Madeira and Canary Islands Cruise - Part 4 - Lisbon

This is the last part of our cruise adventure and it now seems long ago as we've been back over 2 weeks now.  The last leg came after a day at sea and the weather was noticeably colder as we headed north from the Canaries.  Approaching Lisbon the ship, Oceana, had to sail in the River Tagus and go past a few recognisable landmarks that I recognised from in Lisbon back in 1970.  The bridge that crosses the river, had been renamed being the 25 April Bridge.  There was also the Belem Tower and the monument to Henry the Navigator. The last two are now UN Heritage sites.

 Belem Tower

 Henry the Navigator

 25 April Bridge looking towards Christ the Redeemer statue

Another view of the bridge with a plane flying over

When landing in the port we were booked on an excursion around the city by coach with a vintage tram tour.  The old trams are quite short as the streets in the city are very small and twisty with only just enough room for the tram and no other vehicles! While we had our ride we had the traditional sweet custard tarts with a small glass of port.

The end of the tram tour took us to the Basilica da Estrela, a really large, impressive church.

Around the corner at the coach pick up, we saw a lot of other tram services coming and going but this tram (below) wasn't going anywhere - its an ice cream kiosk! That's not too bad a photo seeing as it taken through a glass window.

Another stop was this Cultural Square which has a museum and art gallery amongst its buildings and we were free to explore for a short time.  On our wanders we came across this Oriental structure (arch, pergola?) and waited for the young couple to finish taking photos before I took some

 And we took a silly selfie just to show we've been there!

We loved the mosaics on the pavements and walkways, and this was just a small bit of the mosaic in the square 

 And some in the city centre

Our coach dropped us off back at the terminal but we walked into the city centre and had a wander around.

 We didn't go inside as there was a long queue for the Santa Just a elevator, the back leads out to streets at a higher level

 St Nicholas Square with its Christmas market

A last look as we headed back to the ship. By now the blue skies from earlier in the day were replaced by dark clouds as the weather was changing.

After 2 rather rough sea days we came into the calm of the English Channel and disembarked at Southampton.  This was the photo that I put on Facebook (from the buffet restaurant on the ship so excuse the reflection) of a really dark and wet Southampton which continued that way for the rest of the day.

So that's it - for us a cruise is a good way to 'dip a toe' into places and to be able to explore a little later.  David and I would like return visits to Madeira and La Palma in the future and would probably not do another holiday so close to Christmas though, but then that's because of our anniversary being in December which is what we wanted to celebrate.   Trying to get ahead before we went and the catching up after we came back was a bit stressful, but we got there in the end.  

As you will probably guess I like Christmas decorations and it was interesting to see how other countries have the same recognisable Christmas icons (tree, baubles, lights, etc.) but put their own way of displaying them.  It was a pity the ship sailed late afternoon from each port so we couldn't see the lights.

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This is my 700th post since starting the blog, which I've reached just before the end of the year! 

Next month is New Year so I hope to do a reflective post and look forward to my aims for the year ahead.