Greetings again. Neither of us had been to Lisbon, the capital of Portugal before so we looked forward to visiting this famous city. Lisbon faces the Atlantic Ocean, so is not strictly speaking a Mediterranean port as the others have been on our journey thus far. Nonetheless it has a distinctly Mediterranean ambience to it. Lisbon is one of the oldest cities in the world. It was captured by the Moors (Moroccans) in the 5th century and then by the Portuguese in the 8th century, whose hands it has remained in since. Sailing into any city it’s difficult to get a real feel for the place until you’re on shore. Invariably you end up gliding past miles of unattractive industrial plants, works, and outlying suburbs before arriving at your berth. And so it was for Lisbon. But when we did actually berth we hit pay dirt. The cruise terminal is virtually in the heart of the old city. The city view presents a mix of old, ancient and a little modern architecture. The pastel coloured buildings provide a real visual feast. For example, the city’s main railway station, an elegant neoclassic structure adjacent to where we berthed is duck egg blue. A further treat was the sight of two other huge cruise liners moored alongside us. One was Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 which we sailed on in 2010; the other was the Mannheim a floating behemoth. On disembarkation we headed into the labyrinth of cobbled streets and laneways lying just opposite. This area called La Fama, dates back hundreds of years, and was originally settled by Moorish families. The precinct still maintains a close knit familial atmosphere. You see locals clustered around little squares chatting away, kids playing in the lanes, and dogs out being walked. Scattered throughout are loads of small restaurants and cafes, serving traditional Portuguese fare. I am constantly charmed by the streetscape in many of the places we visit around the world, especially Europe. And so it was with Lisbon. The facades of many of the old buildings are clad in beautiful, intricately patterned ceramic tiles. Some of these creations are several hundred years old; and yet the tiles look like they were set in place yesterday. By contrast I couldn’t help reflecting on our townhouse complex in Melbourne where the facade tiles are falling off after being there for less than 20 years! The street surfaces invariably comprise millions of small granite cobblestones. These can be treacherous if you aren’t careful with your footing. I saw one woman from the ship mincing along in stilettos – she obviously didn’t get the memo about sensible walking shoes. Unfortunately, I discovered first hand just how hard the Lisbon granite was. I was backing up to take a photograph of a medieval cathedral; however, the eyes in the back of my head weren’t working and I tripped over a marble bollard behind me. I went down with a hell of bang; hit my head on an adjacent bollard, smashed down on my left knee and also twisted my right ankle. My camera went flying and it also kissed the granite. I saw stars for a few minutes. A taxi driver and street vendor helped Terry bring me around, and they lifted me into a chair. Someone brought me water, and someone else an ice pack for my knee which bore the brunt of my injuries. Luckily the whack to the back of my head produced nothing worse than a lump. My knee and ankle hurt like anything, but the pain was bearable. I was incredibly lucky. If I’d sustained a hit to the front of my head, things could have been so much worse. After 15-20 minutes I felt steady enough to continue on our way, albeit very gingerly. We wandered from the old quarter, down to the main shopping area – which is actually still quite old, and took in some sights, including Lisbon’s enchanting old tramcars. After taking a few more photos – my camera had suffered some damage from its fall, but not fatal thank goodness – we tottered back up to the old quarter to find somewhere authentic to eat, drink and relax. We had made “Free Wi-Fi” a chief selection consideration for somewhere to eat. Thus we ended up at a quaint, al fresco restaurant offering the requisite Wi-Fi, and a reasonable looking menu. I wanted to try grilled sardines which is a specialty of Portuguese cuisine. The food was terrible. Tasteless, cold and poorly presented. But the wine was good – and the Wi-Fi fast; meaning we could download the newspapers, do Facebook and catch up on emails – whilst *****ing about the food. Many of the restaurants were advertising ‘Fado’. We had no idea what this was – but soon figured out it was live entertainment. We saw guys with Spanish guitars and female and male vocalists preparing to perform. “Oh cool” I thought “Latino music”. I had dreams of some chilled, Latino tunes, a-la Sergio Mendez and Brazil 66, The Girl from Ipanema – that kind of thing. Wrong. Fado is Portugal’s unique genre of music characterised by mournful tunes and lyrics. It is very melancholic and what I would categorise as “music to slash your wrists by”. The joint we were eating dinner at featured three different Fado singers – each of them with strong voices. I can’t tell you how joyed we were with the combination of bad food, and Fado music that night. We got back to the ship a few hours later, and turned in for the night. However, I woke at 4.00 with my knee in absolute agony. I called the ship’s medical centre and they sent a porter to wheelchair me down for treatment. The medics were very good. They gave me a jab in the bum with some heavy duty painkillers, ice-gelled and strapped my knee, loaned me some crutches, and gave me a round of painkillers to take. Thank heavens for travel insurance! We had another day in Lisbon and I was determined I wouldn’t be spending it flat on my back, so medical intervention was mandatory for me get off the ship, albeit with crutches for our second day in this wonderful city. We’d bought tickets the day before for one of the Hop-On, Hop-Off bus lines. Due to my injury however, ours was a Hop-On, Stay-On experience. But that was fine - we saw some more of the delightful sights and took more photos. The architecture is superb: an eclectic mix of, ancient, neoclassical, Moorish, Art Nouveau, and Art Deco – built along wide boulevards lined with flowering jacaranda trees, and bordered by mosaic pavements – interspersed with beautiful squares, elaborate fountains, obelisks and huge historical statues. The bus route included some of the newer precincts of the city as well. Even the dilapidated old buildings have a rustic charm we’d be hard pressed to find in a city like Melbourne where we live. At the end of the ride, two hours later we hopped off and headed to find somewhere nice to enjoy a lunch – featuring hopefully, the second and third items of Portuguese cuisine I wanted to try locally: paella and Portuguese tarts. Pleasingly we landed at a great outdoor eatery on one of the many pedestrian streets in the centre of Lisbon. The food more than made up for the previous evening’s shortcomings in the culinary department. I made the error of ordering a large beer, thinking it would be a pint. Not. A huge 1 litre tankard was delivered – it took both arms to left it and an hour to drink it! But lovely it was, sitting in the sun, people watching and enjoying some superb food. Tummies contentedly full, and brimming with bonhomie after my very large beer, and Terry having consumed a bottle of wine we meandered/ hobbled back to the ship in plenty of time for boarding before the All Aboard cut off. It was great sitting out on our balcony watching the quayside crowds waving us off. Despite my unplanned hard landing on Lisbon’s granite cobblestones our visit to this city was thoroughly enjoyable and captivating. Another tick for the bucket list!