Cruising and ‘cruisin. With 8 days on board unpacking is a given. As such the suitcase is stowed under the bed and will not be seen for a week which just makes things so much easier and so much more civilised. Even clothing that may be a bit past its used by date look and smell better if its hanging in a wardrobe. Although the discovery of a washing machine at our last Airbnb did marvels for us and made it a bit easier to make some new friends.
We have joined an APT travelling group that has bused up from Barcelona via Lisbon. Many are not young and Im amazed at the schedule they are expected to maintain. They have had almost 20 hours in a bus over the last 2 days with a one night stop in Lisbon and then they punctuate that with tours and lectures! Even we have one on Portuguese history at 10 oclock. Its billed as ‘all you wanted to know about Portuguese history, for some that will take no time at all! But be ready for some test questions tomorrow!
Everything is there but just a Burcher muesli and a little cheese and meat is fine for me. The English on board manage to tuck away enough food to feed an small army and it always surprises me just how much they eat for breakfast.
Just returned from the history lesson. Reinforces the fact that history is the story of the winners, not the losers. The perspective put on events can and has altered here depending on who is recounting the story. The positive manner our guide spoke about Alberta Salazar (think the spelling is OK) made me think they must be related. Our history books have him as a rather ruthless economically driven dictator, our guide had him as almost a benevolent father figure. Several former Portuguese colonies in Africa would not need a lot of thinking time to decide which way they would lean.
Just about to approach our biggest lock and indeed the biggest in Europe. The wall is 57 m tall so it is rather serious, the water level changes 35 m which again is rather serious and rather impressive. Very impressive. The statistics are quite startling but being inside this huge ‘bathtub is
even more so. We are, as I type away, rising at a surprisingly steady and rapid rate and heading skyward. The sunroof and navigation cabin have been lowered and Im anticipating an announcement telling us to keep low. Or certain how many of these locks we navigate but this is the grandest.
We have a shore excursion later today and in fact dont return until almost 10 oclock. The excursion includes a 600 step staircase pilgrimage then a visit to a vineyard for a ‘typical Portuguese meal.
If I stood up Id easily touch the roof of the lock system here, very impressive lock system. Just moving forward again.
