23 Nov 07
MSC Sinfonia – Day 5 – Lisbon
Pulling in close to mid-day – we had from 1200 to 2200 on shore.
However, Sandi and I had this small problem which needed attention. When we had done the research for the trip and checked for visas, it did not appear that we needed any. Most major countries now have all of this information on line. According to the guy in charge of passports on the ship – Brazil requires a visa.
We were not the only ones who tried explaining to him that according to the website, we didn’t need one. Try arguing with a wall – you would get a better response. My crabbiness just extended to the question of why he didn’t tell us this while we were docked in Barcelona….
Escaping the ship at 1200 we headed straight to the Brazilian embassy to find that they processed visas only between 0900 to 1200. There was this nice young man at the window just finishing up with an older couple. He was willing to answer a question for me – yes, we needed visas – and handed us the forms and an address where we could get pictures taken.
End result of going there, and going back twice was that we had visas in hand by 1600. 1230 for all the paperwork (and money, let us not forget the money) and then waiting for the head of mission to sign them off.
Travel
Walking the hills and heading up to the top of the Tower – Lisbon is a city of red roof tiles.
Mosaic cobblestone areas all representative of the sea and sailing –
Castles on hills and plazas through out the city
We grabbed the 15E tram just to ride around, and found that we had lucked into the one that went along the shore in the direction of our ship. After wandering around in a couple of neighbourhood, we stopped for a few minutes at a hole in the wall of at internet café where I was able to upload the last few days from a computer in this dark den. Most of the other inhabitants seemed to be teen age boys deep into on line gaming.
Navigating by watching for the overhead bridges, we made it back to the ship in plenty of time.
Knitting
The only time I did any knitting was while waiting at the Embassy – a bit more on the peapod.
Audio Books
Unbidden Truth by Kate Wilhelm.
Arches
Entitled Waves, this modern sculpture graces the Plaza at the entrance to the Quay in Barcelona.
-Holly