Europe- Part 5: Malaga and Lisbon

After Rome we had two much needed days at sea as we sailed back across the Mediterranean Sea.  So I obviously did what everyone should do on a cruise the first day at sea, I misapplied my sunscreen and ended up with burn patches all over my body.  BRILLIANT.

But our next stop was Malaga, Spain.  We first drove around a little and looked at some of the beautiful landscape.

Then we made our way to la Alcazaba or the Castle of Gibralfaro.  This castle was built around the beginning of the 14th century.   

A bullfighting ring as viewed from the Castle.

Then we made our way to the city for a walk around that area.  On the second floor of this building is where Pablo Picasso was born.

Then we continued our walk around the city.

We got some free time to do whatever we wanted.  We decided to check out the Cathedral y Palacio Episcopal.  They were conducting mass at the time so we took a seat and listened in (as best we could because it was in Spanish), which was pretty cool.  As I walked out I noticed the "no photography" sign.  They should have made that sign a little more apparent as I walked in, oh well, at least I didn't use a flash!

Next we did a little shopping, then headed back to the boat.  

The next day we had a day at sea again.  We went to breakfast, came back and drank our coffee on our porch and read.  Then they announced that we were heading through the Strait of Gibraltar.  I'm pretty sure drinking your coffee while cruisin' through the Strait of Gibraltar is a once in a life time opportunity!

That day I began suffering from a severe cold.  My mom came down with a cold back in Rome and successfully passed it on to me (thanks mom).  But I'm telling you, my mom must be one tough cookie because it pretty much knocked me on my butt that entire day and I barely heard a complaint from her in Rome.  Just after that beautiful moment passing through the Strait of Gibraltar I went and laid down for the rest of the day.  At one point I made my mom go to the infirmary to buy me medicine- my instructions to her were "buy me whatever they got, I'll take anything at this point!"  I think I skipped lunch and barely made it to an easy dinner.

The next day we arrived in Lisbon, Portugal.  When I got out of the shower that morning my mom excitedly told me that we had just passed under the Golden Gate Bridge!  I then questioned the drugs I had taken for the cold and how long I had been out and how in the hell we had arrived in San Francisco.  I went and looked for myself and sure enough, it was the Golden Gate Bridge!

It wasn't only the Golden Gate Bridge, but what appeared to be the statue in Rio de Janeiro!!!

I decided then that I needed to lay off the carnival cold medicine (which was actually just a high dose of Tylenol).  

But once we got on our tour it was explained to us that the bridge was titled the 25th of April.  Terrible name if you ask me- but it is the day they celebrate their revolution back in 1974.  It had an original name of Salazar Bridge that seems much better to me.  If you google it there's some controversy over the name because of the politics involved, so some just call it "the bridge over the river."  May I suggest they just name it the Golden Gate?!?

But anyhow, it was built by the company that built the Oakland bridge in San Francisco.  Yes I typed that correctly.  I am not sure why the builders of the OTHER bridge in San Francisco that doesn't resemble the 25th of April bridge made this look similar to the Golden Gate but I quit trying to understand what was going on mostly because my head still hurt quite bad from the cold and felt like it was going to explode from this conundrum.

The statue is called the Christ the King Statue.  It WAS modeled after the statue in Rio de Janeiro.  But this statue celebrates Portugal's gratitude at being spared during World War II.  I was told that the mothers of son's that didn't have to die in that war were the ones that wanted the statue.  If you want to know my true opinion on that subject you can ask me about it sometime, but for now, lets move on from this one picture that I've picked apart too much already!

Next we stopped at the Monument to the Discoveries celebrating Lisbon's Age of Discovery.  

Torre (Tower) de Belem- built as a protection against enemy ships coming into Lisbon back in the early 16th century.

We got out and got to do some shopping at one point.  Then we did some driving around to see more of the city.  I wasn't that impressed with Lisbon, but to be fair, I didn't feel well, it was rainy the whole time, and probably wouldn't have been impressed with anything that day.  But there seemed to be graffiti on the sides of most buildings that seemed to have no hope of anyone ever cleaning up and just a lot of run down looking areas and not hardly any nice looking areas.  But the tour guide did say that most people live outside the city and commute in for work.  I bet if I had seen those places I would've seen a beautiful and well kept Portugal!  

I had hoped to find a decent pharmacy while in Lisbon.  But I didn't have such luck.  So when we got back on the boat I personally went and visited the infirmary.  When I was able to describe my exact ailments to the nurse she offered up a whole slew of different medicines more capable of helping my cold.  I just don't think she was expecting me to say, "okay, I'll take everything you put out here."  But she let me buy it.  And I'll tell you, the best priced goods on the cruise ship may just come from the infirmary.  Good to know.

And from that point forward I was good to go again!  And we said good-bye to Lisbon (and it's San Francisco meets Rio de Janeiro feel) and to my cold.