Lisbon, Portugal

We arrived in Lisbon on May 17th in the morning, and greeted the SS Rydam as

she pulled into port that afternoon at 1500 hours.

Here we are coming into Lisbon, Portugal.  

See the Tagus River where the S S Rydam will come in.

Seeing the S S Ryndam coming into port, she looked spectacular to the three of us! She sailed up the Tagus River. Remember that opinion I had of my room when I first boarded the ship?  Now that room looked incredible! It had been my home since January 5th!!!   I was so glad to be back.  We had ONE DAY to explore Lisbon, Portugal and had enough energy to do a little.  

No description of Portugal is complete without mentioning the Pilgrimage of Fatima.  This is a second only to the importance to that of Lourdes for Roman Catholic authorities on May, 1917.  Three local kids aged 10, 9, and 7, were tending sheep near the village of Fatimas when they saw a vision of a Lady who informed tham that she was from Heaven and would return on the 13th day of each month until her final appearance on October 13.  The kids say that they saw this miracle each month until October 13,, when 70,000 people gather to witness this.  It was raining heavily, but suddenly the rain stopped.  The sun came out and seemed to whirl around in brilliant circles of light, then appeared to project itself toward the crowd.  They thought the end of the world had come so they prostrated themselves.  In 1970 on the 12th and 13th of the month the roads to Fatima are full of people who come to the hill where a huge basilica was built.  Mass is said and a statue of Our Lady of Fatima is brought out and carried to the high altar on the open-air sanctuary.  It’s a huge piece of Portugal’s history.

Lisbon is the seaport capital of Portugal.  It had modern buildings and shops.

This was two ladies peeking out of a window to hang their laundry.  We found this way of doing laundry in many countries.  

Lisbon has some very impressive parks.  This is a sculptured park that reminded us of a maze.  I’d hate to be the gardener that has to keep the hedges trimmed evey single week!!!

There are many parks in Lisbon.  This one had both black and white swans in it.  I had never seen a black swan before and didn’t know they existed.

The streets were narrow.  Notice the balconies to every apartment.  

Some of the inner city streets go around the parks and fountains.  

People walk to most places.  The downtown area of Lisbon is very busy.  

There are vestiges of its history, especially close to the river.

This is the place where Vasco de Gama left. He was a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea.  His voyage was the first to link Europe and Asia by an ocean route, connecting the Atlantic and the Indian oceans.

These were rowers on the Tagus River in Lisbon. 

Since we only had ONE day in Portugal, we didn’t get to see as much as we would have liked.  It was time to get ready to go home to the USA!!  

We left Lisbon, Portugal on May 18, 1970 at 2000 hours.

NEXT AND LAST PORT – NEW YORK CITY, U.S.A.  😊