Holly Doyne

Yes, this port call is by tender. No, I didn’t care a whit. A listed port on two of my previous transatlantic crossings, both times were called off because of bad weather. Cancelling a port call due to high seas/storms makes perfect sense when 1) the ship has to anchor and the only way to shore is by tender. Also known as “bobbers” if the sea is rough.  Passengers and crew bouncing along the waves in a small boat doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, especially from a safety point of view; and 2) the shore excursions in that location are all outside scenery which is going to be difficult to enjoy through storm and rain. We will not even get into the issue of hiking across slippery rocks in that same rain.

Anyway – this morning the seas were calm, the sun is shining and we laid anchor at 0700. I waited, annoyed at the cruise director who really, really seems to love the sound of his own voice coming on the tannoy every 10 minutes with more “information/advice/whatever.”

Once tender tickets were no longer required – I headed for Deck 3 forward and a short, non-crowded trip to shore.

I couldn’t resist taking a photo, just so you know that I was actually there!

The town is classical Portuguese architecture with a mix of time periods and styles.

there are buildings with tiles, those with fancy trip and balconies.

There is what is left of an obviously old stone fort –

It is an obvious seafaring and port town – complete with sundial/compass rose

and a small captain sneaking about

other than this particularly lovely bit of mosaic work –

most of the rest was straight white lines in dark volcanic stone sidewalks with the occasional ship, lighthouse, or whale featured just to break up the monotony. All of those had a strong resemblance to a five year olds line drawings.

After a couple of hours, I headed back to the ship –

and lunch…

This is one of those lovely ports where I feel totally and completely at home. I know where I can find certain items (yarn, stitching materials, WiFi, books, coffee…..) and it is completely walkable. One exits the ship, walks along the promenade out of the harbor and heads left toward the main portion of the city.

My only purpose in getting off the ship today was to stop at a couple of small shops. The first, I was not delighted to learn, was no longer on the corner of the main square. That small notions store had been in place for decades. But apparently with renovations of the building and some other factors, the rent became too high. I wasn’t clear as to whether this was a closure or a relocation. Heading up the main pedestrian zone, I found what I think of as the main needlecraft store on the left about ½ way to the next street. I recommend the place to just about everyone and appreciate anytime it is not Sunday when my current transatlantic cruise makes a port call here.

The front of the store is primarily touristy type stuff. Ceramics, a wide variety of linens, the expected cork items, etc. It is the back half of the store which is of interest. 

yes, that is cubby after cubby with about any weight or material of yarn your could desire. There is also a complete color array of threads, plenty of choices in notions, trims, bindings and woven fabric for traditional towels and table linens. There was also this lovely fabric –

of which I picked up .5 meters along with a few skeins of DMC. Of note, it is 50% linen, 50% cotton. Not a combination which I find very often at home. It looks to be about a 28 ct, but I really didn’t care overly much. 

Satisfied with my purchases, I wandered back toward the ship – noting different sidewalk mosaics than previously.

The distance between our last stop in the Canaries and the Azores is just enough that it makes total sense to have a sea day tucked in between this set of ports. We have also gained back another hour which helps, I think….

My morning was spent, again, upstairs in the forward lounge. I skipped the Military/Veterans Get together in favor of just sitting and seeing who was going to show up for the Knitter’s and Stitchers at 1000. There were about 10 of us, off and off. Two of the women from before didn’t make it, but we added a hand quilter and a New York woman who I think is now hooked on the idea of piecing and quilting a present for her new (and first) grandchild. 

I made progress on both The Vintage Black Sampler and another project that I am making as a test stitch. I really like it, but found, with my usual inability to count, that I have made a couple of errors far enough back that I would need to start over. My other choice is just to enjoy the pattern, do a bit of fudging and finish it out. I will include it when (if?) I ever get the cross-stitch pages updated and the pattern is released.

There was a fair bit of rock ‘n roll today with seas up to 4 meters. This is an older ship (2001) and her stabilizers aren’t as great as some of the new ships. OTOH, it was much milder than I have experienced on smaller ships (such as the Star Legend). I headed back to my cabin for the evening so that I could listen to audiobooks without having to use ear buds and to not look at green faces….

I first visited here in 2007 on a MSC Sinfonia transatlantic from Genoa to Bueno Aires. I looks up the post (link) but, since it is from my old German blog, the photos didn’t transfer when I had to change hosts in ~ 2016. Then I made the loop twice in Early 2012, once on my own and once with the Eldest on the NCL Jade.  Then there was the transatlantic in 2017 that Carmen and I made on the MSC Seaside.  And, in 2021 – George and I had a port call here on the Star Legend. A cruise that was supposed to go to Morocco but, as things often did in that time frame, the pandemic forced a change of plans.

You can tell that we have docked in a Portuguese town. It isn’t just the change in the signage language. It starts with the Ships of the Wall which I have mentioned before: logos of various ships which have docked over the yeas. Lovingly painted by their crews on the wall across from where the ships dock. There isn’t any graffiti – just the bright colors and clear shapes of logos, ships, letters & numbers.

It is rather when you hit the first sidewalk with the inserted lavastone mosaic 

or see the use of the same volcanic rock in stairs.

But mostly it is the sidewalks with patterns, inserted pictures, and their use of two colored stones that says “Portugal.

mostly, I just enjoyed a nice hike through town, up and down a few hills, and a view of the ship on my way back.

Ok, bad pun here but I am boarding the NCL Sun and heading west. Not the usual direction for transatlantics at this time of year. Looking at the route from Lisbon to Miami,  unlike the last ship, we have more than a few ports.

The schedule looks like this –

It will be interesting to see if we actually stop at Horta in the Azores. The two previous transatlantics with that scheduled stop both cancelled the port call due to bad weather. Since it was listed for those cruises as a tender port, I am not holding my breath. This time? Listed as docked. We will see.

The reason for the westbound trip made sense to me after I looked at her follow-on cruise. She heads through the Panama Canal to the Pacific Northwest and joins the gaggle of ships on the Alaska cruise scene for the summer. If I had the time, I would have loved to stay aboard and sail once again through the Panama Canal on this ship. But it is time to head home.

I have a reasonable number of free WiFi minutes, but not an unlimited package so I might be back to hunting Internet cafes in port and scavenge a bit here and there. It will be interesting…

When, a long time ago – let us say a decade or so when I spent a fair amount of time cursing in the Mediterranean – all of us passengers could be treated to hearing the same ship announcements in German, Spanish, French, English, and Italian. This morning Edelweiss Airlines skipped the Spanish.

This particular 2 engine jet was at an outer parking position. By the time the second bus load of people managed to get themselves on, sorted, and seated we missed our take-off window and were delayed by 30 minutes. Since I have a huge amount of time in which to change plans in Zürich, it wasn’t a problem for me. Other than the young woman next to me, I didn’t see another masked individual on the plane. I had decided that I had already done enough damage by sharing my “whatever the hell it is” that I picked up on the Symphony/on a flight/in the Netherlands/somewhere with Beverly that I didn’t need to add more misery to my or anyone else’s existence.

I had a lovely river view followed by coastal view on take off before, no surprise, being swallowed up by clouds. Not a break in sight till we were within approach distance to Zürich. At that point, it felt like decades gone by with IFR. We sailed along above the landscape with the ability to “I fly rivers, roads, rails” which was the joke for most chopper flights in Germany, the Balkans and places in between… which was actually more properly known as VFR (visual).

—————– >-8 ————

insert hanging out at the airport from landing ~1000 through to 1930. And yes the flight was significantly late departing. After changing from A63 -> A82 -> A66. Hint – none are next to each other …

—————– 8-< ———

And it was a bus back from the screaming baby flight to the Lisbon Airport. Far end of the terminal to baggage claim. To the last bag off. To the taxi to the hotel.

I am wiped.

That might seem like a weird combination to you – but that was my shopping list today. Both are actually obvious. Chocolate? I always need chocolate and I am more than delighted to drop a number of bars of dark chocolate in my carry on luggage. Either I will eat them on the way or have chocolate tasting when I get home.

Without a working phone, I have no clue as to time. My apple watch effectively died last Oct/Nov. It just wouldn’t hold a charge for more than 4-5 hours. Inquiring at the Apple Store, since it is one of the very early series, they would have to special order the battery and then there would be a replacement charge without a lot of guarantee. It was suggested that it might be faster and easier to just buy one of the new, shiny Apple Watches. I demurred.

Since I have been living without a watch for a while, I have a pretty clear idea of what I need: I need to be able to check the time and having the date displayed is a bonus. I really don’t need it to monitory my exercise, buzz with GPS turns, give me txt or email message. I just need to know the time. Setting an alarm? That might be useful as well.

Asda has a small store in the corner of Sainsbury’s. Electronic kiosks for ordering, a nice woman behind the register who collects payment and fulfills orders. I am now the owner of a simple. resin band, digital faced watch. It was not expensive at all. Comparable in price to what I used to buy 20 years ago.

Early supper and packing. My 0415 taxi for the airport is going to feel early.