England and Iberia Day 7

Uphill in Lisbon, and a flea market find

Posted by Brian Hart on August 04, 2026 · 16 mins read
  • Start of day: Lisbon, Portugal
  • End of day: At sea

Good morning from Lisbon!

Breakfast at a low white table in a glass-walled shipboard lounge, looking out over Lisbon. On the table sit a white plate of cut melon and pineapple, a second small plate holding a topped toast, a folded napkin, and a metal sugar caddy. Round rope-woven armchairs in dark red with grey cushions surround the table on all sides. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, the city climbs the hillside in dense tiers of white and pastel buildings under terracotta roofs, with church towers, a large pale monastery-like building, and two yellow construction cranes on the skyline. Blue sky with scattered white cloud.

Looking up at the Celebrity Apex from the concrete dock apron, the ship filling most of the frame at a steep angle. Its deep navy hull carries the white wordmark Celebrity APEX in large lettering, with a row of round porthole windows above and tier upon tier of white balcony cabins and glass-fronted decks rising to the top. A white gangway structure and mobile stairs connect to the ship at the right, with orange traffic cones on the tarmac beside them. Bright blue sky with streaks of high white cloud.

I haven’t been to Lisbon in… let’s see… two months! I was last here when disembarking the beautiful Silversea Silver Spirit; you can read about that cruise in my Rome and Silversea recap. That last visit was just from the cruise port to the terminal, though, and barely counts.

With my glitching data service now sorted, today went much more smoothly than yesterday. I had a short list of sites to visit and knew the general direction, so uphill we went.

We toured the Sé de Lisboa.

A black-framed A-frame ticket sign standing on worn stone steps outside Lisbon Cathedral, roped off by a black barrier belt. The white panel is headed with a red rose-window outline, then BILHETEIRA TICKETS and BEM-VINDO! WELCOME! Prices are listed in Portuguese and English: Adultos / Adults 7 euros; Lisboa Card 5 euros; Criancas 7-12 / Children 7-12 5 euros; Criancas under 6 / Children under 6 Gratuito / Free. A color photograph of the cathedral's stained glass rose window sits at the right, and the footer reads Mantenho o silencio por favor. / Please remain silent, with Se de Lisboa in red. Behind the sign, the deep stone doorway of the cathedral stands open with a visitor stepping inside.

Brian stands in the middle of a long, ornately decorated hall, smiling at the camera in a white t-shirt with thin navy horizontal stripes, pale blue shorts, a dark watch, and sunglasses hooked at his collar. Above him the coved ceiling is elaborately painted -- a central fresco of robed figures and cherubs floating on clouds around a gilded royal coat of arms, framed by white rococo plasterwork scrolls against panels of sage green, dusty pink, and ochre. The walls carry large gilt-framed landscape paintings and blue-and-white azulejo tilework, with an ornate carved and gilded canopy over a red-upholstered ceremonial chair in the middle distance. Dark polished floorboards run the length of the room, and a family of visitors moves through a doorway at the left.

Inside Lisbon Cathedral, looking across the ambulatory at a soaring Gothic interior of pale limestone. Pointed arches spring from clustered columns with carved capitals, and tall lancet windows with leaded glass fill the clerestory above, sending shafts of hazy light across the space. Siena walks away from the camera across the worn stone floor, wearing a pink tank top, short black skirt, and sandals, glancing back to her right. In the left foreground a wooden votive candle stand holds rows of unlit white candles behind glass. A carved stone tomb chest and a potted palm stand along the far wall, with a jewel-toned stained glass window glowing in the aisle beyond.

Close view of a carved stone tomb effigy inside Lisbon Cathedral. The recumbent figure lies on a raised sarcophagus, hands folded together in prayer at the chest, the head resting on a stone cushion beneath a carved canopy at the right. The robes fall in deep vertical folds across the body, with a decorative motif carved at the waist. At the feet, a small stone dog lies curled with its head on its paws, catching a faint patch of violet light. The tomb chest below is carved with worn relief panels, set against a plain ashlar block wall with a projecting stone molding running above.

The interior of a small baroque church, viewed down the center aisle between rows of dark wooden pews. A barrel-vaulted ceiling with gilded plasterwork leads to an apse containing a heavily gilded altarpiece: twisting columns and carved scrollwork frame a large oil painting of a gathering of figures, with an ornate golden tabernacle on the marble altar below and silver candlesticks and flower arrangements on either side. A large brass chandelier hangs on a chain from the vault above the aisle. Wall sconces with electric candle bulbs flank tall wooden panelled doors at left and right, a green-draped celebrant's chair stands beside the altar, and worn stone flags pave the aisle.

Afterwards, we continued on to the Feira da Ladra, an open-air flea market that runs Tuesdays and Saturdays. Siena found a top and Rowan bought an old Portugal license plate after deciding then-and-there he wanted to collect unique license plates. We took our time strolling through the flea market, and it was much bigger than I was expecting!

A photocopied white poster taped to a Lisbon wall entirely faced in old azulejo tiles patterned with repeating ochre, brown, blue, and cream floral medallions, chipped and scuffed with age. The poster has a black-and-white checkerboard border and reads Pieces CHESS CLUB, with OFF-LINE at the left and OPEN TO ALL at the right. Below is a cartoon of a checkerboard chess board with arms, legs, and a raised fist walking along. The text continues AT DURO DE MATAR, 31.07.2026 - 6PM, then MUSIC BY with a list of names -- Millian Dolla, King Kami, Umafricana, Didi, Mei Glez -- with a small Vida Justa logo at bottom left and a QR code at bottom right. A handwritten note in Spanish is taped to the wall at the upper left.

A wooden crate of second-hand vinyl records on a stall table at the Feira da Ladra flea market. The record facing forward is 10,000 Maniacs, its sleeve showing a black-and-white photograph of six children and adults drawing bows in an archery line against a cream background, with a lavender border. A handwritten blue sticker on the sleeve reads 1987 Portuguese Pressing, Soft Rock, Folk Rock, Pop Rock. The crate front is covered in stickers -- a black Anti-Corpos punk logo, a diamond-shaped A Record A Day card reading COMPRO DISCOS de Vinil (todos os estilos), CD's, Cassetes e Material de Som with the phone number 910 351 476 and WhatsApp, a blue Café Mondo sticker, and a discosboorecords.pt sticker. Black-and-white genre divider cards stand above the racks behind, labelled Psych, Heavy Metal, Hard Rock, and Pop Rock.

I wanted a light lunch and Rowan wasn’t interested, so we escorted him back to the ship and then the rest of us headed to a well-reviewed place (back uphill) a few blocks from the water called Alfama Cellar.

The interior of a small Lisbon restaurant, its walls lined floor to ceiling with shelving built from reclaimed pallet wood and stacked with wine bottles. Prices are chalked directly onto the shelf edges -- 30,00 euros, 42,00, 39,00, 50,00, 23,00, 33,00, 98,00 -- and shallow boxes of used corks sit along the upper shelves. A row of Dalva port bottles with orange labels fills the shelf at the right. In the center, a small niche is lined with blue-and-white patterned tile and holds a plant and a couple of small figurines. A bare pine table in the foreground is set for two with wine glasses, dark placemats, and patterned plates, surrounded by red-painted wooden chairs on a dark wood floor. A white air-conditioning unit is mounted high on the left wall.

The three of us snacked on a sausage and cheese platter (with several types of chorizo!), and I had fish soup. It was all delicious.

A narrow stepped alley climbing between tall buildings in Alfama. The left wall is deep red and heavily covered in layered graffiti tags in yellow, white, red, and black, with a barred window set into it. The right wall is bare cream stucco with a green-barred window and an open doorway. Sherri stands midway up the stone steps in a black tank top, white shorts, and white sneakers, holding a water bottle and turning back toward the camera; Siena stands a few steps below on the right in a pink tank top, black skirt, and sneakers, also looking back. Higher up, potted plants hang on brackets from the left wall and laundry is strung across the gap between the buildings, with a strip of bright blue sky visible far above.

A large blue-and-white azulejo tile panel on an exterior wall, painted in loose brushwork with two life-sized women in traditional dress. Each wears a headscarf, a long-sleeved blouse, an apron over a pleated skirt, and carries a load balanced on her head -- a broad cloth-wrapped bundle on the left figure, a stack of flat baskets or trays on the right. Both are painted mostly in cobalt blue washes on white tile; the right-hand figure has been vandalized with a pink mouth scribbled over her lips, and both have small pink marks added at the fingertips. The tiles are grimy and cracked in places, with a spray-painted grey band across the upper section and rough grey stone wall visible at the right edge.

A narrow cobbled street in Alfama on a bright afternoon. Tall, weathered four- and five-story buildings line both sides in white, cream, and mustard yellow, with wrought-iron balconies, satellite dishes, laundry hung out to dry, and a Portuguese flag. Souvenir shops crowd the street level -- racks of t-shirts, bags, straw hats, and painted fans hang in the immediate left foreground, and a green-awninged stall further down displays magnets and postcards. A man in a dark vest and khakis leans against the shopfront at the left, talking on his phone. A shopfront at the right is signed lavandaria self service laundry at number 115. A line of black bollards separates the sidewalk from the granite-paved roadway, which is empty of cars.

When we boarded the ship, Sherri thought the security guy was the hand sanitizer guy, so she put her boarding card in her mouth for presentation, quite the power move!

Our sailaway on the Tagus was quite memorable!

Sailaway on the Tagus, shot from an upper deck of the ship as it passes beneath the 25 de Abril Bridge. The rust-red suspension bridge crosses the upper half of the frame, its tower and cables rising against a deep blue sky, with the wooded green hillside of the south bank and the white buildings of Almada below it. In the foreground at right, passengers sit in a circular glass-walled hot tub cantilevered over the side; along the railings above and to the left, dozens of people stand watching and photographing the bridge. The teak pool deck below is filled with rows of lounge chairs, most occupied by sunbathers, and crew and passengers move along the deck.
(That's daughter in the hot tub)

In the evening, Rowan opted out of a sit-down dinner, so the remaining three of us went to Normandie, where I discovered Coquilles Saint-Jacques (scallops in a tasty cheese sauce).

While the weather in Lisbon was hot, it was mild compared to what we’d encounter in Palma de Mallorca and Ibiza, coming soon!

The Eden lounge aboard the Celebrity Apex at night, looking down its curved length. The outboard wall is a full-height lattice of white structural ribs dividing the glazing into tall triangles and diamonds, the glass black against the open Atlantic outside and faintly reflecting the room's lights. A long tan leather banquette curves along the right side on slender metal legs, raised on a low platform of pale slatted wood. Tall potted areca palms stand at intervals in ribbed wooden planters, their fronds reaching into the frame from above. Beyond them, white filigree wire chairs and small dark tables sit under violet accent lighting. The floor is laid with a dark carpet in a swirling feathered pattern of charcoal, teal, and rust.

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