Portimao and Lisbon

Portimao is a small town with beach resort attached. Neither are particularly attractive but in both cases there was a good sea-side walk for TSH and Diva. Storks were nesting on the top of the tall chimneys of the sardine factories.

It was Captain’s Farewell night, so it was formal dress and there was an invitation to dine with the Silver Wind HR manager. She is a charming young woman from South Wales but unfortunately she had merged her table with that of the Cruise Consultant, Martin. Diva has not taken to Martin because he was very unsympathetic about the cancelled cruises due to charters. His line was that it did not happen, there was only one website and if it did happen most guests don’t mind and the cruise consultant loses commission. ‘Poor Martin’. So Diva had to sit next to Martin at dinner and she is not good at hiding dislike. It was not a great dinner. He is condescending and arrogant as well as not very bright.

The day in Lisbon was excellent. TSH and Diva were on deck early for the sail-in past the Belem tower and the Jeronimos monastery.  took the metro out to Parque das Nocoes, the site of Expo 1998. This is a very modern part of town with interesting architecture and artworks views and excellent river views. Small frogs in the water garden were making a tremendous racket.

The return journey was made by train, which was much more direct but much more complicated to navigate. Diva can organise Metros in most languages but the over-ground system defeated her. Fortunately, TSH has an instinct for rail travel and he was also able to take some pictures of the trains.

Lunch was the traditional and excellent burger on deck.

Regent Voyager disembarked today – Silver Wind disembarks tomorrow, as this tiny terminal can only cope with one tiny cruise ship at one time.

Malaga and Cadiz

Both cities were explored on foot without benefit of a guide. Malaga has a lot of interesting-looking museums which would be useful on a re-visit. TSH forget to put an SD card in his camera so the earliest Malaga photos had to be retaken using his emergency spare. Cadiz has a very enjoyable sea front walk. The market in Cadiz was extremely impressive. Four long aisles of fish and shellfish which would put anywhere in current Britain to shame. It is difficult to believe that one city eats so much fish. The market also had several kinds of snail and one place selling live insects.  In both cases, the weather was pleasant without being too hot but in Cadiz TSH and Diva were very lucky to return to the ship just before the torrential downpour.

In Malaga, Silversea held an evening reception for the 50 or so guests who are staying on until London (rather than disembarking at Lisbon). Diva met another writer – a self-published writer of children’s books from Chester.

Diva’s smartphone has set her a target (without any consultation with her at all) of how many steps she should walk in a day. Every day on this holiday has reached the target and in Cadiz twice the target was achieved.

In Cadiz, there were also present the Regent Voyager and the Costa Magico

Referendum notes: The most recent lecture was: ‘Portugal from empire to EU’. At the reception, a guest was heard stating that the UK is the only place in Europe which follows the rules properly.