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We needed an overnight in Lisbon in order to catch the Silver Cloud out of Lisbon on the following day. We no longer need a Covid test to fly, but did need the certificates of vaccination for the ship
We stayed at the Britannia Hotel, an "historic" small hotel in one of the original Art Deco houses. This being Portugal, they left a suitably large decanter of Port in the room, which we managed to finish off
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We took a longish walk to the Gulbenkian museum:. This reflect the wealth of the Gulbenkian founder - it was an eclectic collection of Old Master paintings, 16th century carpets and ceramics from Persia, plus artifacts from across Asia
Of Armenian origin, Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian was born in Üsküdar, in Turkey, in the middle of the Ottoman Empire. In 1896, due to the persecution suffered by the Armenian community, Gulbenkian left Turkey with his family. After a brief stint in Cairo, he established himself in London and acquired British nationality. Later, he bought a small palace located on Avenue d’Iéna, in Paris. With the outbreak of the Second World War, Gulbenkian moved to Lisbon, where he stayed until his death in 1955.
After breakfast the next day we checked out of the hotel and left, our luggage there. We had a walk down to the front in Lisbon , and along the river until we found the Silver Cloud. We regained dour energy via a stop at the sea for a pasteis that the boys nicked at breakfast
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We had a couple of stops at the Fabrica de Nata restaurant close to the hotel. I really did not want to go there, but the boys insisted. And the next day as we returned to the hotel to pick up our bags, they spotted the Fabrica da Nata again and wanted one (or two) for the road, washed down with a glass of Port! I am a soft touh, and we stopped there again
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We took a taxi from the hotel to the ship. Just as well I knew where it was, the taxi driver certainly did not have a clue. Anyway we beat the queue of punters who would arrive later from the Silversea Hotel, and we were aboard before 2 . We were quickly into shipboard life and after the compulsory safety drills, our life was our own.
It was a dramatic sail out from Lisbon, past the riverside memorials to past Portugese explorers and under the modern suspension bridge