Although we had one more port, Portimao, Portugal, my husband and I knew we would not be stopping there when we were on our excursion to Sevilla.  We got a notification that our excursion in Portugal was cancelled and it was a boat tour to see the arches.  Our ship was scheduled to anchor out and we would take the tender to port.  We figured if our excursion was not going to work, then a tender would be rough as well.  I decided even if we did have a chance to tender into port, I would not be on it.  

We woke up the next morning to a lot rolling around and vibrations.  I think the boat was attempting to anchor and gave up. We had an announcement fairly early that we would have another sea day. Honestly I was happy to have a day to relax and get everything packed.  

I know that I had some complaints about the cruise itself, but it was totally worth what we paid. We got to see two different sets of islands, two ports in Africa, and several ports on the Iberian peninsula.  It would have been very difficult to create that same itinerary on our own.  I enjoy that fact that we can explore and go back to the ship. It also gave us an idea of where we want to return and where we don’t.  I think cruising is great to check out different areas without all the extra travel. 

The flights back to the U.S. were quite early in the morning and we didn’t feel like rushing from the boat to the airport, we have done that before and it’s not fun, so we stayed a night in Lisbon.  

Since we couldn’t check into our hotel until after noon, we decided to check out the Palacio Nacional da Ajuda.  It was a royal palace since the mid 1800s until the end of the monarchy in 1910.  It still has original furniture and fixtures and is very impressive to tour. 

We arrived around 11am on a Saturday and there were very few people there. It was only 8 euros each. It was wonderful to really be able to view all the rooms and read about them without a lot of people in your way.  

There is also a Royal Treasury museum that you can enter for a separate fee. 

We wandered down to a tasty bakery, had a coffee and a snack and then followed our nose to a delicious chicken spot.  We ate outside next to a beautiful church.  

After lunch, we took an Uber down to the Belem Tower. We have seen it before, but it’s so impressive we wanted to check it out again.  It was also nice to walk along the water.  We didn’t have the gumption to figure out how to get inside.  There are tickets for about 6 euros, but the line is usually super long.  It was originally built in the 16th century!

There are so many things to do in Lisbon.  We are planning to go back and even take some day trips on the train to different areas.