We Finish Our Cruise Visiting Portugal, Spain, France, and Italy

Heading NNE, and after an all-night sail plus another sea day (and another damned formal night!) we arrived at our next port, Lisbon Portugal. Portugal’s capital and largest city at 506,000 (2.8 million metropolitan area), it is Europe’s western-most capital and the only one that lies on the Atlantic coast.

National Palace and Gardens

For this stop, we had purchased a shore excursion that provided us with a short sightseeing tour of Lisbon, and drives to the towns of Quelez and Sintra.

Our first stop was Quelez where we viewed the National Palace and Gardens. This 18th -century palace is one of the last great Rococo buildings to be designed in Europe. ^th century to serve in the defense of Lisbon. Tired from the day’s activities, we were glad to get back onboard the ship and rest up. Still feeling a little under the weather from a recent bout with a cold, we decided to just stay in the cabin and rest up.

The gardens are extensive

Our guide described the various rooms and provided us with the family history that accompanied the palace’s use by the Portuguese royal family. While not as sumptuous as the Baroque palaces of Versailles, the palace represents the lifestyle of the Portuguese royal family at the time it was constructed.

A room in the palace

After touring the interior, we viewed the extensive gardens and grounds, before Jane found the gift store. Back aboard the bus, we headed for our next stop—the nearby town and UNESCO World Heritage site (you just knew there would be at least ONE!) of Sintra. We were deposited in Sintra’s city center and given about 45 minutes to shop and explore.

Narrow street in Sintra

The hilly, narrow streets were lined with an eclectic assortment of shops and cafes that begged exploration. Jane tried to answer the call, but soon found that 45 minutes is not a long time. She was able to procure some souvenirs before we had to board the bus. Our driver drove us to a restaurant where we would have our lunch. We had some second thoughts when we saw the restaurant’s name, Curral Dos Caprinos, or The Two Goats Corral when it was translated.

Two Goats Corral

Jane had a look of sheer terror, but Capt. Larry figured meat is meat. It turns we had a delightful meal. We dined on creamed spinach, early potatoes, veal shank, and saffron rice, followed by a delicious bread pudding and espresso coffee. And the wine flowed freely all during the meal. It was a great experience.

Jerónimos Church

Back on the bus, we headed back to tour Lisbon some more. We stopped at the iconic Jerónimos Church. Located near the Tagus River, the church is a former monastery of the Order of Saint Jerome, the patron saint of Lisbon. The monastery is one of the most prominent examples of the Portuguese Late Gothic Manueline style of architecture in Lisbon. It is classified a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Belém Tower

The church contains the tomb of Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama. We left the church and swung by another UNESCO World Heritage Site, Portugal’s Belém Tower.

Cathedral of the Incarnation

Sitting at the mouth of the Tagus River and serving as a ceremonial gateway to Lisbon, the tower was built in the early 16

One thing that we had greatly anticipated on this trip was sailing through the Strait of Gibraltar. We were disappointed to learn that we would be transiting the strait between midnight and 0200 on our way to our next port, Málaga, Spain. This lively coastal city lies about 80 miles southeast of Seville, and is the gateway to Spain’s popular Costa del Sol holiday resort region.

Inside the cathedral

The city is also the birthplace of Pablo Picasso and has several galleries featuring his work. Like most Andalusian cities, Málaga has Moorish roots which we experienced when we entered the old historic center to visit the Cathedral of the Incarnation. Constructed between 1528 and 1782, the cathedral lies within the limits defined by a now missing portion of the medieval Moorish walls. Just as we left the cathedral, it began to rain.

Rainy streets of Málaga

We scurried about looking for a café where we could get out of the rain for awhile, and finally found one that served us coffee and Spanish pastries. When the rain finally eased, we walked to the shopping district looking for bargains, before returning to the ship. Málaga is definitely a place we would like to visit again

Valencia, Spain was our next port of call, but we don’t have much to blog about. Capt. Larry’s head cold was turning into bronchitis despite his creative dosing of antibiotics.

Málaga meat shop

Jane wasn’t feeling all that great either, but she decided to join Keith and Sheila to tour the city. Situated on Spain’s east coast, Valencia is Spain’s third largest city and the biggest port on the Mediterranean Sea. Located on Spain’s southeastern coast, where the Turia River meets the Mediterranean Sea, it’s known as the City of Arts and Sciences with futuristic structures including a planetarium, an oceanarium and an interactive museum.

Serranos Towers

But of all of Valencia’s noted structures, Jane brought back only one photo—the Towers of Serranos, one of the twelve gates that guarded the Christian city walls of Valencia. Built between 1392 and 1398 in the Valencian Gothic style, this gate was used by kings to enter the city.

Square in Arles

Apparently most of her time was spent shopping with Sheila instead of sightseeing.

Merry-go-round in the square

Leaving Valencia, we sailed overnight to the port city of Marseille, France. Marseille is the second-largest city in France after Paris, and the center of the third-largest metropolitan area in France after Paris and Lyon.

Old Arles Hospital

We decided to take a shore excursion to the ancient Rhone River port of Arles, France, but Keith and Sheila decided to head out on their own, having been to Marseille before.

A van Gogh painting scene

Arles amphitheater

Boarding the bus, we learned that our group was a mix of English and German-speaking sightseers. It was going to be interesting to hear our guide do the entire tour in two languages. The advantage for us was that the English version was presented first which allowed us to move on to explore nearby surroundings while the German version was presented. Originally established as a Roman colony in 123 BC, Arles served as an important river port throughout the ages. The Dutch post-Impressionist painter, Vincent van Gogh, lived in Arles from 1888 to 1889 and produced over 300 paintings and drawings during his time there. He was also admitted to the Old Arles Hospital after the famed ear-severing incident in December 1888. Some of van Gogh’s most famous paintings were painted in Arles and the locations of the painted scenes are marked for the tourists. We toured the hospital grounds and then viewed the
Arles Amphitheater. This two-tiered Roman amphitheatre is probably the most prominent tourist attraction in the city.

Docking in Genoa

Built in 90 AD, the amphitheater was capable of seating over 20,000 spectators, and was built to provide entertainment in the form of chariot races and bloody hand-to-hand battles. We made our way back to the square where our bus was waiting. We had a scenic ride back to the ship and met Keith and Sheila for dinner.

An overnight sail landed us at our last port, Genoa, Italy. We enjoyed a farewell breakfast with Keith and Sheila who were meeting another Aussie couple for a three-week land tour of Northern Italy.

Genoa street scene

Disembarking, we found our ride to a hotel where we would spend the night. International travel schedules require that we leave Europe early in the morning, and we didn’t have time to clear the ship and make it to the airport. Naturally, our hotel room wouldn’t be ready this early unless we had paid for a room the previous night.

The inside of the church

So we checked our luggage and headed out to explore the sights of Genoa. We hadn’t wandered very far from the hotel when we came upon a beautiful church that we entered to view. On the way back to the hotel, we searched for a restaurant that looked interesting for our dinner.

The church was HUGE!

After checking in, we relaxed and freshened up before heading out for a dinner of Genoese pasta and wine. We were up early the next morning to catch our ride to the airport for the grueling, but wecome, flight back to the states.