 25 de Abril Bridge, the day the revolution had occurred. (Some people call it "the bridge of the angry bees" for the sound you can hear when you are near it- tires going across the bridge's open gratings.)

Both Fred and I made movies and took pictures as we passed under the bridge. It's impossible to say which one's I should include here, so because pixels are cheap, I'll include both. We'll start with Fred's movie and pictures (be patient while his movie shows you some of the Lisbon shoreline along the Tagus):

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Click on the thumbnails below if you want to see some of his pictures:

I stitched together four pictures taken from the exact center of the stern try to get the whole ship and the entire bridge into one picture. I had to take the pictures quickly, because the ship was moving and the proportions were changing every second. The end result wasn't too bad:

Now for my movie and pictures:

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Click on the thumbnails below to see some of my pictures:

Quite often, landmarks like this one are used in television shows and movies; think how many times you've seen the Colosseum in Rome, or the San Francisco cable cars in movies. But I can only find one movie in which the April 25th Bridge was used. Here is a still from that movie (you know it's this bridge because you can see the monument to Christ the King on the hill in the background):

I am sure you won't guess the movie from the still; there are no identifying characters or objects- other than the bridge. You might not even guess the movie from the clip (Please excuse the first eight seconds of the clip- I have no idea what happened. And if the aspect ratio seems wrong, please excuse that, too!):

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As we came under the bridge, I could tell that the ship was moving slower and slower. The reason becomes apparent when you look at where we docked:

We actually docked at an industrial dock just a mile or two south of the center of Lisbon. There is another cruise ship dock further up the estuary and closer to downtown, but perhaps ships as large as ours can't fit there, or maybe the berths there were taken. We will see some views tomorrow of those berths, and, indeed, there were ships there.

By a quarter of one we were all docked, and the three of us had some lunch in preparation for the 1:30PM departure of our bus tour to Lisbon and Estoril.

A Stop at Parque Eduardo VII

We met in the Vista Lounge at 1:30PM, and fifteen minutes later we were off the ship and headed to the bus parking area for our tour bus. In the aerial view you saw earlier, I should point out that the gangway led directly into the cruise ship terminal building and from there to the parking area. We didn't have to wander through the containers and equipment piled on this industrial dock.

The bus wound its way through the city, heading towards the viewpoint at the top of Parque Eduardo VII. Fred tried to take some pictures through the bus windows, but they were heavily tinted and the brighter it was outside the more the green tint showed up. But I did include six representative pictures here; click on the thumbnails below to view:

The trip to the park took about twenty minutes, and on the way we saw lots of places we'd like to visit tomorrow. Eventually, the bus turned onto Alameda Cardeal Cerejeira, parked and let us get out for a short stop in the park. (I think its interesting that in the aerial view below, you can easily see the portion of alameda Cardeal Cerejeira that appears in my photograph.)

Named after Britain's Edward VII who visited the city in 1903 to reaffirm the Anglo-Portuguese alliance, this is the largest park in central Lisbon. With neatly clipped box hedging flanked by mosaic patterned walkways, it stretches uphill from Marquês de Pombal Square to a belvedere at the top with fine views.

In the square, you can see the monument to the Marquis of Pombal, the prime minister responsible for the rebuilding of Lisbon following the Great Earthquake in 1755, showing him standing on a column with his hand on a lion (symbol of power) and his eyes directed to the downtown area that he rebuilt.

The big attractions within the park are the two estufas, the hothouse (with the more exotic plants) and the greenhouse ("Estufa Fria") filled with tropical plants, ponds, and endless varieties of palms and cacti.

At the top of the slope, on a small esplanade marked by four large pillars, stands a modern monument that commemorates the 1974 Revolution. The monument was created by João Cutileiro, a Portuguese sculptor. It consists of a fountain in the shape of a rock, supported by large struts and set in a basin with a crumbling wall and broken columns.

I made a movie from our vantage point near the 1974 Revolution monument, and you can watch it with the player below:

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I took two more good pictures of Fred and Parque Eduardo VII before we had to pile back into the bus for our trip to Estoril. You can click on the two thumbnail images below to have a look at them:

A Visit to Estoril

The territory of Estoril has been occupied at least since the first millennium, owing to its climatic conditions and favourable environment; the Phoenicians, Romans and Arabs all selected this area for its strategic place in Western Europe, and there are remnants of all these civilizations here. With these occupations, Estorial inherited a rich cultural patrimony, architecture, toponymy, habits and customs. The region was finally brought under Christian control in 1147, during the Reconquista.

Owing to its strategic place, the Estoril region was intimately linked to the Portuguese Age of Discovery, and all the dynamic social and cultural upheavals that it originated. Its solid fortifications are a testament to the innumerable attacks by Spanish, French and English pirates and privateers; the many forts that dot the barrier between land and sea are symbols of the resistance and battles that secured Portuguese independence and national interests. At the end of the monarchy, it was in the waters of Estoril that many sought refuge and escape; aristocrats, nobles and other exiles escaped through the ports along the Estoril coast to escape the Republican forces.

In the hilltop enclave of Monte Estoril is the Verdades-Faria Museum, built in 1917. In 1942, the building was dedicated to the support of the arts and artists, and was the beginning of a lively artistic community- to which many artists gravitated.

During the Second World War, the region was the centre of spies and diplomatic secrecy, situations that provided the region with a cosmopolitan atmosphere and sophistication. It became an international tourist destination both during and after the Second World War; during that time, several dignitaries and exiles came to Estoril: the regent of Hungary lived and died in exile here after the Second World War; the Infante Juan, Count of Barcelona (father of Juan Carlos I of Spain) and the King resided in the territory, as did Umberto II of Italy and Carol II of Romania. It was also in this location that former Portuguese dictator António de Oliveira Salazar had a summer house. It was he who ordered the construction of the E.N.6 motorway, in order for him to quickly travel by car between Cascais and Lisbon with fewer stops- and less chance he would be easily recognized in transit (as many were murderously unhappy with him).

While we took a newer expressway from Lisbon to Estoril (the A5), we did return on the E.N.6 (now known as the Avenida Marginal) and saw much of the oceanside scenery. Our trip to Estoril was about an hour each way.

Again, Fred found that the tinting on the bus windows ruined most of the pictures he tried to take, but if you can ignore the green cast to the picture, he got a very good one of an ancient aqueduct- still functioning, we are told.

We got to Estoril in about an hour, and the bus parked alongside the Gardens of Casino Estoril. The Casino is the largest casino in Europe, and during World War II was reputed to be a gathering spot for espionage agents, dispossessed royals, and wartime adventurers. It was the inspiration for Ian Fleming's 007 novel Casino Royale. We would be exploring on our own for a couple of hours; from the bus, our tour guide led us south to the corner of Avenida Aida and Marginal de Cascais- a busy, four-lane street. There, she showed us the underground passageway to the beach and gave us a time to be back at the bus. The three of us took the passageway, and soon found ourselves at Tamariz beach.

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One of the first things I did was make a movie; watch it with the player at left and it will orient you to the beach area.

We were on a walkway just above the actual beach and below a row of buildings that might have been either shops or summer rentals. Towards the west, we could see the city of Cascais off in the distance. Looking east, Fred could see a breakwater behind me that looked as if it might offer good views back this way, so we planned to go out there. I guess the thatch umbrellas on the beach have been there a good while; you can even see them on the aerial view.

We could see, at the eastern end of the beach, a building that looked like a castle. We didn't know what it was, but we are going to walk in that direction anyway, so maybe we'll find out. We headed east and at the end of the beach, turned for another look west towards Cascais.

Just at the eastern end of Tamariz Beach stands, we found out, Forte da Cruz, or Old Fort of Santo Antonio da Cruz, a former fortress that protected the Bay against invaders. That function became obsolete in the 19th century, and so in 1894 it was bought by financier Joao Martins de Barros. He transformed it into a villa named Chalet Barros. It has, apparently, been well kept-up, and the outside is rich in colorful Gothic detail.

The breakwater began in front of Forte da Cruz, and we started walking out. As we began to get out on the concrete walkway, we began to get good views of most of Tamariz beach. Click on the thumbnails below to see a couple more shots I took from out on the breakwater:

Fred took a number of good pictures while we were out on the breakwater, and you can have a look at some of them if you click on the thumbnails below:

I tried another of my massive panoramas, stitching seven pictures together this time to get a 180° view around from the breakwater. Again, the sky is difficult to smooth, but you can look at the result in the scrollable window below:

We walked back in to the shore from the breakwater, and then continued walking eastward. We wanted to find another way up from the beach to the Marginal de Cascais so we wouldn't have to go back the way we came. At one point, Fred took a picture looking back west of Greg and I, and immediately after I returned the favor with a picture of Fred and the view eastward. At one point, we passed a very interesting residence, which was up above the beach atop an interesting retaining wall made of boulders.

Just before we reached the ramp back up to the street, we passed a very colorful tiled wall, where the various tiles had different fish and other sea creatures baked onto them. While Greg was taking a picture (see left), Fred got a couple of good close-ups of the tilework, and you can have a look at them here and here.

We got back up to the Marginal de Cascais and began walking westward to get back to the place the tour bus was parked.

Along the way back, Fred was snapping lots of pictures, and I picked a few of them to include here. They are views of the architectural detail on some of the buildings we passed, and one picture of the rail line that links Estoril and the city of Lisbon. Click on the thumbnails below to look at these pictures:

It took us only a few minutes to get back to the gardens on the ocean side of the Casino Estoril.

When we got back to the gardens, we had about a half-hour before we were to be back at the bus, so Fred and I wandered across the area for a while. Down by the Marginal, there was a nice little fountain where Fred had me kneel down for a picture. And out in the middle of the area was a statue of Fausto Cardoso de Figueiredo. Estoril was born in 1914 because of this one man's dream, and it was to become the most cosmopolitan holiday spot in Portugal until the rise of the Algarve. Fausto helped develop the transformation of the region, mainly Tamariz Beach, and Estoril Casino.

We were back on the bus in plenty of time, and it headed off back to Lisbon, this time following the coast road. Fred took a number of pictures through the bus window, but sad to say the tinting made everything green again. So we'll skip over those candid shots.

The Monument to the Discoveries

When the bus arrived back in the western part of Lisbon, it made a stop at the Monument to the Discoveries.

The Monument to the Discoveries is located on the north side of the Tagus River estuary, where ships departed to explore and trade with India and the Orient. The monument celebrates the Portuguese Age of Discovery (or Age of Exploration ) during the 15th and 16th centuries.

The monument was conceived in 1939 by Portuguese architect José Angelo Cottinelli Telmo and sculptor Leopoldo de Almeida as a temporary beacon during the Portuguese World Fair opening in June 1940. It represented a romanticized idealization of Portuguese exploration. It was originally intended to be temporary and indeed, in 1943, it was demolished. In 1958, the government promoted the construction of a permanent monument, and it was completed in 1960. It was formed in cement and rose-tinted stone, and the statues were sculpted from limestone excavated from the region of Sintra. The new monument was an enlarged version of the original to celebrate the fifth centennial of the death of Infante Henry the Navigator.

There is a large plaza with an inlaid map of the Portuguese voyages of discovery (more details below) and, opposite the square and across the Avenida de Brasilia motorway, is the Square of the Empire and behind that the Jeronimos Monastery, Belem Cultural Center and the green-spaces of the Garden Vasca da Gama (you can see a picture of these features, taken through the green-tinted bus window here).

The monument itself is a 171-foot high slab taking the form of the prow of a caravel (ship used in the early Portuguese exploration). On either side of the slab are ramps that join at the river's edge, with the figure of Henry the Navigator at the top overlooking the estuary.

On either side of Henry, and behind him on each ramp, are 16 figures (different on each side) representing figures from the Portuguese Age of Discovery. These great people of the era included monarchs, explorers, cartographers, artists, scientists and missionaries. Each idealized figure is designed to show movement towards the front (the unknown sea), projecting a direct or indirect synthesis of their participation in the events after Henry.

There is an interior space that we didn't have time to go into. There is an auditorium with space for 100 people, exhibition halls and four multipurpose rooms. Normally, the auditorium hosts a multimedia exhibition on the history of Lisbon. The top of the monument (reached via an elevator or stairs) offers views of the Tagus river, the Belém neighborhood and its many attractions, including the Belém Tower and the Jerónimos Monastery, which date from the Age of Discovery.

The two aspects of the Monument that are of the most interest are the carved figures on the Monument itself, and the "compass rose" in the square in front of it.

I thought the sculpted figures were pretty amazing, although I didn't realize at the time that there were groups of figures on both sides of the Monument. I just never got around to the eastern side (although Fred did and you can see a picture of the figures on that side here). On the west side I found that I had to get back so far to get them all in that each figure was quite small, and I lost a lot of detail. You can see some of this detail in the picture Fred took at left of the bottom three figures from the west side of the Monument. From left to right, these figures are Prince Peter, Duke of Coimbra (son of King John I of Portugal), Queen Philippa of Lancaster (mother of Henry the Navigator) and Fernão Mendes Pinto (explorer and writer).

Fred took some additional pictures of the sculpted figures in closeup, and one from the bus of the entry to the inside of the Monument. Click on the thumbnails below to have a look at these pictures:

So what I thought I'd try to do would be to photograph the frieze in sections, and then put the sections together later. The result was quite acceptable, although it would have been better had I been able to get closer to the frieze and take more pictures. Anyway, you can have a look at the result below:

Of course, you probably know who all these folks are, but just in case you don't, here they are, all nicely identified:

In case you are interested in who these folks are, here is a brief description of each:

Prince Peter, Duke of Coimbra	Henry the Navigator's brother, and the most well-travelled prince of his time
Queen Philippa of Lancaster	Mother of Henry the Navigator
Fernão Mendes Pinto	Explorer and writer
Friar Gonçalo de Carvalho	Spiritual advisor
Friar Henrique Carvalho	Spiritual advisor
Luís de Camões	Renaissance poet who celebrated the navigations in the epic Lusiads
Nuno Gonçalves	Painter
Gomes Eanes de Zurara	Chronicler
Pêro da Covilhã	Traveller
Jácome de Maiorca	Cosmographer
Pedro Escobar	Navigator
Pedro Nunes	Mathematician
Pêro de Alenquer	Navigator
Gil Eanes	Navigator
João Gonçalves Zarco	Navigator
Fernando, the Saint Prince	Henry the Navigator's brother
Prince Henry, the Navigator

The other interesting aspect of the monument plaza was the inlaid map of Portuguese discovery.

The square in front of the monument was a gift of the South African government. The main feature is the 160-foot diameter Rosa-dos-Ventos (compass rose), executed using different types of marble. Designed by the architect Cristino da Silva, it includes a Mappa mundi that is 50 feet wide, showing the routes of Portuguese carracks and caravels during the Age of Discovery.

I guess I have gone a bit overboard in my efforts to put lots of pictures together (although you'll see a good many more panoramas later on for this cruise) because what I thought I might try was standing over the mosaic section by section, taking pictures of each, and then stitching them all together so I would have a composite picture of the whole thing- as if I had been able to float over it and get it all in.

I ran into two problems. First, it was tough to get enough of the mosaic in without my feet as well to keep the number of pictures to some reasonable number. I might have overcome that given enough time, but time was the other problem. I got this idea just a few minutes before we were called back to the bus, so I ended up hurriedly taking a series of pictures working my way from Portugal and Spain down the coast of Africa and around the Cape of Good Hope to Madagascar. But I did end up stitching these pictures together, and trying to fill in the areas I didn't cover.

The result wasn't nearly what I had hoped, but if you want to look at it, use the scrollable window below:

Well, the bus was calling, so we all reboarded and headed back to the ship. This brought our first day in Lisbon to a close, but we will be here again tomorrow, and look forward to walking through Lisbon at our own speed.

You can use the links below to continue to the album page for different day.

	May 12, 2012: Lisbon, Portugal (Day 2)
	May 10, 2012: A Sea Day
	Return to the Index for Our Cruise to Europe