The good old rock of Gibraltar is by far the biggest surprise port I have ever been to.  One of our kids had a bit of a cough and I thought that I would just stay behind with him for the day.  We ended up letting him sleep in and taking a tour.

The first thing that really surprised me is how built up the island is.  Prior to the visit I assumed it would be a big rock island with little on it.  However real estate must be booming as there a many buildings being built.

Our first stop was St. Michaels Cave.  This is a beautiful cave that you can tour and also has a concert hall within. We went a little further up to a scenic point where you could see Africa (Morocco), Spain, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Mediteranean. Its quite impressive. To share your view is a small army of wild apes. They are surprisingly friendly, looking for food.  One was even kind enough to jump on our kids shoulder for a photo.

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Lisbon must have once been a great beautiful city.  It still has much of the original charm however it is really dirty and rundown.  Sunny and I were in Lisbon about 7 years ago.  We had spent a week in the Southern tip of Portugal and drove to Lisbon for a day.  I know we jammed in a lot that day, and had an excellent time, so maybe I overlooked what I saw today.

The first thing I noticed was that every building seemed to have graffiti on it.  From new constuction buildings to the hundreds of years old properties.  It was really sad.

The sites in Lison remain impressive.  Check out the monastary and the ocean tower used to guard the port entrance.  I will name these spots later when I know I have the correct spelling.  Lisbon also seems to have an endless supply of monuments.  Most are well kept up but the outside areas feel rundown.

Our experience with the taxi driver was horrible.  One of the few times it has been a problem.  We agreed on a 3 hour tour for 100 Euro.  The final time did turn out to be about 3 hours and 40 minutes and somehow the final price was 160 Euro.  I couldnt figure out the math.  In the end we paid the guy 130 but it left a bad taste in our mouth.  The only other bad experience we have had in Europe with cab drivers was in Edinborough Scotland.  Best tip, make sure you know exactly how much the trip will cost and what any deviation will cost as well.

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Our first port was Ponta Delgada a Portuguese territory. We did not fully take advantage of the island. We spent the majority of our time walking around the city area, enjoy real land under our feet for the first time in 7 days. The town felt like a typical port village. Rather simple. Not particularly clean. The streets are narrow (like many European cities) with tiny sidewalks. The air felt heavy with diesel fumes and surprisingly, it seemed, all the locals smoke.

At the end of the peir there is a military museum. I think all of us agree that the collection was impressive, and the requested donation for entrance, one Euro, was cheap.

Along the boardwalk there is a smaller chuch with no posted name. The exterior is in rather rough condition. Really there is little to draw your attention to the church. Since we were just walking around and the door was mostly open I decided to stumble in. It was really a treat. The interior was beautiful. And while I have seem other ornate churchs, this one was truely a diamond in the rough. If you get a chance, and you can find it, poke your head in, its well worth it.

I will do my best to keep this updated with our trip. I am banking on having plenty of open wifi connections once we are no longer ship bound.

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I have to admit that our Trans Atlantic cruise on NCL Norwegian Jade has been very relaxing. I was worried about the extended days at sea. With the exception of about a 24 hour rough sea our days were filled with about an hour in the gym and steam room, ping pong, reading, etc. Griffin and Gavin have really enjoyed the kids club on board.

BTW the Internet is painfully slow on board. I would ad more photos if the connection really allowed for it.

And of course Griffin Gavin and I had a lot of fun tickle fighting.

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Our trip began with a single night in Miami.  It was my first time in Miami and I was not overly impressed.  We did opt to stay in a hotel in the downtown area or Miami, which I found quite dirty, congested, and a bit scarry.

We did have the pleasure of having a complimentary dinner at Smith and Wollensky’s.  Sunny took me to the Smith and Wollensky in Las Vegas, and in exchange for a cold glass of water to my lap, we were invited back to S&W to make things right.  Its a great restaurant, chopshop, rather masculine with healthy steaks.  What made the dinner was our server, Mustafa, who had plenty of suggestions, fun dialogue, and made the experience the best it could possibly be.

It was a brief exposure to South Beach which appeared to be a clean, fun, and exciting place.  If I were to go back to Miami, South Beach would be the place to stay.

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