The city of Vasco de Gamma-Lisboa!

Lisbon, a small city and eminently do-able. There is a "hop on and off" bus which we took and saw basically all the monuments in the City. There are the requisite few museums and old buildings, palaces and the like and tourist shopping etc. Aunt Becky had a nasty cold which she picked up from a thoughtful woman who sneezed in the elevator on the ship WITHOUT COVERING HER MOUTH! euuwww! A number of passengers were sharing this cold...

We rode the entire route of the bus because there were very few buses and if you hopped off, chances were slim you would be able to hop on again. The port area and sea side area of Lisbon are well maintained and beautiful. It is the Atlantic side, so the water is cold and rougher than in the Med. We ate lunch in the main plaza in town. Katy had pasta (of course), Greg had brochettes of cheese and bacon (yum!) and Aunt Becky had bacalao. Bacalao is salt cod that has been re-hydrated and prepared in a number of ways and is the national dish of Portugal. Aunt Becky's special selection was a lovely and tender filet of bacalao that had been baked in the oven with a tomato sauce with olives. We cruised the patisserie for dessert and had small custard tarts that are also the specialty of the region. (Like egg custard in a puff pastry tart shell). Greg and Katy liked them, Aunt Becky had no sense of taste and didn't much like the texture! Tartes de nata were what they were called.

After lunch we wandered around looking for pottery, another specialty of Portugal and found a great shop were we bought a few pieces and arranged to have them shipped back. Then we scampered back to the shuttle bus stop and headed back to the ship.