Monday, April 13th, 2009, Portimao, Portugal

Bob:

We watched the beautiful southern coast of Portugual as we approached our next port of call, Portimao. Our first impression of the town was a seaside resort with the typical high rise buildings along the seashore, but we also saw some interesting cliffs along the beach. This was a "tender" port rather than a docking port, and some of the ship's lifeboats were pressed into service as tenders, giving them some much needed exercise no doubt. We had fun watching the tenders leaving the ship. Even Phyllis braved the tenders to go into town with the help from some strong seamen. The trip from the ship to the old town took us past more beautiful scenery.

Portimao turned out to be an erstwhile fishing village on the south coast of Portugal that is transitioning to being a seaside resort town with a marina attached. This transition is not an easy one as we saw quite a few empty storefronts on the main shopping street and pedestrian mall in the middle of the town. However, we could still enjoy the black-and-white paving stones set in patterns and a few of the old-fashioned, tile-fronted buildings that seem to be unique to Portugal. Much of the town was leveled in a mid-1700s earthquake, so there was no "old quarter" as in Lisbon or some other cities, but there was, of course, the ubiquitous cathedral in the central square. Lois & Phyllis visited that while we roamed around the environs to find an Internet cafe and sign in to check our email.

We also found a post office on a square next to the harbor with a very pretty fountain and managed to mail off our postcards. However, I didn't know how to say "Air Mail" in Portuguese, so they may have gone by ship, in which case we could jolly well get back to the U.S. before the cards do! Monika found some two-buck-chuck vino (2.50 Euro, specifically) and bottled beer when we checked back through security at the port, so she was happy. I was still fighting off a cold, but at the moment it was a draw: I was able to do a couple of active things during the day as long as I took multi-hour morning and afternoon naps. Of course, taking two long naps per day doesn't leave much TIME for doing anything else, but at least I was not confined to my cabin like some other poor souls we have seen. Fortunately I never spread my cold to Lois, Phyllis, Monika or any of our tablemates, nor was it really interfering with essential activities, thank goodness.