Lisbon

We had fancied a drive/sail tour for Lisbon and one Miguel Angelo was up for addressing this challenge. We were met by him and driver Tiago. There was a quick apology as we had coincidentaly arrived on the 50^th anniversary of the April 25^th revolution and traffic was a problem. Although this meant a couple of planned stops were removed from the itinerary we were lucky that our first view of the castle included a fly past of F16s.

A few minutes later we were treated to them going past the Sanctuary of Christ the King (inspired by the one in Brazil).

Our next stop was Basilica do Sagrado Coracao de Jesus which was the last earthly home of the Portugese Queen Mary 1. This seemed an appropriate stop given the name of our cruise ship. Although the tram wires were hard to avoid the church does have a beautiful park opposite. 

Inside is both grand and austere. The quailty of the marble detailing was particularly impressive.

There are some beautiful parks with the Edward VII being particularly impressive. The tree lined avenue seemed to go on forever.

As did the adjoining gardens with sculptures at the top. I am not sure the colourful teddies added much value, but they do detract from the fact that the water was missing from the main stone sculpture. Adjoining is Portugal's largest country flag but, as it is smaller than the one on top of the Australian parliament, it does not feature!

What was huge was the Jeronimos monastery which was started in 1501. It is being refurbished and is magnificent. Being a public holiday, the crowds stretched the 300 metre length of the façade. Another visit with more time is needed!

We then moved onto the waterfront and the allotted brief half hour was once more to give a flavour of what was available as a tempter for a future visit. The first ‘eye catcher’ was a monument to the age of discoveries in the heydays of the Portuguese Empire. Together with a purely monumental ‘lighthouse’ both were built with lightweight materials for the 1940 world exposition, torn down and then rebuilt in concrete in the 1960s.

By comparison the UNESCO Belem tower has been around since 1520. Originally a fortress it subsequently served as a lighthouse and then a customs office.  

With that the car part of the tour was over and it was onto a 12 metre Beneteau yacht for some lunch and then off to the high seas! Miguel was assisted by Susana who kept providing food from a voluminous galley.

And what a spread! Cold meats, cheeses and local bread to start with which were wonderful and washed down by beer/wine or a soft drink. This was followed by three different seafood-based salads (octopus, tuna and anchovies with garlic).

Then of course one could not finish such a meal without Portuguese tarts. These were the best I’ve ever experienced with moist custard and wonderfully crisp pastry all washed down with a local fortified wine.

A quick clear away followed by some deft manoeuvres and we were off down the Tagus river. Most of the buildings, sculptures and monuments seemed to have been designed for viewing from the river – and of course the views were not blocked by crowds.

The first to catch my eye was this one. No prizes for guessing what it is about!

The MAAT museum (Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology) is a wonderfully slim building which contrasts well with the original red brick power station. The diamond ring in the foreground is made from car wheels.

The water side view of the Belem tower is impressive. It is easy to imagine it originally surrounded by water although these days (due to river changes) it is a tidal experience. The queues of over an hour in length suggest this is also worth a future visit. 

We then headed up river and got as far aw QM2s berth before returning to port where Tiago was waiting to give us a lift back to our ship.

We had a false start to our departure and had to return to our berth due to a medical emergency. The upside was a dusk departure which meant a couple of colourful shots. The first is the Praça do Comércio.

And as we passed the Sanctuary of Christ the King the lights were turned on.

And finally, just scraping under the April 25 bridge…

A wonderful day thanks in large part to Miguel and his team. It has shown we need to return to Lisbon and spend at least a week to give this wonderful city some justice to all it has on offer.

The Canary Islands - Grand Canaria

We booked a personal tour for Grand Canaria with a focus on the inland mountains and away from the madding crowds. We were met by Ines and Juanjo who were a fun couple of which more in a moment. Our first stop was San Mateo with its picturesque square and church. The dead tree trunk in the foreground has been given a new life.

Inside the church was simple and neat with the exception of the roof which is a carpenter’s work of art.

The church overlooks the original main street with housing which (for the 17C) would have been very posh and in stark comparison to the other side of the church square.

Poor people could only afford dry stone walls. As time passed they would have been gradually able to access lime and slowly infill the stones to keep out the drafts. They were unlikely to be able to afford a completely lime (or later cement) rendered wall. Of course now the buildings are heritage listed and they are not allowed to render them in any case!

After some coffee in a noisy local establishment we continued to climb and towards the top had a stop with a commanding view. Most of the mountains are quite rugged. The island has coastal people and inland people with some of the latter eking out a living as farmers and rarely travelling to the coast. Some lived in caves and if you look closely towards the bottom of the main hill you can see a few of these.

The view attracts a few visitors and there were a few stalls with wonderful local produce. Most of the interior is too steep and dry for cows so the cheese is made predominantly from goat’s milk with some combined with sheep’s milk. It was hard to resist the tastings. Turning your back didn’t work!

The tastings did whet our appetite for lunch. We were taken to a pine forest where our guides put on some splendid local tapas like fare. (Not to mention Rjoca.)

After lunch our extrovert guides had us praying to the sun gods resulting in music emanating remotely from within the back pack. Lo and behold a bottle of locally produced dessert rum trying to get out….

The stop really produced a feeling of dejavu as it was so similar to camp sites in Canada. The smell of pine and birdsong added to very relaxed surroundings.

Suitably refreshed we continued ever upwards with our next stop the highest point on the island. In their younger days our guides used to host sky diving activities. Clearly some still have a yearning to fly.

The height here is some 2000 metres above sea level. Which is almost three times higher than Canberra. That said it pales into insignificance compared to Tenerife which can be seen in the background above the clouds. The high point there is some 4000 metres.

Looking West the land has given way to some development although the terrrain has ensured it is sparse. The visible point on the left of this shot is, at 1965 metres, the highest on the island. What was amazing were the number of cyclists who had made their way up. Comments like ‘you are never too old’ were not particularly convincing from my perspective….

And with that there was only one way to travel. On the way down we stopped at the Caldera de los Marteles. Interestingly, the bottom of this Caldera is fertile and a perfect grassland area. We were particularly lucky with our Spring timing as colourful blooms were everywhere.

Our route down included a long, narrow and largely one lane road. Fortunately stopping for a picture was not a problem as other traffic was almost non-existent. Here is a cave house. The sun shade over the entrance was a little extravagant…. 

And then the catholic church arrived. Initially in 1560 a small hermitage was built but over the years this was discarded and rebuilt to its current format. Although inaugurated in 1908 it was not completed until the 1940s! Certainly, somewhat of a ‘show off’ compared to the quality of house most lived in.

And with that we returned to QM2. A fantastic day which really opened our eyes to what the Canarie islands have to offer. The antics of our guides with a range of music, iPad shows in the car and their  third team member (the car plus a lot of imagination) really differentiated this tour from any other we have been on. A thoroughly enjoyable day. 

Namibia – Walvis Bay, Dune 7 and Swakopmund

We took potluck and hired an SUV at the port gate for our visit to Namibia. This is a large country with the land area being some four times that of GB but a population of only 2.5M. I suspect this population may be exceeded by the numerous flamingos that were ever visible from QM2. When we got up close the numbers defied imagination. There were hundreds of thousands. Everywhere along the waterfront was alive with a pink morass.

They contrasted well with the blue sky and unusually speckled cloud formation.

As we travelled down the coast a core industry for the country came into view – the production of salt. This 60 year old industry every year pumps 100 million cubic metres of sea water into 5,000 Hectares of evaporation ponds to produce over a million Tonnes of crude salt.

The salt goes through a series of evaporation and washing cycles to increase concentration and remove impurities. It is then stockpiled and trucked or bagged and sent to the port.

What was interesting was that many of the ponds were pink. This is due to Halophiles which are extreme salt-loving microorganisms that have a unique pigment resulting in the pinkish colour. These in turn colour the small shrimp that Flamingoes eat.

Fortunately rain is limited to about 2 days a year so stockpiles such as these are unlikely to be dissolved.

We then headed inland for a few kilometres. It quickly became apparent that sand plays a major role to the coast’s geography. As we headed away from the coast sand dunes increased in number culminating in our next stop – Dune 7. This is apparently the largest in Namibia although the reason for its name is less certain. It is certainly much larger that any on Australia’s Fraser island. Our enquiry as to its height met with a bemused comment that it is changing all the time - an approximation would have done me!

It is vast and hard to get a comparative scale although hopefully these posts help.

Our final stop was Swakopmund. This German heritage town has some wonderful architecture. The earliest date I spotted was 1902.

The nearby museum park was a pleasantly cool spot to wonder through.

After some lunch and a wonder through town it was time to head back to the ship via the coast road. The range of dunes continued but take note of this unique shot as it will all change with the next bout of wind! 

We are now off for our longest continuous period of sea days – 7 – should be relaxing….!

Kirstenbosch – Cape Town

We had a two day stop in Cape Town and opted to have a day doing our own thing and one doing a trip to Kirstenbosch botanical gardens and wine ‘farm’. (I find South Africa’s term a little less than romantic.)

The gardens comprise one fabulous view after another. They are large so we decided to focus on height and get to the tree canopy walk. The path up was enchanting.

And the tree canopy walkway opened up the views with castle rock in the background. The birdsong was a really varied although it did need to compete with loudhailers from the annual marathon that ran adjacent to the gardens and caused quite a bit of a challenge in getting our coach in and out.

The blues and greens of a perfect day with manicured lawns and rugged mountains - how would you define idyllic?

The bird life was plentiful although quite hard to spot. This honeyeater really blended well with its surroundings.

There was a Jurassic area where a variety of skeletons had been found. There was also one Cycad. This rare tree was found and cloned by John Medley Wood during the turn of the (18^th) century. The bark used to be harvested for medicinal purposes. There are now some 500 trees in various parts of the world but all have been cultivated from this tree. It is male and not viable as there are no known female Cycads. This one has a cage, sensors and cameras to thwart miscreants.

All of which was too much information and walking for some of our team – where once more coffee became the focus.

Suitably refreshed our next stop continued the spectacular views. Kirstenbosch wine farm also benefitted from green lawns, blue sky, rugged mountains with the addition of Autumnal rustic vines.

The farm buildings were beautiful Dutch inspired architecture with white walls, thatched roofs and a duck pond to add to the calm scene. That was until there was a lively fracas between two ducks nipping and chasing one another which caused great amusement to onlookers including shrieks from some excited children.

Inside, the visit returned to calm where wine barrels in a beautifully lit cellar were the penultimate stop to some tasting.

Our arrival in Cape Town overlapped with Queen Victoria. The plan was to move onto her berth when she departed  however, the wind running down the harbour really picked up and her departure was delayed some 12 hours.

The upside was that it was not at night but sunrise when she departed making for interesting manouvres.

There is no mistaking where we are when you see this shot taken from the waterfront.

The V&A waterfront has expanded since our last visit and is even more lively than before. However, seals showing off seems to have been handed down over the years.

We walked the 1km or so from the ship to V&A on a few occasions. There were several groups who took the opportunity to perform their uniquely South African songs and dances. 

To get the full effect here is a video.

One item that is new is the pedestrian swing bridge which we were fortunate to see opening on a couple of occasions.

A wonderful visit and really interesting notwithstanding our earlier trips to this colourful part of the world.