International Travel with a Four Year Old – Day 11: Lisbon, Portugal

Today started out a little shaky, literally. I suppose we should probably expect it now that we are now settled in a much bigger body of water than the Mediterranean. We all woke up somewhere around four a.m. to some turbulent waters. Drawers were opening and shutting on their own. The bed was shaking quite a lot. It was pretty difficult to get back to sleep, and that kind of started us off on an energy deficit as we began our journey into Lisbon.

I didn’t have a lot of expectations for Lisbon. I have heard that Portugal is a haven for expatriates, so I was curious if Lisbon would grab us. Knowing no Portuguese, where in Italy, France and Spain we could get by on the barebones of polite conversation, I also felt more like an outsider than anywhere else on our trip so far.

Add that to the fact that it’s not necessarily the cleanest city (Kiley and Rob said it was like a slightly safer, slightly cleaner San Francisco), and that some of the walking is up steep hills, I have to say that it all adds up to being a place Jodie and I couldn’t really see ourselves coming. It’s not bad, it just isn’t really a place we would live.

As far as what we did today before we got too tired and went back to the ship, the first place we went was their Pantheon building atop a steep hill. Then, we went in and of course we had to climb all the way up to see the terrace. That was a decent amount of steps, but nothing like St. Peter’s or the Sagrada Familia. At the top, we got plenty of good pics.

Here’s one from the top. You can obviously see our ship from here, but in the distance to the right on the horizon, you can also see the statue related to Christ the Redeemer. This one is called the Sanctuary of Christ the King.

Here’s another pic:

As you can tell, Declan didn’t inherit the fear of heights that I had (and still sometimes have). It was a neat building and well-worth the 8 euros that we spent for the three of us to go in.

After the Pantheon, we went off in search of a place to find the regional favorite pastries, called pasteis. They are a custard-filled pastry, and I highly recommend them. I got two.

I also got a port-wine flavored croissant that was absolutely amazing. I didn’t really taste the port, but the croissant itself was a delicious consistency and it was sticky and buttery and it had just been put out when I got it. Definitely a highlight for me. The regular croissant is on the left, the pasteis and port croissant is on the right.

We decided to head back down to get to the ship so we could relax. It’s possible that in two days we may have to skip the Azores, if the weather is too windy. We have heard of them doing that before. It would be really neat if instead we hit a Caribbean port city before Florida, but I don’t think they will do that. We will see.

Declan did a good job walking a bunch today, and we are back relaxing now. Well, Jodie is trying to relax and meditate, anyway. Declan is walking about the small stateroom just using his imagination. We will probably send him to the kids club today so he has some fun. Tomorrow is our second “at sea day,” and I think it’s welcomed as we are starting to get a little fatigued from all this adventuring. We are still blessed, however, and haven’t forgotten how lucky we are to be out here.