Lisbon
From O Porto, we have done short day hops down the coast, overnighting at Aveiro, Figuera de Foz, Peniche and Cascais. We have tried to avoid costly marinas and have often moored alongside fishing boats or quay walls, causing some confusion to the officials who need to fill in the paperwork in each port. It has been hard to avoid marinas completely as many new ones have sprung up to replace the old anchorage sites marked in our 1980s pilot book.
We have just spend a couple of days in Lisbon doing the tourist thing with Hazel’s parents. Despite the whole city sitting on the river Tejo, there was nowhere for yachts to moor within walking distance of the centre. The waterfront was all given over to commercial shipping and, apart from the Tower of Belem and the monument to Henry the Navigator, the city was surprisingly unattractive from the water. However the transport system was brilliant and we visited some fantastic monuments and museums by bus, train, tram and metro. Not to mention eating far too much of the typical Portuguese cuisine – grilled sardines, barbequed chicken, pork with clams, cuttlefish, squid kebabs, and the main staple - bacalhau (salted cod)- tastier than it sounds.
We are now heading south again and contemplating a detour to Gibraltar to top up with cheap fuel before heading to the Canaries. On finding a chandlery with English-language books, we splashed out on the up-to-date pilot book, which should take out the guesswork for the rest of the journey.
We have just spend a couple of days in Lisbon doing the tourist thing with Hazel’s parents. Despite the whole city sitting on the river Tejo, there was nowhere for yachts to moor within walking distance of the centre. The waterfront was all given over to commercial shipping and, apart from the Tower of Belem and the monument to Henry the Navigator, the city was surprisingly unattractive from the water. However the transport system was brilliant and we visited some fantastic monuments and museums by bus, train, tram and metro. Not to mention eating far too much of the typical Portuguese cuisine – grilled sardines, barbequed chicken, pork with clams, cuttlefish, squid kebabs, and the main staple - bacalhau (salted cod)- tastier than it sounds.
We are now heading south again and contemplating a detour to Gibraltar to top up with cheap fuel before heading to the Canaries. On finding a chandlery with English-language books, we splashed out on the up-to-date pilot book, which should take out the guesswork for the rest of the journey.
posted by Katie at 9:45 AM
1 Comments:
Bom dia, Dave and Hazel,
Glad to hear you are tucking into the bacalhau which is definitely the Portuguese favourite. I love it, especially washed down with some good Alentejo red wine. You'll probably be pleased to know that autumn has most definitely arrived here in Topsham, it's cool, and the boats are all coming out (seems earlier than most years), Turf is shut, the birds are returning. We hope the passage across to the Canaries goes well. Make sure and batten down the hatches in readiness for the arrival of Hurricane Maria, which, if the Met Office forecast is correct, looks set to be more wild and destructive than any other so far this season (or is it Hurricane Ed?).
M & K
PS Considerate of you to put up the Online Dating links...
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