Day 70 Lisbon

3115 steps.3123 3136. 3199 (63 ok)

Arrival on a bright sunny spring morning was around an hour late owing to strong headwinds approaching the Straits of Gibraltar, yesterday. I chose the Lisbon by River and Land tour, managing to get a good window seat on the coach, next to the central exit stairs. The trouble is, the coach keeps shutting down; I won’t be so fortunate if we have to change vehicles. Darn it! We are changing vehicles! It seems there is a “high-tech” failure. Never mind. I have just realised, this is tour group 13! We are now awaiting a replacement coach. Three guests have already “abandoned ship”, but I don’t really see the point. This is a nice three hour tour on a gorgeous spring day, and it promises to be a most pleasant final shore excursion.

Contemplating future travel projects, I am beginning to lean towards city visits by rail. It was my visit to Barcelona which “planted this particular seed”.

Oh dear! The tour guide is trying to keep up occupied as we wait for the replacement coach. There was the threat of a song, at which point, I would have bailed out. It’s now 11.30 and we are still waiting here.

The trip was very good, once the replacement coach arrived. The delay was almost two hours, but there was little evidence of discontent to speak of. As in other cities, we had glimpses of the main sights as the coach meandered through the streets of Lisbon. I recognised practically nothing from previous trips, and found Lisbon a most attractive and interesting place. A brief boat trip aboard the Opera, reminiscent of Liverpool’s Royal Iris of the 1970s, showed us the city from a riverside perspective which was extremely pleasant. Now, it’s time to contemplate, seriously, end of cruise packing. Pictures below were taken during today, and are in time order from the morning.