Return to Lisbon, Portugal

It is hard to believe that this is my very last post from Europe. I arrived in Europe on 2 May, after spending exactly 2 months on board the Queen Mary 2 travelling from Sydney, Australia to Naples, Italy. I disembarked in Naples and caught a train to Rome, where I joined my wonderful Insight tour of Italy. Apart from about four nights in England, and quite a number of sea days on ships reaching Europe from Southampton, then returning to Southampton, I have been travelling in Europe, including Eastern Europe, all this time.

In Europe I have now visited Italy, Vatican City, Greece, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Belgium, Norway, Denmark, Estonia, Russia, Finland, Spain and Portugal.

Tomorrow (Saturday 19 August) I leave the ship and travel by train from Southampton to London. On Sunday two friends from Queen Mary 2 are kindly taking me on a tour of London, and later that afternoon I join my tour group for a fairly whirlwind tour of England and a little of Scotland and Wales. On 31 August I am leaving this part of the world altogether and sailing to New York. It is all going so quickly now.  

This post will bring you up to date with my travels, though I hope to write another post about life on board this ship before I leave at 7 am tomorrow.  However, I am not sure how well I will be able to update my blog whilst on the tour of England, or indeed on the ship to New York. It will all depend on the quality of the WiFi in each successive hotel and on the ship. 

Back to Lisbon:

As I mentioned in my last post, our last visit was to the16th century Jeronimos Monastery Church. After it was built there was dreadful earthquake in Lisbon, with a magnitude of about 8 on the Richter scale, followed by a tsunami. People ran out of their buildings when the earthquake struck into a major city square by the sea, only to be swept away by the tsunami. This dual tragedy destroyed much of Lisbon and killed many of its citizens.  

Fortunately, the Jeronimos Monastery Church suffered little damage. Because it was built close to the sea, it was built on a foundation of sand, which enabled it to withstand the shaking. However loose statues and the stained glass windows were destroyed. 

This very old stone church was quite awe-inspiring and quite unique inside. It had been built to bless the Portuguese explorers of the sea, and in particular to celebrate the life of the famous nobleman Vasco da Gama, who sailed from Lisbon in 1497 on a mission to reach India and to open up a sea route from Portugal to the East, a mission in which he was highly successful. There is a crypt dedicated to him in the cathedral. There is another crypt as well, to celebrate the life of one of Portugal’s most revered poets and philosophers, Luis de Camoes. The Portuguese believe that to be a writer and thinker is more to be revered than military might! All countries could learn from that! 

Inside the stone cathedral.

The poet's tomb.

Every column in the cathedral was different and told a story.

On the bottom of this column, seashells and seaweed are depicted. The half-woman-half-beast a little higher up depicts what creatures explorers imagined when they heard strange cries coming from the bushes by the sea shores when they landed in unknown places.  

A little chapel.

Clearly a modern organ has been installed.

The altar and the beautiful paintings telling bible stories above it. The grey structure on the right is apparently pure silver.

Some of the paintings closer up.

A better view of the altar. 

A confessional. Around it were images of people the explorers had seen in different places, including masks from Indonesia. 

Rubbing this was supposed to bring good luck.

Reproductions of ships' ropes on the ceiling above the tomb of Vasco da Gama. 

The tomb of Vasco da Gama.

The tomb of Vasco da Gama closer up. Notice the sailing ship. 

The ceiling above the tomb of Vasco da Gama closer up. 

Also seen in the cathedral.