Yesterday, we had another sea day that was much smoother than the day before. We enjoyed sitting on the balcony, playing some trivia, and listening to the evening, production show “Rock Opera.”  The show was dark and moody with the Princess cast accompanying a guest tenor.  Good show.  

Today, I was up in time to see the sail in into Lisbon.  The sun was just dawning as we sailed up the Tagus River estuary passing by the Tower of Belem, the Monument to the Discoveries, and the Cristo Rey statue and passing under the 25th of April Bridge.

In the afternoon, we walked off the ship to see a little bit of Lisbon.  This was another stop where I canceled our private tour this time not knowing how much stamina I would have.  As it turned out, we did just fine walking around on our own.  We found the cherry liqueur, ginja, that Philip wanted to try at a sidewalk cafe, Solar Do Vez, not far from the ship.  I guess that it is an acquired taste.  Philip likened it to cherry DayQuil, but he drank it.  The waiter did not offer to put a whole cherry from the bottle into his glass as many of the locals prefer.  We forgot to look for the leather belt that he thought he could buy here.  Perhaps another trip.  

The Irish comedian tonight, George Casey, sounded promising, but turned out like lots of cruise ship comedians relying on old jokes.  He teased kindly with a few audience members who took it well.  

The ship was scheduled to leave port at 10 p.m. so I went out on our balcony about then to watch the sail away.   It was a bit late leaving when I saw a small group of five or six people pushing a man in a wheel chair out through the gangway connecting the ship to the terminal.  He did not seem in immediate distress, but they did load him into an ambulance that left at normal street speed.  The others with him returned to the ship after transferring the man into the care of the local EMTs.  

Soon afterward, the ship started pulling away from the dock, and we were off to sail down the Tagus River toward the Atlantic.  At the beginning of the sail away, the ship was in an angled section, and I could see the opposite side of the river and the Cristo Rey statue lit up beautifully.  We straightened out and passed under the bridge and by the Monument to the Discoveries which was also lit on the river side.  The Belem Tower was lit only on the street side so we did not get much more than a look at its silhouette.  

We have two more days at sea now before our last port of this trip in the Azores.