Hola from a VERYwet and soggy Lisboa!

 

Up this morning around 7 am to a blue sky kind of day!  I found that interesting, as rain had been predicted, but as the sun was shining, who am I to argue?  We went downstairs for breakfast, and it was fine, although I don’t really need a guitarist singing for me at 8:15 in the morning.  I did notice that Rand I were probably the oldest people there, which maybe says something about the kind of audience these wacky rooms might attract.  They sure aren’t decorated for people who prefer comfortable over stark!

Vasco de Gama mall

Former Atlantic Pavilion, now a concert venue

In front of the Oceanarium

Loved the mosaics

Me enjoying the underwater garden special exhibition

Sea Horse mosaic

Ray in the big aquarium

Loved the Puffins!

And the penguins!

And the otters...

Rays on the bottom of the tank!

Robert calls this the "Flamenco" fish!

Me and "a friend"

Loved the gondolas!

The Oceanarium from the gondola

Apartment buildings and other structures built for the Expo

Me and Stracciatella

And Prosecco!

Ensalada caprese

Gorgonzola stuffed mushrooms!

R's ravioli

My spaghetti!

And more strachiatella!

Headed out about 9:15 am to the closest subway, Saldanha, to purchase the Viagemcards to start using public transportation.  They’re the kind that you put money on, and then with each trip you take, the money is automatically debited from the card.  When you run out, you just load the same card back up again; no problem!

So, with cards in hand, we headed out to Oriente, the station that was built for the 1998 World Expo that was hosted here in Lisboa.  Very nice ride on the metro.  It was sleek and quiet, and there was plenty of room for everybody.  Got out of the station, and walked directly across the street to the Vasco de Gama shopping center, the largest in Lisboa.  It is quite lovely, and even at 10 am there were lots of people there.  Walked through the shopping center and out the back side, toward the water.  You know, other than crossing over a bridge yesterday to get on the peninsula whereLisboais located, we really haven’t seen the water at all!  So – here it is!

Our objective was to visit Lisboa’s Oceanarium, which is listed at the largest one in Europe. Took about 10 minutes to walk there, and we could definitely feel a good breeze coming in off the water. Remember, it’s coming a long way – all the way from the East Coast of the United States!

Got to the Oceanarium just a few minutes after opening time at 10 am, but we had no problem at all getting tickets and into the huge facility. First, we toured the temporary exhibition, which was a beautiful forest built by Takashi Amano, a Japanese photographer, but underwater!  Truly, between the beauty of the garden, the lovely fish and the really lovely music that had been created for the exhibition, the effect was stunning! Great way to start off the day, that’s for sure!  

Then into the main part of the Oceanarium, which is a huge tank that looks like one environment, but really is four separate areas, each with its own environment and appropriate marine life.  (In a way, this central part reminded us both of the beautiful aquarium in Atlanta (thank you so much Chris and Brenda!) but had its very own distinctive style.)  We saw all sorts of wonderful marine life, from sharks to rays and some of the most incredible fish we have ever seen!  My personal favorite was a HUGE sunfish, which R had seen years ago while sailing in California with Horace Babock (the Director of the Hale Observatories), but I’m sure I’ve never seen before.  They had several pairs of puffins, as well as Adelaide penguins, but the stars of the show for me were two California otters who were having a lovely time with the audience!  There was also an excellent video that provided subtitles in English, which talked about how the Oceanarium works and how it is cooperating with other aquariums across the world in their efforts to educate and hopefully change people’s habits when it comes to polluting the ocean. Excellent material, and it was really interesting to see who the people were behind the scenes, what they do on a daily basis, how the fish are monitored, fed and kept healthy, and why supporting this foundation is a wonderful idea.

All told, we probably spent almost four hours there, there was just so much to see!  We both agreed that this is truly one of the great aquariums in the world. 

As we left the Oceanarium, we found the aerial gondolas that went back and forth across the former expo grounds and decided to take a ride.  Very fun, although I did think about what would happen if the gondola got stopped – do we dive out the open window to the ocean below?!  Fortunately, it didn’t happen!

Once off the gondola, we headed back toward the shopping mall, as Robert was interested in finding the bus station which was located at the back of the metro station. I did take this opportunity to get a flower petal gelato cone of chocolate and stracciatella, as it was past lunchtime!  And by this time, it was starting to rain … and of course both of our umbrellas were safe and dry back here at the hotel!  Certainly wouldn’t want them to get wet!  

Found where the number 728 bus started, and that it picked up under a bridge – which was REALLY a good idea, as the rain was now coming down steadily.  Only had to wait a couple of minutes for the bus to sweep us all up, as the rain kept getting harder and harder!  Finally, as we didn’t want to get SOAKING wet, we got off the bus when it reached the City Center and was at a metro station, figuring that we could metro our way back to the station near our hotel…which was fine, except for the fact that it was probably another 10 minutes out in the POURING rain to get back to the hotel!  To say we were wet was an understatement.  Blub…blub… Robert says his jacket won’t be dry until Sunday, and both our jeans were sopping wet.  Well, I had planned on heading to the closest laundry tomorrow morning – now I’ll just have to bring our jeans along as well!  Or maybe I could just hang them out the balcony and not even worry about the laundry!

We are now getting hungry, and it appears (notice I only say “appears”) to have stopped raining. Where will we head tonight for dinner?!

More later!

m

xxx

[Note from Robert: Last night, we had dinner at an Indian restaurant.  It was a small, hole-in-the-wall, family-run place but the food was just fine.  Still, I find it incredible that TripAdvisor ranks it as number 8 of 4,417 restaurants in Lisbon.  Really?  Is something fishy in Lisbon?]

Back from dinner, and it was fabulous!  It was called Il Giardinetto, an Italian restaurant, and was actually just across the street.  We did, however, bring our umbrellas … “just in case.”

I started with a glass of Prosecco, while Robert went right for an excellent bottle of Portuguese red wine. For starters, we shared gorgonzola stuffed mushrooms and a caprese salad, which was excellent.  Then Robert had ravioli stuffed with ricotta and spinach, and I had spaghetti bolognaise.  To say we both cleaned our plates is embarrassing, but we did anyway.  And for dessert, I had a small scoop of stracchiatella gelato. If I could manage it, I’d probably take us back to the same place tomorrow night.  Italian food is such GREAT comfort food, and after a really rainy and wet day like today, that was just what I needed!  At any rate, heading to bed now!

More tomorrow!

m

xxx