Lisbon Sightseeing 1

 01 July 2012

The opening photo: I keep seeing teens twined around each other draped across park benches despite the heat. The other day was really really warm and I as I stuck to the shade of the buildings, I caught sight of these two in the distance. I took a left after that and left them in peace.

***

I'd hoped to do more sightseeing than I have so far, but I keep getting caught up with chores around the boat. The non-slip areas of the deck are painted, the teak seating in the cockpit has been oiled and I'm working on cutting and polishing the gelcoat - the cockpit area first as it's usually last and therefore never actually ends up getting done.

I've also been removing the last reminders of the British weather - the lichen from the non-slip patches on the edges of the cockpit. They are now more blue then green rather than the other way around. They're not perfect, but I hope the sun will finish it off for me.

I have had one day so far in the City Centre and rather than wait for the next time, I'm posting the pictures I have now.



Before he left, Tim and I tried one of pastries that Portugal is famous for - Pasteis da Nata. It's a small very sweet custard tart, served warm. In the middle of this picture there is a sort of rolled looking bread. It is filled with sausage, meats and cheese from what I could see. That will teach me to pack a lunch. Next time, I won't. :)



The Santa Justa Elevator - I didn't go up in it. I'm saving a lot of things to do with guests when they begin to arrive later in July.



The Praca da Figueira or the Square of the Fig Tree. I've only just discovered the translation now and when I'm next there will keep an eye out for the fig tree. I'm still thrilled by the designs in the cobblestones.



Sadly, I don't think you get a true feeling for the steepness of the streets. You'll have to take my word for it, they are VERY steep.



I didn't walk up the previous street, but I did walk up this one that leads to Castele de Sao Jorge. On the lower level is a Fado Restaurant. Fado is Portugal's national music. I have heard some in passing and thought it sounded a little woeful and then I found a description from the GoLisbon website.

'The intensely melancholic songs are usually about love, woes, and pains, or express sadness and longing for things that were lost or that were never accomplished,...

So, I wasn't that far off the mark.



This is the view from Castele Soa Jorge. I'm saving visiting the Castele for later,...



... but I did go into Santo Antonio.



The interior was very dark except where the sun shone in through the top most windows. It's a very impressive affect.



Lisbon is famous for its trams, and Number 28 will take you right up to the Castele, which is how I'm getting there the next time I go. It was a long steep walk and the pretty cobble stones are surprisingly slick.

I'd only been out about four hours, but between the steep streets and the heat, I was pooped and headed back. There is a bus that goes from outside the marina to the main square - very convenient.

We're very happy with the marina. The staff are really nice and it's very secure.



They also love the marina ducks. So much so that they've build a low mini pontoon with a ramp up to the Duck House as I've been calling it.

There's another mini pontoon under the main pontoon so the ducks can have some shade. :D



And better and better, on the far side of the Duck House is the Duckling Nursery. The mother was killed somehow and they gathered up all ten ducklings and are raising them. They have food and water and I see the staff check on them regularly.



They were quite happily paddling about in the water until I approached, at which point they piled themselves up in the corner. I took my photo and left.



Lastly, a shot of Larus and our new neighbour Leava. The French couple on her are in France now visiting family but when they return in a couple of weeks, they will set about preparing Leava for a trip to Antarctica. They've been just about everywhere else.

It rather puts what we're doing into perspective. I am, however, quite contented to stick the the middle latitudes for the foreseeable future.

Cascais to Marina Parque das NaÇÕes, Lisbon

 23 June 2012

We upped anchor on the 15th of June and sailed a little and motored more up the river to Marina Parque das NaÇ'es where I'll be staying for 2 months while Tim is back in the UK working.

It's just a short famously scenic train journey from Lisbon, so I will be back.

It was a dull day unfortunately and most of my pictures are quite dull and don't do the journey justice. There is so much to see from the water. Lisbon is a hilly city with some stunning architecture. They've also kept a lot of trees which just added to the affect.



View along the River Tagus.



Belen Castle and the strange leaning building.



This is the famous howling bridge. We'd been warned about it before leaving the UK by Jack and Margaret and a German guy in Ribedao , when we mentioned staying in Lisbon, had a bit of a rant about how horrible it. He'd stayed in the marina under the bridge and at night the traffic crossing makes one hell of a racket.



This is the underside of the bridge. The cars, trucks and trains on the track underneath the road drive on a metal grid. It's all open, no tarmac so the noise travels straight down.



The Pracode Comercia, the main town square. We can get a bus straight here, Number 28, from outside the marina.



Again, the grey day doesn't do it justice.

It took about 3 hours to motor up the river and we arrived at Marina Parque das NaÇ'es, Lisbon at noon.



The marina has a dog leg entrance and gates to keep out any swell. The gates also, and probably primarily, help reduce silting which is a big problem here. The basin that the marina is in also holds the previous attempt at a marina at the northern end. It was abandoned because of silt.

They have a little floating dredger which they have going Monday to Friday. The gates are open through the day but closed every night.

Once inside it was as calm as a mill pond and free of any current.

The marina is quite new and set in a beautiful location, the site of the 98 Expo.



Marina Parque das NaÇ'es

I don't have many pictures of the marina. I got side-tracked by all the wonders around us in the Expo site. The architecture, gardens, fountains, views and shopping are quite astonishing.

I don't want to spoil the surprise for those coming to visit so I will just post a few taster photos right now. I'll get an album together soon and they can look or not as they choose.



It's about a 15 minute walk to the Vasco Da Gama shopping mall which has a supermarket as well. There are so many different ways to get there and so many different things to see that I made a point of taking a different route until I found my favourite.



I'm very partial to the fountains and the gardens.



Honestly, you can't turn around but see something wonderful and these photos are just a tiny taste.

There is also a huge area that I haven't had a chance to explore and will probably rent a bike to do that. Or take the cable car.

I write, 'I' because Tim is now in the UK. He left on the Monday the 11th. Since then I've been doing jobs and chores around the boat. The deck is now so brilliantly white that you need sunglasses to look at it on a sunny day.

I'm also working at getting to know my way around Lisbon, and today I will head into the City Centre to have a look around. Tim and I did an Open Top Bus Tour on the Sunday before he left and was a good introduction, but there is an awful lot to see.

I was all geared up to go yesterday, to try and get a camping gas cylinder exchanged, but as I was walking along the pontoon, I saw a guy walking towards the exit who was also carrying a camping gas bottle. He spoke English (thank goodness, Portuguese is a very difficult language to pronounce and even harder to understand) and I asked where he was taking his. It turned out to be somewhere closer than I was headed, and, 'did I have a car?' When he found I didn't, he offered to exchange the bottle for me. I gave him the bottle and some money and by the time he got back, I was able to show my gratitude with some freshly baked muffins for him and his girlfriend.

I think I've met her in the ladies a couple of times but she is very shy. I hope the muffins are a bit of an ice breaker.

For those interested the new bottle cost, it was 11.70 € and he said that I was very lucky. The bottle that I was exchanging for a full one was very scruffy and the woman at the shop hadn't wanted to take it. So if I had gone on my own I might have come back sans gas.

I was even more pleased that I'd had time to bake.

So, now that I don't have to lug the gas cylinder around, I will do some proper sightseeing.

And now I'm caught up with the posting and I'll be quicker with the next one. :)

Comments 3

Peniche to Cascais

 14 June 2012

Before going to bed the forecast for the next day expected even more wind and swell than yesterday and we hadn't enjoyed that all that much. But even with a bigger swell and stronger winds forecast, the wind direction was from the north and with the wind blowing off the Peniche peninsula, the sea would be less and we were determined to find the fine weather and favourable winds the weather reports kept mentioning farther south.

Happily, in the morning the forecast had moderated but we're not as trusting as we used to be, so it was with some trepidation that we set out for Cascais on the 12th of June.

With the wind behind us we decided to try the 'no mizzen' option to see how that affected the movement of Larus and we think it really helped.

This turned out to be our first sail where we thought, 'Yes! This is what it's all about.'

We were almost there and we were having the most marvellous sail, barreling along at 6 knots in comfort. 'This is fantastic,' said in gleeful tones, was a common refrain through the day. For the first time, it felt like we imagined it should.



Going like a train approaching Cascais.

As we neared Cascais, the wind was more from the beam and Tim kept muttering about putting up the mizzen because... well, we just look prettier with it up. :) I said, 'What's the point? It won't make us go any faster and we're almost there.' So we didn't.

The next day when we were walking along the coast road, and like everyone else ashore we were watching the boats sailing by. There was a mutter or two (I'm being generous here) of, 'We should have put the mizzen up.' I suspect that next time, we will.



Cascais Marina Breakwater



Larus in the most expensive marina she has ever stayed in, but we did get a free welcome bottle of wine so that makes it all worthwhile, right? I think it was 56 euros, so we quickly did some washing to get our money's worth. I'm glad we have a filter for our drinking water because that was the worst tasting water we have run across. Maybe that's why they give you the wine to drink.



Cascais felt like Disney World. It was SO pretty.



The Marina from a different angle.



The coast we sailed past the previous day.



It's very impressive up close.



I'm just itching to cycle to the beaches further up the coast. The bike lanes would make it a joy.

Tim and I have been pleasantly surprised about how attentive drivers are to pedestrian crossings. We haven't found this to be the case everywhere.

We found a lot of black and orange signs everywhere and it wasn't until the bikes and bikers began to arrive and we had a good look at the signs that Cascais was the holding the 2012 HOG Rally - the Harley Davidson Owner's Rally.



Kinda cute, arent' they?



There were Harley's everywhere! It was interesting to read where they were from on the back of their leather waistcoats.



Even on the beautiful cobble stones that decorate all the streets.

We only spent one night in the Marina, going to anchor off the beach.



It's a great place to anchor. You do have to check in at the marina before anchoring, but it's still free.



The beach.



I did go and dabble my toes in the water but it's a little bit cool still. There weren't many people swimming, but it wasn't really hot despite the sun. I expect that will change in the coming weeks.

The Jumbo Supermarket and the train station are just a few minutes' walk away if you take the dinghy to the beach, which we did.



This was one of our neighbours - Endeavour, a J-Class yacht.



We have been warned in the various sailing forums that theft can be a problem, so we have I very good system for locking the outboard to the dinghy and the dinghy to the boat as Tim is demonstrating. :)

We stayed at anchor until Friday, the 15th before heading up river to Marina Parque das NaÇÕes.

Baiona to Peniche, Portugal

 11 June 2012

The plan on Sunday the 10th of June was to head for Porto and then on the next day do an over nighter to Cascais, which is near as damnit to Lisbon, however the forecast was reasonable - WNW 5 to 6 becoming variable and then light from the SW before backing NW again - and we were going so well, we decided to do our over nighter that evening and stop at Peniche.



See? Going well, if a bit cool, drizzly and overcast.

Well, we've both agreed that this was our second worse passage ever.

I'm having to go back and check the log and at the time we made our decision to carry on to Peniche, the wind was from WNW Force 5, we had full sail set and were happily cruising along at all most 6 knots.

When the wind veered, as expected, to the SW and became lighter, we motored sailed to keep our course. We could have headed more inshore but with the wind coming around to the NW again later we would have had the same problem trying to head west in a NWesterly.

We were not the only ones, there were a number of yachts in the vicinity doing exactly the same thing.

Looking at the log now, the winds never got up - it was only a 6 as we arrived at Peniche, but it really was the most uncomfortable passage. The sea state was quite rough and it was a REALLY unpleasant sail.

Tim thinks that the wind was too far behind us for the mizzen, and rather than balance the jib it caused the stern to slew around, so that as well as going from side to side and up and down over a rough sea, we were going back and forth too.

It was such a lot of effort to do anything.



A clipped on (to the lifeline) and braced Tim, putting up the Portuguese courtesy flag.

I should have put down my thoughts nearer the time but by the time we got into Peniche at a quarter to two on the 11th, we were knackered.

Fishing is the primary industry in Peniche and as we were mooring up one of our neighbours told us to put our as many fenders as possible because of wake from the fishing boats. He described a wave the previous day that had come right over the pontoon.

The pilot book suggests that you tie up along the inside of the pontoon, but it was completely taken up by local boats. We put all our fenders out and by the time we left a 0615 the next morning, we'd experienced not a ripple. We did see a host of fishing boats approaching the harbour as we were leaving and I wondered if it had to do more with their arrival rather than their departure.



The seagulls looked like confetti.



All the fishing boats tow a smaller boat but we never saw how they used it when hauling in the nets. It is hard to image doing anything useful in something that small while bouncing around in the middle of the night in a rough sea.

The speed limit in the harbour is 3 knots but you know what it's like getting off the motor way, 30 mph can feel very slow. And hey, they're locals.

We had a brief walk around Peniche.

It made me think of pictures you see of Cuba or Mexico, grand old buildings with the plaster falling off the walls.



They're rather beautiful in their own way.



I think it would be a place worth visiting and would have liked to explore but we were eager to get to Lisbon where we could finally relax and spend a bit of time really sightseeing.