Atlantic Adventurer Cruise: Day 12, Lisbon, Portugal Day 2

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Day 12, Lisbon, Portugal Day 2

Today is our second day in Lisbon and we booked a ship's tour to the medieval city of Obidos.  We met our tour group and were off to the bus for probably the first of many bus rides on this trip.  It is approximately a one-hour drive to Obidos from the ship and we were able to see the some of the Portuguese countryside.  The area reminded us of our own area as it was hilly and not very green this time of the year.

As I said earlier, Obidos is a medieval city which means it is a fortified walled city and the wall was apparent as we drove up.  Calling Obidos a city is a little misleading as it is more of a village.  This tour allowed us to explore on our own so after a brief introduction to Obidos by our guide, we were off to explore.  We entered the city through a gate and Val decided to explore some of the streets while I climbed up to walk on the wall.  The wall completely surrounded the city and you could walk all the way around, but I didn’t think I would have enough time so I only walked part way.

The entrance through the wall into Obidos.

These are the walls and ceiling of the entrance.

While Val walked through the town and checked out the shops ...

I walked along the wall and saw the village from above.

As can be seen by the wall in the background, the town is built on a hillside.

Walking the wall.

 

When I climbed down off the wall who should I run into to but Val.  She had wandered down a side street and ended up right where I came down.  Compared to the main street, this street was very quiet, but we found a small shop selling ceramic tiles that were hand painted by the husband and wife who owned the shop.  They were very nice and we decided we would return before we left and see if could find something that we could hang outside our house.

We headed back to the main street and walked up towards the upper end where there is a church.  There were many shops and places to eat and drink and we stopped at a few of the shops looking for gifts.  We also found a shop selling Fado music where we purchased a CD of traditional Fado, which was something we wanted to do before we left Portugal.

There was another entrance through the wall in the upper part of town.

Outside the wall there was a nice view of the surrounding countryside.

That's the entrance to the right with a guard house beside it.

Looking back into Obidos from outside.

We continued exploring the city, but time passed quickly and it was getting near the time when we had to return to the bus.  We returned to the tile shop and found a set of tiles we liked and purchased them.  The design we chose was called the Wind Rose and looked like some sort of compass, but wasn’t.  The owner tried to explain it to us, but I still don’t know quite what it represents so I’ll have to do a little more research when I get home.  He also showed us the process used to imprint the design and do the painting which was very interesting.  He carefully wrapped the four tiles in layers of bubble wrap so they would survive the trip home and then we had to get back to the bus for our return trip to ship.

Inside the tile shop.

The Wind Rose Tiles we bought.

The owner shows us how he transfers designs onto the tiles.

The work area where the tiles are painted.

The entrance is shared by cars and pedestrians and it's a tight squeeze.

The bus ride back was uneventful and we were soon back in Lisbon.  Instead of returning directly to the ship we got a bus tour through Lisbon.  We had seen much of it yesterday, but it was still interesting as we saw some things from different streets and got a different perspective.

Our tour over, we walked back to the ship.

We got back to the ship before 2:00 and went right off to eat lunch as we didn’t take the time to eat anything in Obidos and we were getting very hungry.  After lunch I wrote up the blog for our first day in Lisbon and then downloaded all the pictures we took today.  By the time it was finished, it was time to start our dinner routine.  After trivia and dinner, we finished the evening in the casino and my luck of the previous few days ran out and my gambling allotment for the day ran out very quickly.

After the casino, it was off to bed as we were losing another hour of sleep tonight.  That caught me by surprise as I didn’t think there would be a time difference between Portugal and Spain.  Tomorrow is a sea day so we get a little rest and can sleep in.

We had a great stay in Portugal and the Azores and would love to return for another visit.  The highlight of course was getting together with Greg and Isabelle, but we enjoyed all of our stay in Portugal.  Thanks again to Greg and Isabelle for showing us such a great time; Val and I hope we can do the same for you on a visit to California.

As we sailed under the bridge and out to sea, we saw this statue looking down on the city.