Please excuse the typos.
Monday, April 8, 2024 – We did our last walk from Rich Steve’s Portugal book, as tomorrow we head home.
This walk started in the plaza I remembered best from our first trip to Lisbon about 23 years ago. It is a huge plaza on the Tejo River, which is near to where the cruiseships dock. We can actually see a ship a short distance from where we stood along the river. The plaza is called Praça do Comércio and has a huge statue of King José I and Lisbon’s Arch of Triumph.
Another view of the Arch:
Leaving the plaza, we walked through the Arch to São Julião, a small church which was built to blend into the grid plan of streets after the 1755 earthquake.
We walk to another church, St. Nicholas. It faces a little square, but the entire street side is covered in tiles. The church made extra income by leasing their street facing side to businesses, and you can see the storefronts.
The next square we visited was Praça da Figueira which had been the site of a large hospital destroyed in the earthquake. In one corner is the Confeitaria Nacional which has a cafeteria on the second floor, recommended by Rick Steve’s in his book. So, we stopped for lunch!
After lunch, we continued our walk to the Church of São Domingos. This church was rebuilt after the 1755 earthquake and was the site of two royal weddings in the 1800’s. It was severely damaged again by a fire in 1959. There’s black soot still on the walls and you can see the damaged walls. The fire totally took the roof which has been replaced.
Rick Steves writes about “ginjinha” bars which is a favorite Lisbon drink. It is a liquor made from ginja berries (like a sour cherry), sugar and brandy. We pass by the oldest ginjinha bar, a hole in the wall, and Dave and I pop in thinking we would sample this liquor. However, we are watching the server washing the glasses with no soap – basically just rinsing them after the last customer – not very sanitary – and decide to pass….so no ginjinha for us!
The next square is the Rossio Square which is very near to our hotel, and the Rossio Train Station. It has an elongated shape and 2,000 years ago it was a Roman racetrack. There are lots of stores in this area as well as the National Theater and the Sardine Store we saw previously! More of the optical illusion Portugeuse tiles.
We are planning to go to a restaurant outside our hotel tonight. There are certainly plenty of choices! We checked out a few of the menus and think we found one that looks good 🤞. We have to be in bed early because our taxi to the airport is picking us up at 6:30AM, and with 2 stops, we expect to land in Tampa at 9:00PM. With a 5 hour time difference (9:00PM Tuesday night would be 2:00AM Wednesday in Lisbon), it will be a very long day.
This will be my last post this trip unless something exiting happens!
Saturday and Sunday, April 6-7, 2024:
Saturday – We disembarked the ship on Saturday morning and took a taxi to our hotel, Hotel Avenida Palace, which Dave picked because it is right next to the train station. Of course we could not check in right away, but they did let us check in about noon. They upgraded up to a junior suite (!), but it is an old hotel and while very nice, it is elegant in an old fashioned way. We have a view of a lion from one window.
From another window we have a long view of a monument.
We did one of Rick Steve’s shorter walks from his book on Portugal, which let us wander around Lisbon a bit. We started out and did not realize we were suppose to take this trolley uphill…so we walked☹️.
We visited a park , Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara, with nice views over Lisbon, but it was so packed with people that we could not get a good picture.
Next, we visited a church, São Roque.
Outside the church was a statue of a lottery ticket salesman. Supposedly rubbing the ticket in his hand is good luck.
The walk took us past several old eating establishments.
Other sights along our walk…
My guide on Friday said Santino’s gelato is the best, so when we passed a shop, we had to try some. It was very good. While sitting on a bench eating our gelato, we noticed a shop with all kinds of colored lights and what looked like circus decorations in the windows. I had to check it out…this shop sold tins of sardines! There were probably a thousand cans on the shelves, and that’s all they sold. You could buy a can with your birth year stamped on it or historical Lisbon sites or cans printed with various other things. I have to admit, to me it was a first to find this store in the middle of a bunch of upscale shops. Look at the people in this shop!
We returned to the hotel and had a light dinner in the hotel bar.
Sunday – Dave is still not 100%, but we wanted to be close to the train station so we could take the train to Sintra. It is about 40 minutes with lots of stops. The train was packed but we did get seats. Because we are fans of the TV show, “The Curse of Oak Island”, we wanted to visit “Quinta da Regaleira”.
This is an estate classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There’s a palace, a chapel, grottoes, and…an “Initiation Well” which is what we wanted to see.
The “Initiation Well” was shown on “The Curse of Oak Island” TV show because the construction of the well was supposedly done by the Knights Templar and shares construction similarities to things on Oak Island. We had to walk uphill to get to the well, and then you climb down its circular staircase to a tunnel. Following the tunnel leads to a waterfall, and then back outside.
This was our big adventure of the Day, and with Dave feeling under the weather, we headed back to Lisbon on the train.
We are slowing down and tomorrow is our last day in Lisbon and we hope to do some more sightseeing, but rain is in the forecast….
Friday, April 5, 2024 – Today we are in Lisbon, Portugal. My photographer is not touring with me today as he is not feeling his best.
As we begin our drive on our tour, we see aqueducts! These are from the mid-1700’s to bring fresh water into Lisbon, copying from the Roman aqua ducts.
Some Portugal tidbits from our guide:
-April 25 is a National Holiday celebrating the end of occupation.
-Just had an election. Government has been pretty much central for many years – Varies a little from central left to central right, but pretty much central.
-Portugal still has bullfights, but they are not allowed to kill the bull in the ring. The bull is killed, but it is out of public sight.
-Portugal had a monarchy from 1100 to 1900.
– Portuguese currently get free healthcare, welfare and education thru 12th grade. Private hospitals and education available for $$$.
Our first stop is the Palace of Queluz. The Palace of Queluz is an 18th-century palace located at Queluz, a city of the Sinetra Municipality, in the Lisbon District on the Portugeuse Rivera. Work on the palace began in 1747. Despite being far smaller, the palace is often referred to as the “Portuguese Versailles.” The palace was conceived as a summer retreat for King Jose’s I brother, Pedro, later to become husband and King Pedro III due to marrying his own niece, Queen Maria I (Pedro III and José I were brothers, so Pedro I’s daughter – Maria I – was next in line to inherit the throne). It eventually served as a discreet place of incarceration for Maria I, when she became afflicted by severe mental illness in the years following Pedro III’s death in 1786. Queluz Palace became the official residence of the Portuguese Prince João, (son of Pedro III) and his family, and remained so until the royal family fled to the Portuguese colony of Brazil in 1807, following the French invasion of Portugal. João was the second born and was not educated or prepared to be king, but when his older brother died, João became King. João is credited with saving Portugal as he moved the capital of Portugal to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Then the British saved the day by expelling Napoleon and the French. The royal family came back from Brazil in 1821.
This is the Music Room:
The room is all wood because of acoustics.
Apparently in the 1700’s, no room was designated as a “dining room”. Meals were eaten wherever the King wanted..outside, in the courtyard, in the bedroom, wherever….
But in later years, this room was assumed to be a dining room.
The ”heir apparent” and his wife had chairs opposite in this same room.
The area between the tiles were flooded so they could row boats in this artificial stream of water .
After the palace we drove to Cascais, which is basically a tourist town on the beach. We had some free time and there were many kiosks set up in the city garden and along the beach because it is still Easter Vacation until Monday. Our guide pronounces the name of the city as: “Cush kais “
After our free time, we headed back to the ship but drove through the town of Estoril.
Estoril became famous for spies. The movie Casino Royale was inspired by certain incidents that took place during Ian Fleming’s wartime career at the Naval Intelligence Division (NID). On a trip to Portugal, en route to the United States, Fleming and the NID Director, Admiral Godfrey, went to the Estoril Casino. During the Second World War, the region was a centre of spies and diplomatic secrecy, situations that provided the region with a cosmopolitan atmosphere and sophistication. Fleming’s visit to the Estoril Casino is considered the inspiration for “Casino Royale”.
“On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” was the sixth installment of the James Bond saga and was predominantly filmed in Portugal. The cast resided at the Palácio Estoril Hotel throughout 1968, and the hotel provided a backdrop for the movie.
After a drive by through Estoril we continued back to the ship, only to be stuck in a huge traffic jam ☹️. We got back about 7:30PM and ended up ordering room service for dinner.
Thursday, April 4, 2024 – We are in Cadiz, Spain, but our Google maps say we are in “El Puerto de Santa Maria”, which is from where Christopher Columbus sailed. We have a full day tour in Seville, which is about 1 hour 45 minutes from where we are docked. Our first stop in Seville is at Plaza de España. It was built for an exposition (world’s fair) in 1929. The building is in a semi-circle and is 1/2 mile of tiled fountains, pavilions, walls, ponds, benches, etc. There are 4 bridges in front of the building with water running under the bridges, kind of like a moat. There is a very large open, central area and people are taking horse carriage rides around the open area. As we wandered around, we saw that much of the building now contains government offices. So although it is approaching 100 years old, the building has been put to use.
The next stop was the Jewish quarter. As we walked toward the Jewish quarter, we passed a statue to Christopher Columbus.
He is still a very revered and popular person in Spain. The Jewish quarter had very narrow walkways and no streets. A long time ago, Seville had the largest Jewish community in Spain. In the 15th century, the Jewish people were forced to leave or convert to Christianity.
The Alcazar Palace is located in the Jewish quarter, as wealthy Jews lived close to the king. Actually, the sign above the entrance says “Reales Alcazar” because it is composed of many palaces built over many years. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Royal Alcazar was founded in the middle ages, at the beginning of the tenth century. It has Moorish architecture which over the centuries has been added to or modified, but much of the original architecture can still be seen. There are many rooms, patios, gardens, and water fountains, and a sample of what we saw is in the following photos.
In the Hunting Courtyard, they held Equestrian events and even bullfights.
Our next stop was the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Sea, better known as Seville Cathedral, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is the third largest churches in the world as well as the largest Gothic Church. It is not laid out in the traditional Latin Cross design. The style is Gothic, Moorish and Renaissance. The groundbreaking was in 1402, consecrated in 1507, and completed in 1519. According to our guide, there are many chapels owned by wealthy families that have owned them for centuries and are even buried in the chapels. The wealthy could have their own services on Sundays in their own chapel, by younger priests.
If I understood correctly, in the present day there are 3 services on Sundays at 9:00AM, 10:00AM and 11:00AM.
Here are some photos and descriptions:
Grave of Columbus’ son in floor of Seville Cathedral
I tried to translate the Latin, and while my Google translation did not make a lot of sense to me, it also seemed a little negative….
“SEE WHAT IS THE PROFIT TO SWEAT ALL THROUGH THE WORLD AND TRAVEL THREE THROUGH THE WORLD OF THE FATHER, THE NEW WHICH THE PLACE BEET RITE FORMED THE DECORATION OF WEALTH. THE GENIE HAS GOTTEN MYSELF TO LOCK YOU THE FOUNTAIN OF CASTLE
I WILL OFFER LIKE PTOLMOE WEALTH, IF IT IS THIN, AT LEAST RUNNING THROUGH THE MUMBLING ROCK
NEITHER HELLO TO THE FATHER, NEITHER DO YOU SAY AWAY TO ME”
Around the world chapel – on August 10, 1519 Magellan left with 5 ships and 234 men. He returned September 8, 1522 with 1 ship and 18 men. In an act of thanks, they prayed before this image of Santa Maria Antigua:
Christopher Columbus is also buried in the Seville Cathedral…or at least Seville claims it is him. Our guide alluded that when they got his remains, they wanted to make sure they got all of him and gathered up some surrounding remains, too….
The largest monstrance in the world, 1,047lb of silver, is known as “The Custody of Arfe”. A “monstrance” or “ostensory” is a vessel used in Roman Catholic Churches for exhibition of some object of piety. It seems they usually hold a piece of the actual body of a saint, but I do not know if that is true of this object. Maybe it holds a piece of the artist, Juan de Arfe. But it was a remarkable piece. It is prominately displayed in the Treaures Room of the Seville Cathedral. The artist, Juan de Arfe (1535-1603) was a Spanish engraver, goldsmith, artist and creator of woodcuts. He was the son and grandson of famous goldsmiths of German origin.
After the Cathedral, we had lunch at a restaurant named Placentines. I only took a picture of the dessert. We had dishes of potatoes with tuna, potato salad and pasta in tomato sauce with seafood.
After leaving the restaurant, we walked down to the river and passed the bullring before boarding our coaches back to the ship.
We were so exhausted we just ordered room service and crashed in our suite! We do gain an hour tonight which will be wonderful! We are tired!
Wednesday April 3, 2024 – Wednesday was a sea day and we rested up! After 2 full days of touring, we did not do much. Just started our preliminary packing.
Tuesday, April 2, 2024 – Today our port was Arrecife, Lanzarote in the Canary Islands and we have an all day tour. As we drive to our first stop, our guide tells us there are over 300 volcanos on the island. He also tells us there are a lot of camels on the island. We do see quite a number of camels, but they seem to be used for camel rides. We also saw several herds of goats.
Our first stop was Parque Nacional de Timanfaya, which is the only national park in the Spanish network that is of an eminently geological nature. It is the result of volcanic eruptions that took place between 1720 and 1736, and in 1824. The landscape is barren, and looks like what the moon must look like. In some places you can see many layers of lava and in others places is is extremely rough, and at the tops of many of the old volcanoes it is just black sand. There is a long line of cars waiting to get into the park, but the buses go in first, and we were the first bus.
Plants can’t grow in the lava but dust storms blowing soil from the Sahara allows a few plants to start to grow. We do see lichen.
At the park we saw four demonstrations of how hot it is below our feet, and how the farther below ground you go, the hotter it gets.
In the first demonstration, a lady dug down about one foot and then passed around pebbles. The pebbles were too hot to just hold onto – you had to transfer them from one hand to the other, or else throw them on the ground.
In the second demonstration, a man tossed some dried plant material into a hole about 6 feet deep, and after about 10 seconds, it caught fire and burned up.
In the third demonstration, a man poured water down a tube that was about 9 feet deep, and the water shot back our like a geyser.
Lastly, we were shown a hole about 12 feet deep. While you could see it was red hot, any paper thrown into the hole would not burn up because there was no oxygen at that depth.
I think our guide called this place the ring of fire and their symbol is a devilish looking characteristic. Our guide said if you touch the devil while taking a picture it will bring you good luck. So I am hoping for the best!
It was a very interesting bunch of demonstrations and obviously there is a lot of volcanic activity on the island, although nothing current.
Then we did a driving tour of the National Park from our bus. The park has tour buses, too, and must have given the pre-recorded tour to our bus. It was interesting and we learned even more stuff about volcanoes. We did see several pieces of equipment as we were driving that we assumed measured the seismic activity.
While driving to our next stop, our guide shows us an egg-size piece of lava with peridot stone. Peridot forms where certain types of lava cool slowly in the ground before they are erupted on to the surface. The crystals of gem peridot grow in the slowly cooling magma melt before it is erupted onto the surface. The type of volcanic rock that peridot grows in is called basalt.
Our next stop was Bodega La Geria for “A” wine tasting 😂😂😂. I say that because we got to taste “A” (one) wine – either a dry white or a sweet white. We took one of each so we could taste both. I tasted the sweet first, which was very sweet, and made the dry wine taste awful, too. But Dave tasted the dry white first and didn’t think it was too bad. However, with getting all our beverages on the ship, and having to fly home on a week, we weren’t going to buy any wine.
Grapevines are grown in indentations in the ground, with a wall partially surrounding them, to protect the vines from the winds. These semi-circular stone walls are called “zicos”.
After the wine tasting, we went to the visitors center for the National Park. Here they had built a walkway outside out over the lava fields so you could walk on top of the lava. Inside they had lots of displays, videos, pictures, etc. it was very interesting, especially one picture of a pickup truck in front of a lava cloud.
By now it was almost time for lunch, so we drove to a restaurant. There is a huge abstract monument by the restaurant which, according to our guide, is a monument to farmers. Our tour description called it “Monument of Peasant”. But, a sign called it a fertility monument!
This sculpture, dedicated to farmers from Lanzarote, is made with ancient water tanks taken from ships and various objects painted and assembled together, forming a set of geometric shapes combining concrete and iron of great visual impact. Following a design of César Manrique, It was done in 1968 by Jesús Soto. It is 15 metres tall.
The work rests on a mound of stones, a small islet that was not affected by the historical volcanic activity of the 18th century.
The location was not chosen by chance, and it hints at the wit of the author aiming to break with the canonical representation that would be expected at the time.
Manrique seeks through cubic forms to show a peasant from
Lanzarote on the back of a working animal, overcoming the difficulties of a challenging land.
And here is a picture of the monument:
I think the name of the restaurant was “Restaurante @ Casa-Museo del Campesino”. Our lunch was good – we had bottles of water, and red or white wine. We started with a bowl of thick soup (probably stew), and then the entree was chopped pork formed into a square with gelatin, a smear of sweet potatoes, and a few mixed vegetables. Not sure what the desert was – it looked like vanilla pudding but instead of vanilla, it was a local fruit that I’m not familiar with and it had a smear of some red fruit syrup or jelly. Then we got espresso. We liked the lunch yesterday better, but I did not go away hungry. A lot of the buildings and houses remind us of Santorini.
On the way to our next stop we passed the highest point on the island.
The next stop was Mirador Del Rio which had beautiful views. It is about 1,560 feet high and has a building with a cafe and souvenir shop integrated into the lava rock, so it is barely visible from the outside. As you e noted, there are two large glass windows which are suppose to resemble eyes giving you a panoramic view. There are viewing platforms outside, as well. The guide said the rock formations in the distance look like various animals, but the only one we could make out was a large rock that resembled a whale. In the past, guards would watch for approaching ships from this vantage point.
The last stop was James del Agua which was interesting. There are a series of volcanic grottoes here. It is a multi level building. After entering, you walk down a few steps into a restaurant that is open to the sky. You walk past the tables to a very dark area for a view of a grotto. Then you walk up some stairs to see a large pool of water with a bunch of tiny white specks on the bottom. The white specks are blind crabs (Munidopsis Polymorpha) which are in danger of extinction. This facility strictly protects their habitats. They are very small creature – I think our guide said they may be one centimeter in size. After viewing the crab habitats, you walk up another set of stairs where there is a swimming pool, in which you are not allowed to swim. Our guide said they use to allow swimming, but now there are too many people. Then you walk up another level to view out over the ocean and a little snack bar. Our guide suggested using the bathrooms on this level as they are the best ones! There was also a gift shop, and another volcanic museum which we did not visit.
After our last stop we drove back to the ship.
We thought this was a very interesting day. While we would not want to live here, the tour and all the information on volcanoes and the history of the Canary Islands was very interesting,
We had reservations at Prime 7, a specialty restaurant. Dave had a seafood platter which includes lobster, crab and a scallop. I had lamb chops.
We lose another hour of sleep tonight, and tomorrow is our last sea day.
Monday, April 1, 2024 – April Fools! We are in the Canary Islands on the Island of Tenerife. We have an all day tour, but it is mostly driving on a coach and visiting four towns. The first town we visited was La Laguna. It has wide, flat streets where they used to hold horse races.
It is also laid out in blocks, with parallel streets. Our guide said the US and other places later copied this plan for planning cities. There are some old houses here from the 16th century.
There are monasteries with cloisters built at the very top. The bottom part of the building would be from stone and the cloisters at the tops were wood. The Reason the cloisters were at the top were so the nuns could see out, but no one could see the nuns.
As we drove, we saw a huge volcano. We had to take the photo from inside the coach while we were moving, so not the best picture.
The next town was Garachico where we walked to a large plaza, and visited a farmers market and a church. I think the main reason we stopped here was public bathrooms in the farmers market.
As we drove, our guide told us that Tenerife grows 150,000 tons of bananas a year! In front of our coach was this truck!
The next town was Icod de Los Vinos where the main attraction is a 1000 year old Dragon Tree.
We stopped in a souvenir shop and I couldn’t resist taking this picture!
Then we drove to the San Pedro Monastery where we had lunch. We had bottles of red wine, water and a basket of rye bread on each table. First we were served chicken noodle soup. Then the entree was roasted chicken hind quarter and potatoes. Our dessert was vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce. Last, we were served espresso. It was a very nice meal in a very pleasant setting. The chickens these hind quarters came from were big chickens. There were live chickens walking around the tables in the outside area (we were seated inside). One rooster was very outspoken!
Our last town was Puerto de la Cruz which is very touristy. But not overcrowded, and actually very nice.
Our guide said the beaches in Tenerife are black sand. We saw a beach that was bigger and nicer than this one, but here is the black sand.
We would not mind returning to Tenerife – while our tour was an overview, we found it clean, lots of little shops and restaurants, and beautiful ocean views. We liked it much better than Cape Verde.
Sunday March 31, 2024 – Happy Easter!
Somehow we got a little confused with the time changes. We had planned to get up at 8:00AM, but because of the time mixup, it was actually only 7:00AM! Probably good because the next couple of mornings we have early morning tours.
This morning, for Easter, the Cruise Director led a non-denominational Easter Service. It was very nice.
After the Easter Service, Armando Sanchez gave his presentation, on cyberterriorism. His message was basically that it’s out there and worrying about it will not help. Do your best to protect yourself and then quit worrying and enjoy life.
Dr. Kramers talk was on superstitions, the world over!
I have developed a dry, hacking cough, which I am hearing from others around the ship. I think I am allergic to something, but other than the cough, I feel fine. So that’s good! Usually it’s Dave that picks up a bug.
We went to Easter Sunday Tea, as did many others on the ship! We enjoy going to tea – not every day, but every few days. Today was much busier than usual. I took a picture, but it only shows half the table of sweets because there were a bunch of people crowding around the other side. They also served ice cream, plain and chocolate chip scones, and a number to tea sandwiches. Today’s entertainment was a piano player. It is all so civilized and nice!
Dinner in Compass Rose, and then get ready for a long day tomorrow.
Saturday, March 30, 2024 – We had a relaxing sea day. We went to two of the speakers – Armando Sanchez and Dr. Gary Kramer. We have found all of Armondo Sanchez’s presentations interesting. Some of Dr. Kramers are sleep producing – like today – when he spoke about “Water”. Dr. Kramer has had good presentations, but kinda hit or miss for Dave and me. Dr. Kramer is a very smart man, he knows it, and wants to make sure you know he is smarter than probably anyone in his audience. We do go to listen to him as he has given some good presentations….we should have known better when we say the title today. We had a nice happy hour in the observation lounge and then went to dinner. We lose another hour tonight, but I think this is the last time change 😁. I always prefer sailing from east to west, but this cruise is west to east, so we will have had four 23 hour days. 🥱🥱🥱. Internet is not very good, but that has been the situation on all our transatlantics.
Thursday – Friday, March 28- 29, 2024 – Yesterday was the 4th sea day in a row. We did our usual Speakers Series – one was more spy stuff and the second one was about whales. For us, the temperature on the ship is very cold. By the time evening rolled around, I was frozen. One lady said it felt warm to her – she was from the UK! Lots of Brits on the ship. Supposedly we are sailing with 625 passengers. We have been able to get into any venue we want, which is nice. We do not lay out around the pool, but if we wanted to find a spot in the shade, that would be hard to do. We went to afternoon tea, which we usually do a couple times each cruise. Someone spotted a whale breaching out in the open water, so we got to see the whale! For all the cruises we’ve been on, that was a first.
We went to Chartruse for dinner Thursday evening, and this time I took some pictures!
I had the Bleu cheese soufflé, which was very good and very rich.
Dave had the smoked salmon.
For the second course, I had the mushroom soup which is very good.
Since Dave does not like soup, he had the steak tartare as a second course. He is getting so brave at trying things he has not had before. He actually enjoyed the steak tartare!
For our entrees, I had the lamb.
Dave had Dover Sole.
As a side, we both had chickpea fritters and neither of us liked them.
For desert, we were totally stuffed, so we shared a cheese plate, which I forgot to take a picture of ☹️.
Our port Friday is Mindelo, Cape Verde. The ship provides a shuttle into “town”, but since it is Good Friday, pretty much everything is closed. We took the shuttle and walked to the African Market. On the way we walked past some fishermen who were cleaning and selling fish. I don’t know what kind of fish they were, but mostly small. We did see one whole big fish that a man was carrying and I saw a big fish that had been cut up. The fish seem to be plentiful.
Along the street, and the plaza area, ladies are selling all kinds of produce.
The plaza area also has clothing, and other items -it reminded Dave and I of the church rummage sale. Really not much here, especially with it being Good Friday. Seems to be very poor; lots of dogs sleeping on the sidewalks which is always a sign to me of a poverty stricken area. We were only gone on our walking adventure about an hour.
Our afternoon tour was highlights of Cape Verde. Cape Verde is made up of 10 islands, and some are uninhabited. It is part of Africa. We were on São Vicenti, at the port city of Mindelo. Our tour is basically a drive around the island with a few photo stops. What we can see is a very desolate, desert like landscape. Our guide says it rains 3 months of the year – August to October. She takes us to the highest point on the island, Monte Verde, which is 2,440 feet in altitude. The road is horrendous- cobblestones and very bumpy. Lots of switchbacks, and narrow. Not much to look at as there is little to no vegetation. The houses are very basic, just cement blocks. Many buildings have been started but not finished. At the top of Monte Verde is a little building selling beverages, which we do not buy, especially since it is selling rum in shot glasses. This has the only bathroom on our tour, and Dave said it was stand up only, so not for ladies. It is very windy, which our guide says is normal.
Back on the bus, we head down the narrow, bumpy road and drive to a beach area. This is not a luxury beach by any means, but the water is very shallow and it looks like the kids love it.
Next we head to a turtle rehabilitation facility – very small. There are two large turtles in a pool, and two juvenile turtles in another pool. One of the large turtles had been attacked by a shark and lost a fin. The second turtle was blind in one eye. I’m not sure why the juvenile turtles were there.
Our guide showed us a booklet discussing the protection of the turtles, and I think their policies are similar to Florida, based on the pictures. The booklet was in Portuguese, so I could not read it.
I think the bottom line is there just isn’t much on this island. Our guide said almost every thing is imported. There is an agricultural area on the island, and some deep wells, which allows them to grow vegetables year around. But I wouldn’t think it is enough for the 60,000 inhabitants.
Back on the bumpy road, we headed back to the city, for another photo opportunity.
Our guide said their income comes mostly from public service, commerce, tourism and exportation of fish. The total tour covered about 37 miles.
Our guide showed us the Cape Verde flag. The blue at the top represents the sky, the first white line represents peace, the red line represents freedom, the second red line represents hope, the blue at the bottom represents the ocean, and the 10 stars are for the 10 islands that make up Cape Verde.
This was a beach we saw on the way back to the ship. One of the shuttle attendants told us this is the best beach. The water was a beautiful blue.
When we returned to the ship, we were looking for a snack and grabbed a couple of cookies from the “Coffee Connection”. Of course that kind of ruined our appetite for dinner, but after listening to music in the lounge, we went for a late dinner in Compass Rose. Dave tried the lobster again – it was much better. I had swordfish, which was good, but because of the olive tapenade, only olive lovers would enjoy it.
Cape Verde is not a place I would choose to return to…..
Two more sea days ahead of us.
Monday to Wednesday, March 25-27, 2024 – We have 4 sea days in a row, and I am attempting to post this after sea day #3. We are going to the Speakers Series with Armando Sanchez, who we have really enjoyed, and Dr. Gary Kramer, who is hit and miss with his presentations. Armando Sanchez is into technology and spying and artificial intelligence. A bit scary actually, maybe that’s why we like it 😁. Dr. Kramer’s presentations can be about stuff that we would never encounter. For example, how to figure out where you are if you’ve been kidnapped and taken to an unknown location by figuring out your latitude and longitude…of course you would have to have an atlas, too. But the last two days have been about the Titanic, which we find interesting. Another speaker has been doing presentations on photography, which we have not attended.
We participated in the “Block Party” which is a unique event on Regent. Everyone (almost) comes out of their suite into the hallway and crew comes through the hallways with wine and appetizers. Then the Captain and cruise director walk (very rapidly) through all the decks to greet all the passengers. One of our neighbors did not come out of their suite and we have been curious about them. Everyday they have a letter that seems to ask what they want to eat all day. I don’t know if they are quarantined or have food issues or what. One day I was out on the balcony and thought I heard them taking, but couldn’t understand what they were saying. Then this evening, they have a card saying they are going to Prime 7 tomorrow evening, so I don’t understand. The other neighbors we met at the block party were curious about them, too.
We went to Prime 7 Monday evening and had entrees that included lobster – we have not liked the lobster onboard! We requested melted butter for the lobster and they brought us unsalted melted butter which did not help. Dave had the famous Caramel Popcorn Sundae which he enjoyed but said he would not order it again. We’ve actually enjoyed the main dining room, Compass Rose, more than the specialties!
Tuesday morning at 6:30AM we crossed the equator, and the ship had a ceremony for those who crossed it for the first time….since we have crossed it a couple of times, we did not go. But it is a fun event because they have a big celebration and people crossing for the first time get wet….
Again, just attended speakers series, lounges with music, and production show.
Wednesday – found our our “neighbors” across the hall moved because they were having trouble with the bathroom plumbing ☹️. The sewage systems on ships do not handle “unusual “ stuff flushed down the toilet.
One of the Speakers Series talks today was a continuation of yesterday, about the Titanic. Yesterday was more about the ship, Titanic, today was more about the people. Weird, but Dave and I have attended lots of presentations on the Titanic while on ships.
This evening we’ve been invited to the “Seven Seas Society Cocktail Party”. Since this is our second cruise, we got the invite. I don’t think we have run into anybody that indicated this was their first cruise on Regent. It was really a nice event! They gave some rewards to the crew, and we had some entertainment from the production cast. They did a little program featuring songs from Mama Mia! It was great! Interestingly, after the show, a bunch of folks swooped down on the unserved caviar and helped themselves! 😂😂😂 And I was concerned with what I was wearing….
We went to Sette Mari for dinner tonight and my cioppino had the best lobster of the trip! It was a great dinner! Dave had a veal chop, which was pounded thin and flat, ending up being bigger than his plate! Good news – he liked it! We also had a Valpolicella wine, which was very good. We really enjoyed our dinner tonight. I will say my first course of lasagna was not as good as Mama’s, but we had more than enough good food to make up for it! We may try to go back.
Regent is great and we love everything about sailing with Regent. However, I am not a fan of the artwork 😁. I am not an artist or knowledgeable about art, but I do not like most abstract stuff.
In our stateroom:
Also in our hallway, but I like it better than most for some reason:
Laundry is great on Regent! We love their laundry. This is how our underwear was returned from laundry:
We are having a great time and decided this trip is too short! Since tomorrow is a sea day, there won’t be much to write about, except how tired we are from 23 hour days 😂😂😂.
Palm Sunday, March 24, 2024 – As our ship gets close to Recife, we are surprised at how big the city looks. There are many tall buildings, probably many are residential. Recife also has the very tall, skinny residential buildings. I can only imagine that the lots held houses at one time, then the houses were bought up by a developer who built a building with as many stories as he could on the small lot.
Recife was founded in 1537. There are many rivers and bridges meaning the city is made up of several islands (our guide said 7 rivers and Recife Centro is 3 islands). Once we are in port, it is very industrial, so we have to take a shuttle bus out of the port area to get to our tour bus. The port building has a “welcoming committee” for us, a band and a couple of native dancers.
We walked to our bus and our guide appears quite “mature” but looks are deceiving as he was very knowledgeable and spry. Sometimes it was hard to keep up with him because he kept moving! We are heading to Olinda for our first stop which is a Portuguese hillside town founded in 1530. It is a UNESCO listed historic center and the streets are narrow, windy and bumpy (cobblestones) so we have to get off the tour bus and take a minivan up to the top to reach the main square.
We were dropped at a little shopping area where we were given a coconut and straw so we could enjoy coconut water. They had a neat machine that punched a hole in the top of the coconut. I was surprised at how much coconut water there was inside the coconut!
Then we walked toward The Holy Savior of the World Cathedral. First we went to the the side of the Cathedral building to see an overlook with nice views.
Then we went inside the Cathedral and the Archbishop was conducting mass this morning when we visited. There is a statue of Jesus holding the World in his hand.
The Cathedral was first raised as a simple chapel between 1537 and 1540. It was dedicated to Jesus Christ as Savior of the World. It was elevated to a Cathedral in 1676.
The Cathedral is at one end of the main square, Alto da Sè, where there are vendors and very friendly tourist police.
After walking through the main square, we got back on our mini buses and headed back to Recife. We got off the bus at the Governor’s Palace.
Then we walked into Republic Square. Our guide pointed out a huge tree, which I believe our guide said was a Kapok tree.
He showed us a plant that the inside was very soft, but I missed the name.
He showed us a fruit that he said kids like and it has a lot of carotene, but apparently it is not sold commercially.
The park had walkways of what he called “Portuguese Tile” because of the pattern.
Then we walked to what our guide called the Golden Chapel. This church had incredible baroque detain, much of it covered in gold leaf. It was a Franciscan Church. Not being Catholic, I thought the confessional was different than others I have seen.It may have been an antique one.
This church depicted Jesus as dead, and our guide called Jesus’s death the “end”. Being Protestant, I don’t believe it was the end. I believe Jesus rose from the dead, and I worship a living God.
Our guide also mentioned there is a Catholic Church on every corner, and we definitely saw many church buildings.
Then we went to lunch. Our lunch was at a Brazilian barbecue, a churrascaria. I picked up their card and the name of the restaurant was “Ponteio”. Of course when the 3 busloads from the ship entered, it was busy. But when it was time to leave, it was busier! There were lines outside waiting to get in. The waiters came around with all kinds of meat and cut it from a rotisserie spit. First we went through a buffet with all kinds of choices of food. Then when you return to the table the waiters come with all the different meats.
After leaving the restaurant, we drove past the beach on our way to the “Ricardo Brennand Institute”.
Ricardo Brennand came from a very wealthy family and was a collector. He had unbelievable collections of art, statues, books, porcelain, armor and arms, watches, etc. Upon entering the estate, the first thing you see is a reproduction of the famous statue of “David”. Also a copy of Ronan’s “The Thinker”. There was some original statues, but I think there were a lot of reproductions. I am posting a few pictures – there was just too much stuff – sampling of what we saw.
Leaving the institute, we saw a (real) Capybara, which is a very large rodent. We also saw a duck.
Although it was a full day tour, we were not totally worn out. I think we walked about 2.5 miles, but it was spread out over the day. It was hot, but this will probably be our last hot day as we head across the Atlantic when we leave Recife.
After listening to music in the lounge, ww had dinner in the main dining room, Compass Rose. Dave had risotto with a few shrimp added in for an appetizer and he had Thai Seafood for his entree. I had escargot for my appetizer and Prime Rib for my entree. We were both happy with our choices.
Tomorrow is the first of 4 seadays, and we start losing hours due to the time difference between Brazil and Portugal. Our TV is already acting up this evening, and it looks like we are losing the internet. So not sure when this will be posted to my blog.
Saturday, March 24, 2024 – We’ve been gone a week already! How time flies when you don’t have to cook, clean or do laundry!
One more comment about my postal problems….I had checked with the ship because I have traveled on ships previously that would take care of mailing post cards, etc. The customer relations person told me they would be happy to mail the card for me…but it would not get mailed until we reached Lisbon!
Late afternoon yesterday we went to another Speaker Series talk with Armando Sanchez. His last talk was on spies, and this talk was about artificial intelligence. Basically his message was that we do not know “whose” intelligence we are getting. He also said social media is disrupting the family unit. Children, some as young as 8, are looking to social media and peers for advice and not their parents. He called the children up to age 12 the “alpha” generation. His talk was very interesting and thought provoking.
We had before dinner drinks in the lounge with “Power of Two Duo” which is an Asian couple, Rochelle and Dave, who actually play music we are familiar with. We have enjoyed listening to them.
We went to Compass Rose, the main dining room, for dinner. We both had Panko covered prawns for an appetizer. Then Dave got his “now usual” pasta and I had a soup. For our entrees Dave had Schezwan Beef Stirfry, and I had lamb chops. No dessert – gotta save a few calories!
After dinner we wandered the ship a little, went to the top deck to look at the stars (!), and then got a nightcap to take back to the room.
One problem we’ve had with our room is that the refrigerator didn’t work, and despite several calls and visits to customer service. Finally, after 3 days, they replaced the refrigerator and it works!
Today we are visiting Maceió, Brazil. We arrived about 11:00AM and depart at 8:00PM. It was very nice to not have to scramble early – the late morning arrival was nice.
We have a highlights tour, which is described as mostly panoramic- which means riding in a bus. But the other options didn’t appeal to us, so that’s why we signed up for a panoramic tour, highlights tour. It’s was only about 3 hours long, probably because there aren’t a lot of highlights!
Our guide went to school in Utah and lived in the US for about 10 years. A second guide, a lady, was with him, but she only spoke Portuguese. Not sure why we had two guides….The name of the city was originally Macayo, which means “what it covers the swamp”. It is located on the ocean, has about 15 miles of shoreline and our guide said the city experiences big tide variances. As we docked, there are piles of white stuff waiting to be loaded onto cargo ships. We later found out it is rock salt.
Maceió also exports sugar and natural gas.
We drove past a replica of the Statue of Liberty. It is a small scale metal replica which our guide said came from France.
Our first stop was in an area south of the city near the Mundaú Lagoon. A kind of mollusk, the sururu, is found in the lagoon and is used in many of the local dishes. We stopped in this area because it is a local market with local handicrafts.
We drove past the soccer stadium because Brazil is very proud they have won the World Cup 5 times, more than any other country. The stadium is named after the famous soccer player Pele, even though he is not from Maceio. There is an effort to rename the stadium after the best female soccer player in the world who is from Maceio. I believe our guide said her name is “Marta”, but may have misunderstood because of his accent.
We drove past a palace that is currently an art museum, but a building across from the museum caught my eye. It was covered in tile, and I love tile.
Next we stopped to visit Cathedral of Our Lady of Pleasures. Our guide translated from a guide speaking Portuguese…. So this is what I heard (!): This was originally a chapel named for a different saint, but a farmer’s sheep was sinking in the ground. The farmer prayed to the other saint, but the lamb kept sinking. So he prayed to a different saint asking that no one would die (not sure what happened to the sheep), and since no one died, the church became the Cathedral of Our Lady of Pleasures. It was originally built in 1859, and no renovations were done until 2014. Then there was a fire that burned the bell tower. They were able to petition the government and renovation work is ongoing.
We had a photo stop at a park with a nice view over the city, Mirante São Gonçalo. There were a few kiosks to get a drink, but mainly just a nice little park with a nice view. The first lighthouse was located close to this park.
We drove along the beach and some nice hotels, past Ponte Verde Beach to Pavilhão Do Artesanato, which is a handicraft market. We wandered around, and then crossed the street to look at the beach.
Some miscellaneous things the guide said (and I may have misunderstood)….the water is polluted in many areas so they do not swim in those beaches but the city built a new sewage plant and the water is improving. The water north of the city is calm and the water south of the city has more waves. In general, the water is always warm. It because of the tides, they do not swim at high tide, but at low tide.
We got back to the ship about 5:00PM, and took our showers, as it is very hot here – probably close to 90. The buses supposedly have air conditioning, and the air on the bus is cooler than outside, but definitely not like our air conditioning.
Tonight in La Veranda they are having a French buffet. Dave is not big on French food, so we went to the main dining room, Compass Rose. Dave had Shanghai-style dumplings for an appetizer and I had Mulligatawny soup.we were both very pleased with our appetizers. For entrees, Dave had lobster and I had scallops. This was the first time neither of us was pleased with the food. Dave’s lobster was dry, but he ate it because he was hungry and the waiters did not come back for awhile. My scallops were over cooked, but not as bad as Daves lobster. So, we decided to order dessert – Saint-Honoré Chou Pastry, Vanilla Custard Crème and Chocolate Sauce. Well…no chocolate sauce came with the delivered dessert, and the only reason Dave ordered this dessert was because of the chocolate sauce. So we did flag down a waiter, and he brought us chocolate sauce, but he said it was a misprint on the menu – it was not suppose to come either chocolate sauce! So, not the best meal tonight, but I’m sure I still gained some weight ☹️.
Tomorrow we are in Recife and we have an all day tour…yikes! So we will be in bed early.
Friday, March 22, 2023 – Our tour is called Highlights of Salvador. It is a 4 hour tour starting about 8:00AM. Score boarding our bus, we were handed a brochure advising you not to wear expensive jewelry, and keep your phone in your pocket, etc. The guide also reiterated to try to stay low key. Because we were in a group of 30 people, I think we were pretty safe. Our guide spoke very good English and talked practically non-stop – so it is hard to remember all the details. He said Brazil is the 5th largest country in land area with 40% of the land in the Amazon. Brazil is 6th in population and 75% of the population lives along the coast. Salvador was protected by 14 forts and our first stop is a fort, Forte de Santo Antonio da Barra. Within the walls of the fort is South America’s oldest lighthouse. We did not go inside, just a photo stop.
The city is on two levels and has elevators to carry people up and down the two city levels. This elevator was the first public elevator in the world.
Driving to the Pelourinho neighborhood, we passed parks that had an interesting fencing. Saw several examples of this fence.
We were dropped off for a walking tour of the Pelourinho neighborhood. As you can see from the photo, we wandered around a bit!
We saw a couple of statues. D. Pedro Fernandez Sardinia (1496-1556) was a Portuguese priest and the first bishop of Brazil. On July 16, 1556, he and his crew were shipwrecked and captured by native people. Bahia. Apparently he was bragging about how important he was, so the native people killed him and devoured him, hoping to gain some of his importance by eating him.
The next statue was of Zumbi (1655-1695). He was one of the pioneers of resistance to slavery of Africans. He was also the last of the kings of a settlement of Afro-Brazilian people who liberated themselves. He is revered in Afro-Brazilian culture as a symbol of African freedom.
The culture of those brought as slaves from Africa has been preserved in Salvador more than any other place in the world. Our guide frequently referred to their religion, Candomblé. Candomlé followers believe that every person has a particular deity watching over them – from birth to death.
We saw several ladies in native costumes, and our guide said you are suppose to pay them to take their picture. This one was taken some distance away, so it was free….
We visited several Catholic Churches. There are 372 Catholic Church’s in Salvador and while 85% of the population is Catholic, not all are practicing their religion. The amount of gold used in decorating the churches is unbelievable! See the pictures!
A lot of the stones used to build the Cathedral of Salvador were brought from Portugal.
The last church we visited was St. Francis of Assisi.
St. Francis of Assisi had lots of tile work and is the richest in gold plating and Portuguese tiles. The tiles had “titles”.
Much of the housing is apartments or condominiums. I saw several that would be 1 unit on each floor, and at least 20 stories tall. Of course I didn’t get a picture of the really tall ones, but this is an example.
The postal system in Brazil has been difficult for me to navigate. We were trying to find postage to mail a letter in Rio de Janeiro and the first post office we visited was closed. A bartender directed us to another post office where you take a number and wait in line. When it was finally our turn, the clerk said they don’t sell postage. But she directed us to a third post office. After waiting in line there, we finally purchased postage and mailed the letter. I have been looking for post cards to mail, and I saw a FEW in the port building today. However, we had already been directed to the post office to buy cards and post cards, which the didn’t have, and saw a very long line of people waiting to be waited on. So by the time I saw the post cards, and there were not a lot of them, I was not up to walking back to the post office and waiting forever to buy postage in this very hot climate. I think it has to be 90° today, at least! But, I will keep trying!
Thursday, March 21, 2024 – No pictures today – because it’s a sea day!
Last evening we ate at Chartreuse, one of the two specialty restaurants on Voyager. Dave had “Terrine de Foie Gras au Sauternes”
(Duck Foie Gras Terrine with Sauternes Jelly, Toasted Brioche, Caramelized Apricots) for his appetizer. It was very attractive with round crisps on top. He had “Bisque de Homard à l’Armagnac” (Lobster Bisque with Armagnac) for his soup course and “Tournedos de Boeuf Grillé Rossini, Brioche, Royale à La Truffe, Foie Gras Pôelé, Sauce Périgourdine”
(Beef Tenderloin Rossini, Brioche, Truffle Royale, Seared Foie Gras, Sauce Périgourdine) for his entree with green beans. He did not particularly care for his appetizer and was disappointed that his soup did not have any chunks of Lobster – it was puréed so very smooth. I had Chartreuse Garlic Escargots (Sautéed Snails with Garlic, Herb Purée, Braised Rutabaga, Anchovy & Pommery Mustard Cream) for my appetizer, Velouté de Champignons à la Truffe (Mushroom Veloute, Truffle, Garlic Confit) for my soup course and the same Beef Tenderloin Rossini for an entree as Dave. We shared asparagus and green beans for our vegetable. The escargot was good, but served in an unexpected way – they were covered in the sauce and the waiter jokingly said I would have to fish for them! They were very good, just not what I expected. I liked my mushroom soup, and we both liked the beef Tenderloin Rossini. I ordered a floating island desert that was way too sweet – so definitely would not have that again. To be honest, the food is so good in the main dining room that we only go to the sp vislty testaurants for a change as this is a long cruise.
We went to a Speakers Series presentation by Dr. Gary H. Kramer, a Canadian, on The Age of Discovery. Basically it was a history lesson on the early explorers covering the early 15th to 18th centuries – but it was interesting, and we enjoyed it.
Then we went to another Speakers Series presentation by
Armando Sanchez, who apparently worked as a spy for the CIA. That was very interesting and he named several people who knowingly worked as a spy, or assisted spy’s while not being one themselves..such as Cary Grant, Lucky Luciano, Frank Sinatra, Julia Child, Houdini, etc. He is doing several presentations and I hope we manage to catch them all – he was very interesting, too.
After lunch we peaked in on another Speaker Series presentation, which was about photography – but it did not hold our attention so we left and did a walking tour of the ship.
It’s a formal night and we went to the Captains Welcome where the officers are introduced.
Then we had a nice dinner in the main dining room. I tried something different for my appetizer – white sturgeon caviar profiteroles! They were good. Dave had lobster pasta for his appetizer and we both had Saki glazed salmon with wasabi mashed potatoes for our entree. We didn’t have dessert.
We went to the Voyager Lounge to hear a duo and we danced a bit!
We were shocked to find a bottle of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey whiskey in our room. Very puzzling that Regents knew that is Daves favorite nightcap….
Early tour tomorrow in Salvadore, Brazil.
Wednesday, March 20, 2024 – Today we are in Buzios, Brazil. It is a Peninsula about 107 miles east of Rio de Janeiro, with a population of about 35,000 and covers about 27 sq. (I converted the miles from km so hope I’m close – 173 km from Rio de Janeiro and 71 square km).
A lot of whale hunting took place near Buzios, and one of the beaches is named “Praia dos Ossos” which means Beach of Bones (whale bones ☹️). What brought fame and fortune to Buzios was Brigitte Bardot who visited in 1964 and stayed for 4 months while it was just a small village. There is a statue of Brigitte Bardot along the waterfront by sculptor Christina Motta, who also did statues of a former Brazilian president, Juscelino Kubitschek, who looks like he is waving to fishermen, and another statue of 3 fishermen hauling in their nets which is very lifelike.
We got up very early today to do 2 tours – in the morning we were in an open trolley and our tour was called “Beaches of Buzios”. Our afternoon tour was in an (somewhat) air conditioned bus and called “Highlights of Buzios”. The bad news is that the two tours were exactly the same, and we even had the same tour guide, who repeated the same spiel. The descriptions were different when we signed up, but reality was they were the same. So twice we traveled around the peninsula and saw12 beaches, afar, from the road. We did make 4 stops, mainly for scenic views.
The guide pointed out Criminal Rock, which caused shipwrecks for pirates coming to steal Brazilian Wood Trees for their prized red colored wood.
One stops was more interesting to me. It is claimed that 520 million years ago Buzios was part of a great mountain chain, like the Himalaya. It was created by the collision between continental blocks of South America and Africa when it was all connected, and created a larger continent called Gondwana. 130 Million years ago Africa and Brazil started separating, creating the Atlantic Ocean. Geologists say there is evidence of Gondwana at Marisco Point at Geriba Beach which we visited.
Between tours we had lunch at a local restaurant, along the beach with great views – but no pictures! We shared an order of mini-hamburgers, French fries and coquettes.
Tomorrow we have a sea day, so probably not much to share.
Tuesday, March 19, 2024 – When we got up this morning there was a heavy fog. We are fortunate we went to Christ the Redeemer and Sugarloaf on Sunday.
Our transport to the ship arrived on time at 11:00AM. Nothing extraordinary about the drive to the ship, dropping our luggage or boarding. We were on the ship probably by noon, had a light lunch and waited for our stateroom to be ready. As it turned out, we got a two level upgrade. We booked an “H” guarantee and ended up with an “F” cabin which is a 2 level upgrade. Unfortunately, our cabin seems to be under some heavy duty fans which are noisy, and Dave’s not a happy camper. I said let’s wait and see if it is still noisy. Long story, but because we had the snafu with our flight, we were unable to mail a birthday card on our way out of Englewood. So our mission this afternoon was to find a post office in Rio Dec Janeiro. Well, that turned out to be more difficult than we expected. So Google sent us to one address, and all the buildings were boarded up! We asked a bartender and he directed us a few blicks away to another “post office”. We had to take a number and there were 17 numbers ahead of us, so we had a bit of a wait. When our number was called, they said they don’t sell postage at this location and sent us to another location. All this time we are walking! I was following Google maps to all these places. At the third location, we hit the jackpot! He took our money and said he would mail the card. However, we have mailed things from foreign countries that never arrive, so we have our fingers crossed. What was supposed to be to take about 45 minutes ended up over two hours just to get postage to mail a card!
After a shower, as it was really hot hoofing it around Rio Dec Janeiro this afternoon, we had a lovely dinner in Compass Rose, which is the main dining room. Dave had a appetizer potion of resotto for his appetizer and a beef five spice stir fry for his entree. I had an avocado and crab appetizer with Singapore noodles and grilled shrimp for my entree. We shared a cheese plate for desert. So we go back to our room and it is noisy. We got moved to a different stateroom and it is SO much quieter, but there is no safe! Hopefully we will get one tomorrow.
We have an early shore excursion tomorrow morning, so we will watch our 9:00PM sail away and hit the bed soon after.
I downloaded a picture of the long 8.5+ mile bridge because for some reason the bridge fascinated me. It is called the “Rio-Niterói Bridge” and links Rio de Janeiro with the city of Niterói, crossing Guanabara Bay. Until 1985, it was the second longest bridge in the world, second only to the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway.
Monday, March 18, 2024 – We do not generally eat a big breakfast, so we just had out breakfast bars in our hotel room and then met with Gus, our Tour guide, about 9:00AM. Please note that some of the facts are things Gus told us which may or may not be true (!).
For example, Gus said the first people to reach this part of the world arrived on January first, and since it was on a bay, called it Ria which means “bay” – so “Ria de January “ which meant Bay in January. But over time, it became Rio – which means “river”, but there is no river.
I really liked Rio de Janeiro – not that I’d want to live here, but for a big city,it seems pretty nice. Of course we are not night people, so we don’t know what happens after dark…
We drove to the downtown area and did a bit of a walking . First we visited an unusual Catholic Church, Rio de Janeiro Cathedral. It looks like an Aztec pyramid. It was finished in 1979, so this how it was planned to look. It holds about 20,000 people and has 4 huge stained glass windows. The church was dedicated to Saint Sebastian, the patron saint of Rio de Janeiro, and there is a carriage with a miniature St. Sabastian. Per Gus, St. Sebastian was a Christian Roman Soldier from around 250AD who was martyred. He was tied to a tree and shot with arrows, so all depictions of him show arrows. The cathedral grounds outside are unusual, too. The bell tower is a tall triangle shaped structure. There is a statue of Jesus laying on a park bench titled “Homeless Jesus”, and a statue of Mother Theresa.
Our next stop was the in the “Centro”, or center of the city. It is very obvious where the old city buildings end and the modern city starts. But the area we visited were older buildings which were well cared for. We went to the National Library and the building is totally symmetrical. Gus showed us a door that has a wall behind it, just so it matched the door on the other side of the big, open, atrium. Most of the books have been digitized. We saw stained glass on the ceiling in the atrium, beautiful tile work, brass doors and chandeliers.
We could not get inside the Opera House, but the outside was beautiful. There is a huge golden eagle on top.
Next we drove to Church of Saint Francis of Penance. On one side is a monastery, in the middle are chapels, and then a convent (Igreja Sao Francisco de Penitencia & Covento de Santo Antonio). We saw two chapels. In the first, Dave noticed they were observing communion. We walked to the second chapel and all the walls were gold. Unbelievable! There was a small museum with some artifacts. There was also portraits of the last Emporer and Empress. Their daughter was Princess Isabel, who was their eldest daughter, and there were no sons. There are lots of things named after Princess Isabel and I am sitting in the “Isabel” lounge at the Hilton, right now! She signed the law abolishing slavery in 1888, and in 1889, Brazil became a republic. Then all the royalty had to leave town!
Next we visited the Colombia Restaurant, which is a very popular restaurant in Rio. There was a huge line outside waiting for them to open at 11:00. I think Gus brought us here because it may be the most popular restaurant in Rio, and we could use their bathrooms. They had beautiful desserts in glass cases as well as some coquettes in other glass cases, trying to entice us!
After Columbia, we went to ride the tram. The tram runs from downtown Rio de Janeiro to the station for Two Brothers (the mountains), about a 20 minute ride. We rode from downtown Rio de Janeiro to Two Brothers, then stayed on while the tram backtracked. We got off in the Santa Teresa neighborhood.
There, Gus met us in the Santa Teresa tram stop and we got off the tram. We had lunch at Portella’s. Gus had ordered a local specialty, moqueca which is a fish dish, served in a broth with shrimp ( he said he thought the fish was shark). It is served with rice, and a side dish which includes yucca. Anyway, it was very good. I think the meal for the 3 of us, including 4 diet cokes and a beer was approximately $40.
After lunch, we drove to the “Escadaria Selaron” which is the work of a Chilean Artist, Jorge Selaron. It is 215 steps. The steps had became dilapidated and he revived them by putting tiles on the steps. He started just green, yellow and blue tiles to represent the Brazilian flag, but added red tiles on the sides which were his favorite color, and started incorporating tiles which were sent to him from people around the world. We chose to walk down and were surprised the decorative tiles are on the risers, not the tops of the steps. Selaron also bought a bunch of bathtubs from a junkyard, to fill in the gaps on the sides, filled them with sand, and then covered them in tiles. Lots of people there getting their pictures taken on the steps, but considering it is a free sight, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. After Seleron’s death, it became a protected sight, so no new tiles and the older tiles cannot be removed and replaced.
Our last stop was Monastary of Saint Benedict. It is a church, a Benedictine monetary, and a school for boys. The first foundations were laid in 1590. Then in 1671 it was expanded, and expanded again in 1880. The boys school was started in 1858. There are several chapels inside, again filled with gold.
Leaving the monastery, we stopped for a moment at the port and our ship was already docked!
We went back to our hotel to rest for a bit and then took a walk on the Copacabana Beach. There are lots of little restaurants right on the beach selling drinks and food. Some have music.
I took a picture of the Copacabana Palace hotel which Gus said was very expensive. Looks very nice from the outside!
Tomorrow we board the Regent Voyager and will probably spend our time getting familiar with the ship and unpacking.
Sunday, March 17, 2024 – Happy St. Patrick’s Day! After our overnight flight from Atlanta to Rio de Janeiro, we landed about 7:00AM. We went through passport control, then quickly got our luggage (both bags arrived!), then waited in a useless line for customs. I don’t know what was holding up the line, as we literally just had to walk out of the airport. Our guide, Gus, was waiting for us – always a relief – as we walked out of the airport about 8:00AM. He told us he is 58 years old, but he was an exchange student in the United States, living in Oregon as a high school senior. His English is very good and I understand about 95% of what he says ( he talks a little fast). Yes it is hot in Rio de Janeiro – the “feels like” temp is 102°.
The first stop today was the Christ the Redeemer Statue. Unfortunately, it is hazy today, so we did not get a clear, crisp view. The statue is impressive. It is 98 feet high and sits on a 26 foot pedestal. To get to the statue, we rode a train up the mountain for about 20 minutes, then an elevator, then 2 escalators to reach the top. The train was built before the statue because people use to enjoy going up this mountain for the views! It was very crowded at the top. The statue is solid, unlike the Statue of Liberty, so you cannot go inside. But there is a small chapel on the backside of the pedestal. We could not go into the chapel as they were performing baptisms. The statue was completed in 1931, consecrated in 2006, and named one of the New Seven Wonders of the world in 2007. I thought the statues’ face was very peaceful, and his outstretched arms were very welcoming. From the observation deck, we had expansive, 360° views of Rio de Janeiro. We could see the rowing venue used for the Olympics – and there were several boats in the water! We could see Sugarloaf mountain which is our next stop, horse racing track, equestrian jumping tracing area, two brothers mountains, Copacabana Beach, the Hilton hotel where we’re staying, the bay and harbor where our boat will dock Tuesday, and a bridge 8.5 miles long! Great views!
Leaving Christ the Redeemer, we drove to Sugarloaf mountain. While Gus was looking for a parking spot, we walked down to Red Beach which was wall to wall beach umbrellas! It is called red beach because of the color of the sand, but it reminded me of the sand I saw in Illinois, except it was much finer. The picture does not do the sand color justice.
Gus could not find a parking spot, so we were on our own to visit Sugarloaf. I had ordered our tickets online ahead of time, and since we are over 60 years of age, we got to use the priority lane. We will ride two cable cars to get up to the top of Sugarloaf. We took a cable car up to the first peak, Urca. There are lots of shops and places to eat on Urca, but we kept going to the top of Sugarloaf, so we took the second cable car. The total elevation per Wikipedia’s is 1,299 feet. There are shops and restaurants at the top of Sugarloaf, too. Dave and I got a slice of pizza and enjoyed the view for awhile. The crowds were much less at Sugarloaf, but the views from Christ the Redeemer were better.
Then Gus drove us past a flea market near Ipanema Beach, which started when the “Girl from Ipanema” song was popular. Then past Ipanema Beach where there is a statue of Antonio Carlos Jobim (He was called “Tom”) who wrote the song. Ipanema Beach is in the Ipanema neighborhood which is one of the most affluent and trendy neighborhoods in Rio de Janeiro.
Next to Ipanema beach is Copacabana Beach, and our Hilton Hotel is across the street from Copacabana Beach. See photo above!
Saturday, March 16, 2024 – This is the day we leave for our trip. We are flying to Rio for a couple of days, and then we board Regent Seven Seas Voyager for a transatlantic cruise to Lisbon, Portugal. We had a nice leisurely morning, leaving home about noon for our flight from Sarasota to Atlanta, where we would catch our flight from Atlanta to Rio. That was the plan…..Soon after we left home, I got a text that our flight from Sarasota was delayed about an hour, which meant catching our flight from Atlanta to Rio was in jeopardy. We got on the phone and called Delta – the agent was worthless – he wanted to rebook our flight and was going to charge us! We asked for a supervisor, and he gave us a different number to call. Fortunately, we got a very helpful person. We were able to switch our flight from Sarasota to Tampa, but we had no time to spare! The traffic was atrocious and we were not sure we were going to make the Tampa flight. As it turned out, we parked the car, checked our bags, made it through security with a little hiccup: Dave beeped and also, he had packed his speaker which they had to take out of his carryon and X-ray it separately. Interesting the RDIF envelopes we have for our passports is what beeped on Dave. He put the passports in the tray to be scanned, but didn’t put the RDIF envelopes in because he thought they were just like paper. We got to the gate and the flight was boarding! But, the good news is that we made it. However, the nice leisurely lunch on the way to Sarasota that we missed meant we didn’t eat from breakfast until about 6:30PM when we grabbed a sandwich in the Atlanta airport. I told Dave it was part of our pre-cruise diet! Very nerve-racking start to our vacation.
We had Delta Premium seats, which is the old business class. Not as nice as United, and my TV monitor kept losing the sound….so no “in-flight entertainment” for me! They did bring me a glass of wine from first class to compensate for no monitor….We were served a dinner of chicken with potatoes and broccolini, and breakfast was an egg and cheese thing with yogurt. The best thing of all the food was the yogurt….looking forward to a better day when we get to Rio, where the temperature is forecast to be 92°.
Our trip from Rio de Janeiro to London map and itinerary:
We leave March 16, 2024 and are scheduled to fly from Sarasota to Rio de Janeiro by way of Atlanta. We will arrive in Rio very early Sunday morning and we have planned to tour for two days with “Gus”.
We plan to stay in Lisbon after the cruise, flying home on April 9.