Alone in Portugal

In this travel letter all that happened I did on my own since the other guys are back home in Norway. Tuesday 16/9 Børge also went home and I had to spend a week by myself in the boat.

When you like to sleep until late morning it was hard to get up to drive Børge to the airport 0500 in the morning. Going to the airport was easy enough, but going back in the right direction was not as easy, but I got there in the end and the rental car delivered back to the right person at the right time. The rest of the day I relaxed – sleeping, eating, reading and way too much time on my phone.

Lisbon

Cascais is about 25 minutes ride with the train outside Lisbon, and it was time to take a look around in this capital. Form earlier visits in different cities we have used the sightseeing bus, and it would come in handy in this city as well. I got a map with the most touristic places marked on the chart you get when you buy a ticket for the bus. I did the whole roundtrip and decided what places I wanted to see the following days. That I slept most of that morning away is no secret, so when the ride was over and I had a good dinner it was time to go home. If you’re eating out by yourself I can recommend eating at the bar, there it is often more easy to get in touch with other people out on their own.

Both Thursday and Friday I spent in Lisbon. Monument to the Discoveries was one of the first places I went to see. This is a 52 meter high monument next to the river in the district Belèm. The monument is shaped like a sail ship, and is raised for all the Portuguese that went out on the big adventures a few decades ago. Inside it is 7 floors, in one of them they show a movie about Lisbon and Portugal’s history. I was watching this and found it very interesting. From the top of the monument you get a good look around, you can see the April 25 bridge. This bridge ahs many similarities with the Golden Gate in San Francisco – and the reason for that is that it was the same company that built both of them. On the opposite side of the river you can see The monument to Cristo-Rei (Christ King) which is a 28 meters high statue of Jesus Christ – on top of an 82 meter high concrete block. This was built as a promise from the Portuguese Catholic Church if Portugal stayed out of the Second World War.

 I continued to The Bethlehem Tower, it was raised between 1414 and 1519. This is a small fortress that was built to have control of the access to the city on the river. During the years it has been used much, the Spanish used is as a prison when they occupied the country. Today it is a tourist attraction and the small prison cells are today modern toilets.

Not far away from some of these attractions you can walk into areas that I think the locals don’t want to talk too much about, buildings with lack of maintenance you wouldn’t believe was occupied, but flowers on the balcony said something else.

Friday I took the metro to Oriente Station. This is a station in Park of Nations which is a district by itself about 5 km outside Lisbon. Earlier this area was used for industry, landfill, and some other garbage. The area was completely transformed when some architects got free hands when Expo was in Lisbon in 1998. The area consists of several office buildings housing government and private business and in the middle is a big shopping centre - Vasco da Gama shopping centre. The biggest attraction is The Oceanarium, it is one of the biggest aquarium of its kind. Inside you can see more than 25 000 animals, fish and flowers and I spent some time here.

Time was also flying when I went to visit The Knowledge Pavilion, here you can play around on all different kind off installations and if it is just me or not I don’t know, but it is amazing how your brain can get manipulated to see things one way, then from another angle they look totally different.

There are also several restaurants in the area and many fountains to look at. If you wanted to have a look over the whole area you can take a gondola ride from the aquarium to the Vasco da Gama tower in the other end of the park. This is a 100 meter high tower with a restaurant on the top, but was closed due to construction.

When I got back to Cascais Friday evening I got to know several other Norwegian boats had arrived and we would all meet at the beach today. About 40 people came was there, from all ages and we had a good time until early morning.

Fog horn and more about Lisbon

Most of Saturday I spent sleeping, and 2 flies kept me awake. A fly killer, not sure of the English word, but it was something we need to get rid of these I figured out! I spent the night on some of the local pubs and bars in Cascais. It was a good night out and got to know some Romanian girls, it was easier to get in touch with them since the locals didn’t speak more English then they had to.

On my way back I noticed the fog horn just next to the marina and realized there wouldn’t be much sleep that night. The fog was thick over the marina, and the fog horn sent out a signal every 6 second. And didn’t stop until Sunday afternoon at 1600 when it finally cleared up a little bit.

Monday I again took the train into Lisbon to have a final look around. I went to see Edward VII Park – looks prettier form far away than up close, but is one of Lisbon’s most known and visited area. I wanted to see The Santa Justa ”elevador”, but the line to get up there was too long for my concern, so I skipped it. It was built in 1902 and is 45 meter high outdoor elevator it was ok to just have been there.

I continued up some steep roads to the Castle of St George. From the lookout I had great view of the city and my timing was good so got to see the sunset from there.

Caldas da Reinha

Now it was a week since Børge went home and it was time for me to leave the boat for a couple of days too. I took the express bus north to Caldas da Reinha were I met a friend of mine that has a vacation house there.

I stayed there for 2 days and had a nice stay, just to sleep in a big bed with no moist sea air around was good. I got served all kind of food and also enjoyed my time by the pool.

One of Portugal’s biggest discotheque, Green Hill, was nearby, but only open Friday and Saturday. It is a place all young Portuguese and taxi drivers would know! There was also a beach not far away from there and it was huge, the water could wash in over the beach to create small lakes in the middle of the beach and sea.

Wednesday we took a ride in the valleys inland. Nice to take a look around away from the sea. The area was best suited to grow different fruits and grapes for wine. Many abandoned farms along the road as well. And a lot of wind generators were installed to ensure good supply of power, and highways in areas where it couldn’t be justified with low traffic. Also many small narrow roads that beats the roads in being small back home.

I brought a part from our anchor winch that was out of order, hoping my friend could explain the problem in Portuguese or go to a workshop where they spoke English. but my friend didn’t speak the language and at the workshop we went to, an old guy in a boiler suit full of oil and grease came out and he sure didn’t speak a word English. he used big tools fixing the cars. The ventilation inside was a cooling fan from a car connected to a battery. We managed to explain to him with hands and drawing, and when we came back the job was done, and he did it for free

Thursday they drove me back to Lisbon and when I got back to the boat Børge was back too and the dinner was just on the table, perfect timing!

The days on my own in Portugal were over. I didn’t know how it would be, but I had a good time…