April 22

Our program this morning said those who were doing the World Cruise from Southampton to Southampton will have traveled 40312 miles tomorrow when we arrive in Southampton! Hard to believe that a week from today when we get back to New York we will have covered 40312 miles on the seas! Our stop in Lisbon yesterday was wonderful - it is a really beautiful place and our tour was great. We left in the morning and headed to a couple of seaside towns - one of which was quite a resort. It would be a nice place to come spend some time. We passed one beach which our guide said was favored by wind surfers the world over - the wind was very strong - the beach sand had formed large dunes on the other side of the road. Our guide said the road was often closed in the winter because of sand. Then we went into the hills to the town of Sintra which was the summer residence of the king back in the 14th century. It was a beautiful drive and a wonderful small town. The roads were steep and narrow. A lot of the houses had beautiful tile work on them - our guide said that at one point tile was cheaper than paint - sure made for some beautiful houses! The town itself is divided into the old section - where we wandered - full of cafes and small shops and the new section where people actually live and eat at places like McDonalds and Pizza Hut. The Americanization of the world continues. On the way back we came the inland route - freeway and all which was not as pretty to say the least. We got back to the ship in time for lunch and then packed some more. At 4 we pulled out of Lisbon - it was very cold and windy on deck but we got some good pictures. There is a statue on the banks of the Tagus River (which is where the port for Lisbon is) that is in honor of the explorers - it was Portugal who first did a lot of the exploration what with Vasco da Gama finding the route around Africa and all. It looks like the bow of a ship with statues of each of the explorers along the side - it was impressive to sail by. They also have a huge statue of Christ the King like the one in Rio de Janeiro that was given to the city by the Catholic Church in exchange for their neutrality in WWII. All in all Portugal was a beautiful place - clean and scenic and friendly.