Lisbon to Rome to Vancouver in Three Days

8 August 2026 – Our last day at sea, since our 14 day cruise ends tomorrow in Lisbon, Portugal.  The Mediterranean had been like a lake during our entire cruise, extremely calm and placid.  We could tell when we arrived at the Atlantic Ocean, there was definitely much more wave action going on around us!  Nothing major, but after the Mediterranean we could all feel it!

Mostly we packed, organized, and then read.  Not much else to do.

 

9 August 2026 – Lisbon, Portugal – J left early to catch her morning flight, I got off the ship right about 9 AM which was the final deadline for disembarkation.  There were loooooong zigzagging lines of people departing the ship (since we all had to show our cards to ensure we left), and an equally long line waiting for taxis.  But eventually I caught a cab and headed to the airport. 

It took me a little while to find the terminal I needed.  And then there was a long line through a maze of stanchions and those retractable belts.  But some airport guy came over to me and moved the belt to let me through a side shortcut, then put me at the front of the line!  I asked if this was because I was old – he smiled and said no, I didn’t need to walk that much, it was because I was wearing a mask.  I told him I wore the mask because I have asthma – he smiled again and said that was why I shouldn’t have to walk so much!

Well, another kind man indicated I should go in front of him to the inspector – I told him I thought the man let me through because I’m old.  He smiled and said no, it’s because I’m pretty.  I just laughed – you’ve got to love the gallantry and flirtation of European men, especially as I just turned 72!

I’m not sure if this was the normal craziness at the Lisbon airport, or just our flight – the gate wasn’t announced until 2:10 PM for our 3:05 PM flight!  Then the agent at the gate seemed baffled by the whole thing – he kept looking at the sign announcing the flight, typing into his computer, looking at the sign again.  This went on for quite a while.  Finally he had everyone line up, checked ID and tickets, and then sent us down the jetway – when ended in stairs to the outside!  Yes, we were put on buses, and driven to what seemed like another airfield entirely!  Possibly another terminal, but it was very far from the place where we all started!

Oh well, here we come, Roma!  (All the photos here are from Lisbon.)

 

10 August 2026 – Roma, Italia – I’m spending a day and two nights at a hotel not far from the airport (Fiumicino, also known as Leonardo da Vinci airport). 

Just had one of the best brekkies ever, Italian style!  Fabulous cappuccino, all sorts of croissants (called coronetta here) - some filled with cream, some chocolate, some jam, some fruit.  Two kinds of yogurt, all sorts of toppings like nuts, muesli, granola, trail mix.  Breads, cheeses, hams, other processed meats.  Eggs, bacon, sausage, salads, pancakes, cakes, and my personal fave, crostata di marmalata – kind of a shortbread crust bottom, marmalade filling, and more crust as a lattice on top.  Molto delicioso!

I had “frutti di bosca” yogurt - mixed berries from the forest, supposedly. Topped with walnuts, almonds, and dry oatmeal because there were some fruit bits in the muesli that were questionable.  Fruit salad (no mango).  And my slice of crostata.  Also two cappuccinos.  YUM!

Plus a nice Italian man did some translating for me with the breakfast lady re the fruit - I noticed he had two words in Hebrew tattooed on his arm.  So I asked, because you know, I was wondering if he was a member of the tribe.  I think not, they were two words representing two levels in the Kabbalah - one being keter, crown, being the highest level of enlightenment.  The other being something that means foundation - as in the foundation upon which one builds everything else.  We had a nice little discussion - he was definitely a quirky guy!

I’ve done my laundry, had my shower and brekkie, and plan to just take a day to relax and get back into non-vacation mode.  Thus far it looks like my flight is on time, but we all know how that goes.  So I’m just sorting paperwork from the trip and cruise, typing up my daily notes into blog posts, and decompressing.  I’m enjoying a day of anonymity to regroup.

I was so full from breakfast, I skipped lunch.  Dinner at the Mercure was just as delicious as breakfast, even if the offerings weren’t as extensive.  I had the ricotta and spinach ravioli, served with barely warmed yellow grape tomatoes, and semi-melted burrata cheese on top – OMG to die for meal!  I also had the amazing dark chocolate “truffa” – the chocolate gelato ball covered in dark chocolate and a dollop of sauce, and re-frozen.  It looks like a black truffle, hence the name.  So rich I could only eat half of it – that hardly ever happens with gelato!

And that’s today’s news from Italia!

 

11 August 2026 – Flying from London Heathrow to Vancouver BC – I have to add that we seem to be flying over Greenland, or possibly Iceland.  I have no idea, but there are snow-dusted hills and trees, and glaciers reaching down to icy blue-white waters!  How thrilling!  I’ve never been to either country, but now I think that may be the next adventure!!!

 

 

The Medina of Tangier

7 August 2026 – Tangier, Morocco 

 

What a very cool and totally different place to visit!  We had a long walk along the pier to reach the terminal, where we stopped to do very quick messages to our sweeties.  J asked one of the staff about WiFi, and ended up with him putting his staff WiFi on her phone!  I guess it worked better than the public WiFi, but it just seemed so funny!

At any rate, some people were in European clothing, others in the traditional long robes worn by men and women in North Africa, with many men wearing skullcap sort of hats, and women with their hair mostly to fully covered.  Conversations were in Arabic, French, English, and sometimes a mix of all three.

 

Now, I should back up a bit.  Our cruise ship has lectures or talks about the various ports we visit, to help people prepare.  I never attend, I will admit.  I tend to just jump into the middle of things without having a clue what’s going on.

 

However, HAL also posts short videos about the ports on their in-house TV system, so guests can watch these prior to going ashore.  Some of the videos are about the port, the history, famous buildings, whatever.  But there are always videos where the Holland America tour coordinator (or some title like that) describes options available at each port.  Where to find the market area, where to find the beaches, how to get around.  J and I would watch each video the evening before a visit to the port, because they turned out to be very helpful.

 

For Tangier, we were agreed we wanted to visit one of the traditional markets.  In this particular city, one market is in the Medina, the original city within the walls of the oldest part of modern Tangier.  Our tour coordinator mentioned in the video that the easy way to visit the Medina is to take a taxi or bus to the highest part of the Medina, and then explore the area while walking downhill.  The lowest portion of the Medina was very near the entry to the cruise dock, so that seemed like a very reasonable plan.

 

We found our friendly hop-on-off bus just outside the dock, and figured fine, this will help give us an orientation in Tangier.  Even the bus stop seemed classically Moroccan, or maybe just Arab.  Islamic design is based on the Biblical commandment to not create graven images of anything "in the heaven above, or that is on the earth below, or the water underneath the earth."  That's why you don't see images of plants, animals, humans.  Absolutely nothing in nature.  Islamic design uses geometric shapes to create abstract patterns (although they do tend to look like geometric shining suns to me).  Our bus stop pillars were a classic example of this style.

 

We rode through narrow streets where it felt like the bus would scrape the buildings on both sides!  Past the fish market, various shops full of exotic spices perfuming the air (and so much better than the fish market scents!).  Past the beaches, one with camels for tourists to ride!!!  Up and down hills, seeing little vignettes of life in Tangier.

 

I briefly sat next to the birthday man and his wife, from Ibiza – they both wished me happy birthday again, and of course I wished him the same.  Too funny to run into them on the bus!

 

After our first trip around the city, and several conversations with both Moroccans and other tourists, we figured out that bus stop #2 was pretty much the upper section of the Medina.  As one person told us, get off the bus, look for the big gate, and keep walking downhill.  It really turned out to be that simple!

 

The Medina is basically the old fortress, and over the centuries people have built shops and residences within the fortress, a labyrinthine complex of interconnected tiny souks (shops) that seem to go on and on and on.  Some souks had obvious themes, such as essential oils, or facial care products.  Or perhaps only dried fruits – figs, dates, other kinds of figs, ten kinds of dates, and maybe a small bin of dried apricots.  Colorful pyramids of turmeric, saffron, dried herbs, spices we couldn’t identify.  Bins and piles of candies, with little bags so you could put together small gifts.

 

Other shops were more confusing – some had dried flowers or leaves, and various mesh or brocade bags – and really, nothing else.  Our best guess was that people could mix up their own sachet or potpourri blends, but we don’t know for certain.  Leather shops, shoe shops, fabric souks, scarf souks – you name it, there was a tiny shop selling only that item.

 

It was crowded, colorful, busy, fascinating, and smelled divine.  Or mostly divine – at least, there wasn’t a fish market within the Medina!

 

We wound our way around, zigzagging through the market.  Vendors would hawk their wares, people would offer to be our tour guides.  Fortunately, we found that saying “no, thank you” in a firm voice usually worked by the third time.  As if there was a rule that someone might relent, but three refusals was the charm. 

 

We eventually found a little place that looked like a traditional Moroccan eatery.  Not that either of us would recognize such a place, but it looked very clean, and had some mosaic on the walls.  The menu featured tagines and couscous.  They were willing to accept Euros, and the exchange rate was ten of the Moroccan money (listed as DH, so I’m not sure what they were called) to each Euro – so prices were great.  

 

We went in, and a young boy, maybe about 11 or 12, helped us.  His English was minimal, but he sent us upstairs where we sat and perused the menu.  We were the ONLY guests, but at that point we figured fine, we’ll give it a shot.  A woman came up, perhaps his mother – she was the chef, and we were able to communicate in French.

We ordered chicken tagine, and fruit salad – but only after I explained how allergic I am to mango, and she agreed that she could make salade des fruites sans mangue.  (This was after I mimed dying from mango.  Some words they never taught us in French class, such as “allergic.”)

 

The café eventually filled up, with both tourists and locals, so we figured it was a good spot.  Our chicken tagine was delicious, full of herbs and spices and toasted almonds among the sauce!  Plus it came with some rustic bread, thicker than pizza crust but much denser and flatter than a Western loaf of bread – but perfect for sopping up all the spicy sauce!  The fruit salad was a wonderful light course after the filling tagine.

 

By now we had an adult waiter, and he insisted we had to have the traditional Moroccan mint tea at the end of our meal.  My camera went through two batteries by the time our tea was served, so J offered to use her smartphone – the waiter poured the tea from about three feet above the glass to create a froth of tea.  But J forgot to take photos – so our laughing waiter poured the tea back into the pot, and posed and poured again!  It really was one of those hilarious cultural interactions, but the waiter was such a good sport laughing at the two of us, and it all made for great photos!

 

After our wonderful lunch, we continued downhill, zigzagging around, avoiding the occasional motorcycle tearing around the cobblestone streets, and me trying to not pet every cat after the first one snarled at me.  We’d ask for directions, have occasional conversations about things in shops, and bought very little.  Oh, and the colorful flowers in the pails turned out to be the flowers from prickly pear cactus!  The man described the plant, and I drew a sketch – he agreed, prickly pear!  I explained that in the US southwest, the Native Americans make jam and sweets from the actual fruit – but he said in Morocco, they dry the flowers and “paint” them (I think he meant dye).  Then essential oils can be drizzled on them, and they help perfume the house.  They did smell really good!

 

Tangier turned out to be about our favorite stop on this cruise – it really was so different and exotic!  I think both of us might have been a bit hesitant about venturing into the Medina alone, but together we felt very safe and able to navigate our way around and back to the ship.

 

At dinner, chatting with other cruise passengers who went on various tours and excursions, we definitely felt like very intrepid independent travellers!!!