Sailing out into the Atlantic we are now on the way up the Spanish and Portuguese coasts. The sea is making a moderate swell of about two metres and there is a strong wind. It is significantly cooler than it was back in the Mediterranean, about 18 C, little humidity. The arrival time in Lisbon is later than normal and we start making our way up the Tagus River around 10am.

It is a great sail up the river, narrowing as we move further up stream and pass under the ‘25th April’ bridge. It is so named because it was on that day in 1974 that there was a ‘peaceful’ revolution against the long time dictator, Salazar, and the establishment of the current democratic parliamentary system.

After going through the docking process we were able to get ashore for a couple of hours and have a look around what is known as the Commercial Square, with the old Palace and Arch dominating the view. Plenty of tourist activity here, restaurants etc. The Pope is due in town in about three weeks and there is a lot of cleaning up and barricades being erected. There will be a big crowd here in the Square.

We returned to the ship for lunch before our tour in the afternoon to see some of the major sights.
The tour took us to the other side of the Tagus River across the 25th April bridge. It is built in the style of San Francisco’s Golden Gate bridge but has two decks, one for the railway and the other road traffic.

Looking down on the city from the other side is the Christ statue, a big but I think smaller version of the one in Rio. Still impressive. Great view from here of the city and the 25th April bridge.

Back on the other side we headed for the Maritime Museum housed in the Jerónimos Monastery. The guide goes through this fairly quickly, but it is a great overview of the contents documenting Portugal’s maritime history of the 15th to 17th centuries.

Our guide was a fairly enthusiastic promoter of Portugal’s leading place, ahead of the Spanish and Dutch, as the earliest European navigators, map makers etc. He sited some recent studies suggesting they made it to Australia ahead of the Dutch.

We had a light snack in the Museum cafe, a genuine Portuguese Tart. This is their answer to the vanilla slice! The tart had a crispy pastry shell and commendable contents. A worthy challenger!

Across the road on the banks of the Tagus is the impressive Monument to the Discoveries and plaza map.

Further down the river is the last remaining 16th century fort, the Belém tower. This area was the starting point for many of the exploration voyages.

Back on board the ship the sail away at around 10 pm under the 25th April bridge in the twilight was memorable. Great views of the buildings and lights coming on as we headed off north into the Atlantic.