When we docked in Lisbon, we were exactly where we expected to be. At the Alcantara dock, which we had thought was an inconvenient location, especially since we'd heard that there was a new dock closer to downtown. Turns out that while Alcantara is farther away, they've put in a bike/walk trail along the river. We hopped off the boat and walked down the path to see the new dock (three other cruise ships in town) and find some Rissois do Camarao (Portuguese shrimp turnovers) and Bacalao fritters. Success! The cafe where we'd had them before was still there. We grabbed a couple of Pasteis de Nata (Portuguese custard tarts) for later, and they were the best we'd ever had.
We never liked Lisbon much, but they've put a lot of time and money into improvement over the past few years. We came away with a new opinion. Pretty nice place now.
The last stop before crossing the Atlantic for Miami was Funchal. The town doesn't change much, but when we opened the drapes in the morning, we weren't sure where we were. They finished a new dock and we were on it! On the dock, there's a new hotel, the CR7. It contains a new museum, the CR7 museum. Oh, didn't you know? Funchal is home to the greatest Portuguese footballer ever...Cristiano Ronaldo, number 7! And they mean for everyone to know it, too.
We've already posted lot of photos from there, so we just took off sans camera for a walk around town (and more Portuguese goodies). Departing Madeira Island marked the beginning of the end, so to speak. Five days at sea took us to St. George, Bermuda. Other than the very skinny entrance to the bay in St. George (it's so tight that one could almost touch the trees on each side of the ship), there's not a lot of say about St. George. We worked on packing our stuff up.
Packing, after being in a room for 4 1/2 months and accumulating things, is interesting. The good thing is, in a suite on a ship, belongings can't get very far away from you. And we didn't handle the luggage anyway...it went home FedEx.
Memories we take away:
Crew promotions, important ones, for Elena, Alex, Ola, Daniel, Katut and others.
Micah, the greatest singer of the Motown sound. He'll do well.
The Sailor's Choir, composed of guests, a few of whom could actually sing. Micah, directing the sailor's choir...
Clive, the piano man who packed 'em in at the Navigator Lounge.
Jirka, everything on guitar from Pachelbel to Prince.
Clive and Jirka, doing Simon and Garfunkel.
Jamie. Aaaaaaannnnd...
Old Tom still couldn't figure out how you take a cruise around the world and don't go to Hong Kong.
Terry, who reminded us that we've gone all around the world and the Coca Cola tastes the same.
And all the new friends we met along the way.
When we docked in Miami, we dropped off the luggage and headed for the airport for a first class flight home. Home...there's a concept. After a couple of days, we began to recognize our surroundings and stopped wondering why we couldn't hear the generators running. We found the kitchen but it took a while to remember what it was for. Fortunately, Gordon hadn't forgotten how to make martinis!
What a trip! From the start of the World Cruise guests consumed 1,140 pounds of link sausages, 772 bottles of Grey Goose Vodka, 3389 champagne bottles and 10,900 dozen eggs. After over 35,000 miles, 64 ports, 13 formal nights, 12 lifeboat drills, 2,842 photos, and lord knows how many bottles of wine we can only say this: we'd do it all again. But not next year.
And the wiener dog count: Gordon 9, Pati 2
