2017 Travels with Gerri - Lisbon to the Ship
Hi again, last Tuesday afternoon we flew on Portugal TAP Air on a three hour flight from Prague into Lisbon where we stayed in a very cute hotel from The Small Luxury Hotels of the World. In this case, "small" was the operating word. Since we arrived in Lisbon late and we're only staying overnight we didn't need anything terribly fancy. To me, this hotel, at least our hotel room, is perfect for a solo traveler with one bag. And no toiletries. The bathroom is modern but no place to place anything, including the bathroom with no counter space at all, so we lined the bidet w a towel and put our toiletries in there. But they had a cool dining room upstairs so we had dinner and breakfast the next day there.
Steve and Melanie at breakfast overlooking the plaza
Wednesday around noon we took a taxi to the port. Oddly enough, our ship was in a different port in Lisbon. So what should've been a 20 minute ride to where other ships were docked was nearly an hour trying to find it. Others apparently had the same problem. While waiting to board, a passenger in front of me seemed very irritated about having to pay the extra euro for the longer taxi ride. We just took it in stride. Then the same lady seemed very irritated that there was only one hairdresser on board and how will they ever be able to service all of us. I thought to myself, oh, boy, is this the crowd we are going to be with? Fortunately, it turns out no. The people in front of Melanie and Steve and behind them in line were from Pasadena and Sherman Oaks! Turns out there's quite a big contingency from Pasadena and doctors at the Huntington Hospital, as well as Sherman Oaks and other immediate areas. Everybody seems to have mutual friends.
Our queen bedroom on the Silver Spirit.
Our sitting room where I am writing this now; veranda outside overlooks the ocean.
We have a very large walk-in closet and robes which are perfect for sitting out on our veranda in the morning, or anytime really. Our cabin is located in the middle of the ship, so we don't have very much rocking and rolling. People in the front of the ship really have felt it a couple nights as we have had some rather turbulence seas. Not turbulent where anything fell off the counters or anything like that, but a lot of bouncing for them. The Captain, Italian, as is much of the crew, warned us ahead of time that we would be sailing in some rocky waters. But hey, with an Italian at the helm, what's to worry?
This is a pretty big bathroom for a ship.
That ship has several dining rooms as well as three specialty restaurants, an Italian, Japanese, and a upscale wine pairing French restaurant. There's also the Grill at the pool deck with fabulous steaks prawns. They bring you a hot stone, and you put the cut of meat you have chosen on it and cook it yourself. And also we cook the prawns on them. The food is fantastic and the view is awesome up on the 9th deck needless to say. But there are many beautiful decks, verandas and bars everywhere. You can order anything you want and as many things on the menu you want and as many entrées as you want. And you can have it sent to your room if you want. It's all covered by the crew ship ticket price.
We have our own butler and Art made sure he brought a bottle of Glenlevit to our room. He also keeps our fridge stocked in Prosecco. It could be whatever we want really. I'll get into all that later. Here is our butler Tarek bringing our morning coffee.
Thanks for letting me share...