| It was a beautiful day. We went to Celebrity Central for our excursion to Évora, a UNESCO Heritage Site. It was something different from the usual Lisbon ones to choose from, some of which weren't that good apparently. On the dockside were stilt walkers to have your photo taken with and also a band. Someone was also handing out Porto de Lisboa baseball caps. |
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| Our guide was Maria, who didn't have a paddle because they weren't ready, and had been told to bring something to hold up like an umbrella, so had a little flower of her daughter's. If we had an escort, we had no idea who it was. The drive to Évora takes two hours, including a twenty minute toilet break at a service station. I ended up having problems with that damn bag again. Whatever they used on the strap came off with the sunscreen so I had black bits all over where that was as well as black marks on my dress. It was a £40 piece of crap! |
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| We were dropped off in a car park and the humidity was a nightmare. Maria kept us mainly in the shade as we made our first stop in a park, which had a replica palace and also a statue of Vasco da Gama. Then we went onto a church. Could there please be ONE city tour which DOESN'T include a church???? |
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| Then we went to the Capela Dos Ossos, which has walls covered in human bones and skulls. If you wanted to take photos of video you had to pay one euro. It was quite eerie, and the floor uneven so easy to lose your footing with so many people (including day visitors) crammed into such a small space. |
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| After walking up a sheer incline of steps, we arrived at another church. Some Americans lagged behind due to one having walking difficulties and also constantly compaining about the walk. Why do people with problems do walking tours???? Afterwards we FINALLY saw some Roman ruins when we went to Templo de Diana, where we spent all of ten minutes. The ruins were the selling point and if the blurb given out by Celebrity had told us we would spend more time in bloody churches I'd have looked for something else. We were told we would see the Portas de Moura fountain but if we did I don't remember. Maria went around taking photos of various members of the group in front of the ruins before lunch. It was in a little cafe and time to guess the food since nothing at the buffet was labelled, often looking nothing like it really was. We had an hour there. |
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| At lunch we had an American father and son at our table. They were also behind us in the bus too. As soon as Barbary Apes were mentioned at Gibraltar, the father said he wasn't interested in seeing some gorillas. We had half an hour to do shopping before gathering at the main square. I couldn't help thinking of the time we wasted in churches when there is so much more of the place to see. The shops were full of various items made from cork, including the usual bags, purses to something like shot glasses, ties and postcards. |
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| Some on the tour clubbed together to buy Maria a huge flower which she was touched by. A few people hadn't turned up so she told us to start walking and wait for her. When it came to a fork, while some were all for going right since it was a road, others were for staying put and waiting, some Americans (again!) opted not to wait, insisted left was the correct way and headed in that direction. When Maria caught up we went right. Less than half an hour before the port one person wanted to go have the toilet break. Yep, an American! That could be forgiven if he was on medication or had a weak bladder. So everyone was given ten minutes so many got off to buy something to eat when they could have done that at the ship too. We began to drive off when some people yelled one hadn't returned. Yep, another American! We saw him taking his time coming in our direction which didn't go down well with the rest of us. |
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| After suffering in 34C heat (44 in the sun) it was wonderful getting back to air conditioning. I think we've become soft over the years with fans and aircon so cannot handle heat any more. Before all this our bodies would have gradually got used to it. I know I never had a problem when I was younger. We went through port security followed by ship again. The point being??? Someone going to smuggle on something picked up from the dockside like a stone? Container under their top? We went for sailaway. This HAD to be good, didn't it? The port was clearly planning something since our morning tuggies had returned, this time with a water spray. |
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| Our departure time was 6pm and left twelve minutes late silently. The tugs were doing their stuff but also annoyingly silent, the one with the spray disappearing behind. We moved forward and still nothing, not even as we went under the bridge. Captain Bouzakis was really pissing us off now! A round of applause erupted when the funnels went under. There's plenty of clearance otherwise we wouldn't be here, you muppets! He even said how much there was in his pre-departure announcement. Not like we scraped it at low tide with millimetres to spare! Never been under a bridge before??? |
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| The spinning tug stopped and lowered the flags and STILL we failed to acknowledge them. The FIRST call and ONLY port to celebrate that and our captain let the side down! Bye bye, tuggy. We appreciated your efforts in the morning and evening even if the people in charge of this ship didn't. |
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| NOW we blasted! This captain was on the verge of being hated! We hoped he'd do something at Gibraltar since we were now halfway through the alleged maiden. Because we had now missed the cut off time for the Silhouette, we decided to try the Oceanview for dinner. One of the things we noticed was how the gel in the hand sanitiser had become slightly more runny. I had done the Windjammer on Jewel of the Seas nine evenings out of twelve and it had been wonderful. This, however, like our blasting, was severely lacking, not to mention extremely disappointing. Many of the serving stations were closed and those open were in one part of the room. Food selection sparse and mostly unlabelled. It was a far cry from what they offered at lunch. Also, despite waiters constantly wandering around, nothing finished with was being collected from the tables. How can ships from the same company be so different in the basics? There may be other eating places onboard but there are on Royal Caribbean ships too. Doesn't prevent them doing it better. |
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| As we were nearly finished we noticed there was some thick smoke again like the night before. When we went on deck we eventually realised it was fog! Oh he blasted then, which is something. Wouldn't put it past him to be silent during that too! We were an hour out of Lisbon and the sun still shining. |
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| The fog lasted a couple of hours. Juanita went to the show while I stayed in the cabin, had a shower and washed my hair. She was going to come back afterwards but hours passed with no sign. She'd bumped into Alex and they'd gone for a drink before she watched Alex play craps in the casino. I didn't mind though. Gave me a chance to rest my feet. A sort of lie in on the 14th since we were due in Gibraltar for 2pm. Actually up at 9.35am. Juanita had been up a while with her bad back and sat on he balcony with her puzzles to pass the time. It was a beautiful day but quite rough and windy. I tried to catch a rainbow in the waves. |
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| There was a brunch buffet in the Silhouette so we decided to try that. Oh dear. One minute were were led to a table, then somewhere else and finally ended up at another one! This hadn't even had the cutlery replenished so I was missing a fork. I asked for orange juice while Juanita English tea. The waiter couldn't even remember who ordered the orange, while Juanita's tea was Irish. It was okay but I wouldn't do it again. Some Americans were at our table and I was asked about the history of Gibraltar, since I was British. So I told them it's ours, the Spanish want it back and we won't let them. That went down well! |
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| We'd had an announcement earlier about going through the Strait of Gibraltar. The captain seemed quite excited about it. We went on deck for our arrival and it was the first time I'd worn a cardigan since France. It was unbelievably cold and windy. A few of us sat behind the windscreen, which offered some shelter, until we were closer to our destination. One woman was lying on a lounger trying to read the Britain Today! We were waiting anxiously for it to blow out of her hands but it didn't. |
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| Much to my surprise we had company. We were the only cruise ship scheduled that day but Astoria was laid up waiting for the next stage of her career. She had been moved there from Barcelona on the 27th June 2009. On the 4th August there was an auction where Saga were able to purchase her to be their Saga Pearl II after many delays. I had been so busy in the run-up to the cruise I hadn't been keeping track of her movements. She sailed to Swansea for the conversion on the 6th September. |
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| This was the only time we blasted - to tell a boat to get out of the way! I was disappointed Gibraltar didn't put on something to welcome us. Perhaps it was down to the weather and they would when we left. Juanita had left by now, having to get ready for her Upper Rock Walking Tour. I was on a dolphin watching boat trip nearly an hour later so could hang around a little while. |
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| Since we were docking port I returned to the cabin to see the rest of it in comfort and shelter, although since we slowed down the wind had lessened. |
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| I went for my excursion and the numbering was confusing. Because the buses were more like minibuses, they only held a certain number of people. There were two groups numbered 20 and another (mine) 21. Now I knew we had escorts because I recognised the English bloke from the duty free shop! Well there was a couple of American women who were number 20 but insisted on boarding bus 21. We then set off for the short drive to the boat for the trip. |
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