Visiting Lisbon, Portugal

This morning, around 6:30am, as the sun rose, we sailed (actually motored) our way to dock in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. Locally, the name of the city is Lisboa, pronounced “Leezh-boh-ah”.

The sun rises over Lisbon, Portugal

We left the ship, after breakfast of course, around 8:30am, boarded the ubiquitous tour buses we’ve so become accustomed to, and got a tour of Lisbon, stopping first at the Tower of Lisbon, then the Explorer’s Monument, and then the Cathedral of Geronimo (where famed explorer Vasco de Gama is buried). The latter two stops were interesting, but the cathedral was overcrowded with tourists.

After the cathedral tour, we stopped in at another Lisbon landmark, Pasteis de Belem, a pastry and coffee shop that has been around since 1837, and which specialized in little custard tarts you sprinkle with powdered sugar and cinnamon. Yum!

Linda, Bas, Diane, and Krystyana after a great cafe stop in Lisbon, Portugal

From there the bus took us out from the Belem area to the heart of Lisbon, and on to the top of the tallest hill of Lisbon, where we disembarked, and made our way down the hill for some sightseeing on foot. We stumbled over a rather derelict building built in 1922 which had phenomenal tile work and statuary, and then after about three quarters of an hour, stopped into a local restaurant with outdoor seating and dined on seafood (Bas had pizza, and Diane, who had joined us, had vegetarian food – a mushroom omelet.

We then took a taxi to visit one of our favorite trip things to see, namely the local aquarium. The one in Lisbon is called the Oceanarium, and is located some ways out of town, but it’s absolutely brilliant. It has one of the best designs for a giant ocean tank, where huge viewing spaces are available all the way around, and other exhibits are well integrated into the environment. The tank was well stocked with a variety of interesting species, including a mola-mola (ocean sunfish), over a half dozen species of sharks, and likewise a number of different species of rays – and all in good health.

Diane and Linda observe the plethora of wildlife in the giant tank at the Lisbon Oceanarium

We had to hustle, as we only had an hour available because we had dawdled a bit at lunch, but we managed to get through everything in that time, making back to the ship only two minutes later than intended (and it did not leave without us).

Pre-dinner we learned how to tie a turban – two different ways and also learned about Spanish wines. During dinner we were joined by a Lindblad staff cultural historian, Steve Blamires from Scotland, who specializes in the history of the British Isles, and had a fascinating discussion on a range of topics including the building of places like Stonehenge, the Celtic peoples and their mythology and languages, cultural elements which gain or lose significance with the passage of time, and the decline of the Roman civilization. While little of our discussion was about the Iberian peninsula where we currently are visiting, the topics we did discuss were incredibly interesting and mentally stimulating. Both kids ended up getting very engrossed as well (although Bas’ tiredness finally won out and he headed back to his room). Steve will continue on the next segment the Endeavour goes on after it drops us off in Portsmouth, which is a tour of the British Isles (which is where David Barnes will be rejoining the vessel as well).

Tomorrow’s (actually by the time this posts it will be today’s, locally speaking) plans include a photography lecture followed by a photo critique session and then the rest of the day in Oporto, Portugal, where we will visit the Sandeman port house (where they make port wine), among other places.

We had an early wake-up at 6:30am Portugal time, which was 5:30am Morocco time, had breakfast, and then attended a presentation by the on-board historian, David Barnes (who sadly had to leave today, Tuesday, for another Lindblad trip), about the Iberian peninsula and the clashes between Christianity and Islam as well as Judaism, or more accurately the followers of each of those three mono-deistic religions.

While much of the Iberian peninsula (which is where Spain and Portugal are now located) was Muslim for hundreds of years, a crusade formed in the Christian northwest of the peninsula under the flag of St. James – who was referred to as Santiago Matamores (“death to the Moors”), even though he had lived and died some 1400 years before the crusade was even initiated. The cathedral at Santiago de Compostela, which we will be visiting in a few days, are said to contain the remains of St. James, and it is the third most popular Christian pilgrimage site in the world, after Jerusalem and the Vatican in Rome.

Another fascinating point David brought up was the history of why one can see the famous Iberian ham shanks at the entrance to most bars and restaurants in Spain, as well as displays of wine. Apparently, after 1492, when the last Moorish stronghold, Granada, fell to the crusade led by Ferdinand and Isabella, Muslims and Jews were told they either had to convert to Christianity or leave the peninsula (or face near certain death for being infidels). The Spanish Inquisition then would assert that converts had falsely converted, and they would be tested by being forced to eat pork (which neither devout Jews nor Muslims would eat) and drink wine (which devout Muslims would not do). Hence the start of the tradition that evolved into tapas – namely that of offering a small plate of ham along with a cup of wine to those entering a bar or similar establishment to weed out false converts to Christianity.

Amazingly, while the effort to weed out “false believers” has faded, the practice of hanging smoked hams and showing wines has lived on and become a part of Spain’s culinary culture.

David’s presentation was fascinating, but short, due in part to a video promoting the partnership of Lindblad and the National Geographic as well as a scheduled presentation on photograph techniques with digital cameras following his presentation. We’ll miss David’s interesting insights and witty commentaries.

While we had been sleeping and watching lectures the ship had made its way to Portugal, and was nearing Portimao, our destination for the day.

We had an early lunch before boarding buses to visit the historical city of Silves (pronounced “Sihl-vihsh”), the site of a Moorish fortress and old cathedral. We were apparently supposed to visit the village of Alte too, but I suspect the whole upset in our cruise schedule contributed to that stop being skipped.

Silves was a village surrounding a rather steep hill upon which a fortress known as Xelb sat, overlooking the town and river below. Xelb, which is now referred to as Castelo Silves, started as Roman fortification that was then later absorbed into a Moorish structure. Directly beneath the fortress was a Catholic cathedral, locally referred to as See of Silves, built sometime in the latter half of the thirteenth century. Parts of the cathedral collapsed during the massive Lisbon earthquake of 1755. This earthquake, incidentally, had a huge range, destroying whole towns and buildings as far south as mid-Morocco, and was felt as far away as Jamaica (presumably as a result of a tsunami generated by the earthquake).

We walked up the hill to the fortress, which is going through renovation/restoration in the courtyard and garden area, so our visit was limited to walking the top of the rather extensive walls. Great views of the surrounding area, but we felt a bit saddened to see how much modern building sprawl there was everywhere, destroying, at least in our minds, the quaintness and atmosphere of antiquity that some parts of the village still showed as we walked uphill through it. Sadly though, many of those older homes appear to be in a state of disrepair, so we have fallen antiquity battling well kept modernity, and the former will likely lose out as people continue to disregard community history in exchange for great personal comfort.

Bas tries to move the sword of a statue in Silves, Portugal

After our circuit of the fortress walls we visited the cathedral and marveled at all the relics and burial markers – a number of people are buried under large marble slabs in the floor of the cathedral, as has been the tradition with older cathedrals for centuries. The newer part of the cathedral, rebuilt after 1755, was noticeably different in structure and tone from the older part that had withstood the great earthquake.

We made our way down to a café where we were treated to ice cream, and then returned to Portimao, stopping at the Mirador of St. Catherine, a small chapel dedicated to St. Catherine surrounded by fortifications. This structure had a great view of the nearby beaches and ocean, but again was surrounded by modern construction.

Lindblad's National Geographic Endeavour in port at Portimao, Portugal

Back on board the ship we dressed up for the Captain’s cocktail party, had a nice dinner, and collapsed to bed, still somewhat tired and sleep deprived, but did finally sleep pretty well.

Sunday went as planned. After an early breakfast we were loaded onto the buses we had been using for the past couple of days, along with our luggage, and taken to the Moroccan city of Meknez (also spelled Meknes), which was about a two and a half hour bus ride.

Meknes was originally built by Moroccan Sultan Moulay Ismael in the 18th century in an effort to create a place that would be analogous to Versailles. Meknes’ building consumed huge resources, with stones and materials taken from other Moroccan cities for its buildings.

Nowadays, Meknes is just another Moroccan city, albeit one with a rich history. Much of the original Meknes no longer exists, as it had been built with wood, but we visited the granaries and stables, as well as several gates and the mausoleum of Moulay Ismael. The granaries were rather impressive in terms of their size, but only the corner stone columns of the stables remain, so other than the sheer size of the stables (which could hold over a thousand horses), there was not much left to see. The mausoleum also serves as a place of prayer, and we were privileged to be allowed in to see it (after taking off our shoes).

As time was limited, because we needed to get to the ship Sunday evening, we didn’t see much else of Meknes other than a couple of gates into the old medina before heading to the ruins of the Roman city of Volubilis, about 30 minutes away. I am not sure if Meknes was just not meeting expectations based on the comparison made to Versailles or rather because our whole visit felt abbreviated and rushed due to time constraints. Not sure we’ll ever find out.

Along the way to Volubilis, we passed the city of Moulay Idriss, which contains the mosque of Moulay Idriss, an Islamic holy place. The city was originally listed as part of the tour, but again due to time limitations we merely drove by after a short stop some distance away to take pictures of the city.

Volubilis was far more extensive than we had expected, and apparently archeologists have been slowly reconstructing parts of the city, including some walls and columns. We had a tour provided by a local guide who was a bit difficult to understand, but we did spend about 90 minutes walking around with him and our fellow bus travelers. Again, we could have easily spent more time exploring other parts of the ruins, but we needed to get to our prearranged lunch at the Hotel Volubilis, up on a hill overlooking the ruins.

Bas stands in the ruins of the Roman city of Volubilis in Morocco

The view at lunch was great, but service was slow, and again, due to time pressures, we had to rush out as the servers were trying to serve us traditional mint tea at the end of our meal (with no dessert apparently).

It was a long three and a half hour bus ride back to Casablanca where we finally saw our ship, Lindblad’s National Geographic Endeavour – our home for the next eight days. It was a real relief, as we had visions of spending the rest of our tour on tour buses, as we had the last several days – I think we had more bus time than time out of the bus, which was not exactly our idea of the sort of expedition we thought we had signed up for.

Once we entered the ship, we were whisked off to our cabins – understandably smaller than a typical hotel room, but comfortable. We then headed up to the lounge for a glass of champagne, some snacks, and our ship safety drill, followed by an orientation and buffet dinner. Along the way we unpacked our bags completely for the first time in two weeks.

Jake, Krystyana, and Linda during the safety drill on Lindblad's National Geographic Endeavour

Our first night’s sleep on board was not as restful as we would have liked, as we needed to acclimate to being on a moving ship, including the rocking motion, the rumbling of the engines, and the resulting creaking in our cabin. But again, it was good to know we were sitting put with our clothes in one place for a while (for the record, our second night was much more restful).

Now that I have a working (albeit oddly) working phone data connection, I find I can’t get a decent WiFi connection in my hotel in Rabat. Ah well.

We had an early start yesterday morning in order to be able to get to our hotel in Rabat, Morocco’s capitol, at a reasonable time. We got to Casablanca, Morocco’s center of commerce and industry after a few hours in our bus, stopping briefly at Mohammed the 5th Square. King Mohammed the 5th was the father of King Hassan the 2nd, who in turn is the father of Morocco’s present King Mohammed the 6th.

One of the things that really struck us in Casablanca was how many satellite dishes were all over the place on residential buildings. It seems that the satellite dish is the national flower of Morocco.

Another stop in Casablanca was the world’s largest mosque, named in honor of King Hassan the 2nd. The mosque’s minaret, at 200 meters high, has an elevator inside, and 20,000 can worship inside and another 100,000 outside. Due to religious privacy laws we were not permitted inside, however.

After a reasonable but late lunch at the La Mer restaurant, we drove up to Rabat and visited the Oudeya Casbah, with its great ocean view and narrow alleys, painted white and blue. Very reminiscent of Santorini and Mykonos in Greece.

We ended our tour of Rabat at the Mausoleum of Mohammed the 5th, which features the sarcophagus of the named monarch, as well as sarcophogi of King Hassan the 2nd and his brother, Prince Abdullah.

Arriving at our hotel in Rabat was welcome indeed, especially as it was past 6pm. At our 8pm dinner it was announced that while our ship had finally come out of dry dock, it was now doing sea trials, and there was no conclusion yet as to when we might be able to board.

We had an even earlier start this morning as the bus ride to Fes (same as Fez, but apparently Fes with an ’s’ is the correct spelling) takes about three hours. We arrived in Fes at just before 11am, starting with a visit to a tile factory where tiles are still made by hand. Quite an amazing process (although by American terms it might be deemed a sweat shop), which produces some beautiful pieces of work.

Next up was the main reason for our visit - the medina of Old Fes, which is celebrating its 1200 year anniversary this year. Old Fes, with it’s 300,000 inhabitants and tens of thousands satellite dishes which bloom on the roofs like some sort of wildly spreading fungus, is a warren of narrow paths filled with shops of all sorts.

We went through the butcher’s section, where we saw sheep, goat, and camel parts, including udders, brains, and heads. We also visited various artisnal sections, like that of the leather workers, the bronze makers, herbalists, weavers, and more. Endlessly fascinating. We where also in the photographers group, in which we were joined by Massimo, an Italian photographer working for National Geographic, as our photography mentor.

Lunch (late) was a Morrocan-style meal (unfortunately serving lamb as the only meat - only Linda ate that) at the Palais Mnebhi featuring a belly dancer. We had a good time, especially as it was cooler than outside and we could sit for a while (photo above is from there). Even more welcome was the announcement made during lunch that our ship was finally en route and we would be boarding her in Casablanca tomorrow evening and having dinner on board. We had been semi-seriously joking about this becoming a bus tour instead of a cruise the way things were going.

After a bit more touring of the souks we now find ourselves on the way back to Rabat for dinner at a private home at 8pm tonight.

Tomorrow we are off to visit Meknes, known as the Moroccan Versailles, and the old Roman fortification known as Volubilis. And on Monday we should be in Portugal, finally, just one day later than originally planned. It’s a shame we won’t be able to go to Sark in the Channel Islands en route to England, but nice that we get to see Meknes and Volubilis, as we had read about both in various books recommended by Lindblad prior to our trip.

My Internet connection is about to end so I need to write this quickly…

We just learned tonight that the National Geographic Endeavour has not been released from dry dock in the Canary Islands, so we don’t actually have a ship to board tomorrow.

This requires a change in plans, which means we are now going by bus to Rabat, with a lunch stop in Casablanca, and will stay two nights in Rabat. On Saturday we will go from Rabat to Fez to spend the day in Fez, and on Sunday we will be going to see the ruins of Volubilis (a Roman city), Moulay Idriss, and Meknez, and then hopefully will board ship on Sunday evening in Rabat.

This change in itinerary sadly means that we will not be going to Sark in the Channel Islands. Once we are on ship I will update the Current Itinerary page.

We’re pretty beat. The Lindblad/National Geographic folks have been keeping us very busy, and we’re about to head out again for a final dinner in Marrakesh in a few minutes, so no time for photos right now, alas, nor much verbiage (and I’m sure there will be rejoicing as a result of that).

Yesterday we went back into the Souk, visited the leather workers, metal workers, and a then had a presentation at an herbalist’s shop about a variety of herbs that can be used to treat various ailments, or improve various conditions. These ranged from getting rid of migraines to removing wrinkles. Pretty entertaining and interesting. The herbalist shop also offered various spices and oils for cooking - we’ll be experimenting with those when we get home.

We also visited the Medersa Ben Youssef, formerly a school/college where the Koran was studied, and saw how students lived, and where the performed their ablutions. Shopping followed.

After lunch back at the hotel, we visited the Koutoubia Mosque (outside only, as non-Muslims are not permitted inside), the Saadian Tombs (interesting, but the highlights for many appeared to be a rare (for us) owl and live tortoise living wild on the property, and the Bahia Palace (stunningly beautiful). We also observed that wild white storks have made nests upon most of the tall buildings around, which are mostly the towers of mosques. Storks reportedly bring good luck (in addition to bringing babies).

Dinner was in the beautiful setting of the Beldi Country Club, a few minutes outside Marrakesh. We were entered by Ganoui tribal musicians as we walked across lantern lit, rug covered paths. Excellent ambiance and food.

This morning we had an early start as we boarded one of 25 or so Land Rovers to take a tour of part of the nearby Atlas mountains, home to a number of Berber villages and tribes. Amazing views and scenery, as well as views of daily village life. Most terrifying incident was when Diane was almost taken down by a horde of urchins (little Berber kids) hoping to get some coins from her. The twisty turny narrow roads were pretty harrowing too. We had lunch at a very pretty hideaway in the mountains called La Rosarie - a place filled with flowers (mostly roses).

When it was time to return to Marrakesh, Linda and the kids returned to the hotel while I went with a small group of about ten people to visit the Dar Si Said Museum and look at some historical artifacts. The museum was mildly interesting, but in serious need of upkeep.

And dinner tonight is set for the heart of the medina at the Stylia restaurant, where we are to be greeted by blue men of the desert holding lit torches.

Maybe there’ll be a chance for photos later tonight or tomorrow - we’ve taken hundreds.

Tomorrow we head to Safi to board the National Geographic Endeavour and do some exploring of Safi itself.