World Cruise - Day 41 and 42 - Sea Day and Portugal

Day 41 was a Sea Day. Always nice to have a break in between ports.

Day 42 was a bittersweet day – our last port of call before our disembarkation in Tilbury, England.

Portugal is definitely on my Bucket List, but our stop here is only 6 hours (5 hours if you count when you actually get off the ship, and when you have to be back on). Not nearly enough time for such an amazing place.

Leslie and I planned to both wear the shirts that we bought at the Dead Sea, but Leslie decided she didn’t like how hers looked. I made her take a picture with it on, before she took it off. (lol)

We decided on a Cruise excursion that would take us to multiple places, so we could see as much of Portugal as possible.

We took a bus through the amazing town of Lisbon.

Our first destination was a popular old town village resort, known as Sintra. The city sits on top of a mountain, and people go there to escape the heat in the summer. True to its form, it was cloudy on top of the mountain, but sunny as soon as you left town.

We learned from our tour guide that Portugal is known for a few things, their baked goods, and their port wine. Of course, we had to try both. We went to the first café and ordered a pastry called a queijada, and some port wine. Both hit the spot!

Luckily, we had free time to roam the city, and I loved its charm, its stone covered sidewalks, and its cork (Sintra is also known for its cork). I bought a cork purse and a cork tree ornament to satisfy my cork obsession.

We then drove toward the coast to visit the beaches of Praia do Guincho where they are supposed to have some of the world’s biggest waves.

Driving along the coast, we arrived at the town of Cascais where we had some more free time to roam the streets. All the sidewalks are covered with the same Portuguese limestone that covers the boardwalks of Rio di Janeiro in Brazil. I wish we had more time here. The sidewalk cafés looked so good. We also walked over to the beach, where there were sunbathers, boats, and a castle or fort (who knows – they are everywhere).

On our ride back, we passed by the residential town of Estoril, the Golden Gate Bridge (2nd pic - same builders as the one in San Francisco), and Christ the King (again, 2nd pic - similar to Christ the Redeemer in Rio).

On the sail away, we got better pictures of the Bridge and Christ the King statue. There was a big barbeque by the pool for the sail away – again, it was bittersweet.

I'll do one more post for our last 2 Sea Days, disembarkation, and travel back to the US. I'm sad it's almost over.