Alicante, Spain

This was a new port for us.

Some early morning rowing practice...

An extensive marina

 
This sculpture was more than just a bust, the iron wrapping tells the story about how Capt. Dickson rescued hundreds of refugees from the Nazis during their civil war.

Canary Island dragon tree (Dracaena draco) fruiting.

We took the metro to the base of this hill with the fortification at the top.

We waited for the minibus to take us to the top of the hill with this girls'-day-out wedding party.

From the bus window: The fortification is Castell de Santa Bàrbara and it's huge.

At the lower level, we made our way to the entrance along with the other tourists

 
The tunnel through the wall. An ancient prickly pear cactus has lots of character.

The view from the top looking toward the port

The view the other way back to the rest of the city.

These mill stones were used for grinding flour from grains using animal power.

 
A photo Dean took vs. one that Ginny took a few minutes later showing a wider view.

This unusual building is the Montreal building, known locally as “La Pirámide” was built in 1968 by architect Alfonso Navarro.

The curving road that accesses this site runs through a wooded area.

The merging of the bedrock and the building provides a look at the site's history.

 
The cannon is aimed directly at the Zuiderdam.

A display of artifacts from the area

 
Ceramic pieces collection from Alicante

Old olive oil lamps

 
A sad Jesus

The rock substrate is amazing.

We walked down back into town and then to the ship. Whew, what a full day.

Lisbon, Portugal

We had been to Lisbon in 2016 and in 2023, so check out those pages, because of course we did something different this time.

The carving in this ancient church was amazing.

Ceramic tiles changed the nature of buildings in Portugal and in some other locations around the Mediterranean.

The angel holding the halos over the heads of two men was different.

Our view was the main waterfront square while we waited for a bus to a park.

 
Our bus stop was near the top of a hill. A church with the traditional chicken adorned the top of the bell tower--in Europe the chicken is sometimes used to differentiate the protestant churches from the Catholic churches, but some Catholic use the chicken as well because it was the symbol of St. Peter. Some bugs are finding peace in the peace lily.

 
It was a nice hike through a pleasant woods that was populated by some cork oaks (Quercus suber), which is Portugal's national tree. These were probably old enough for their first bark peeling, but we hoped that these would not be harvested because they were in park.

After Lisbon, the ship stopped in Tangier, Morocco, but we had just been there on the Viking cruise, so we did not get off the ship. We also did not get off in San Juan, PR. I gave my presentations across the ocean and word and spread, so the attendees did increase some for those sea days.

We were up for the sunrises behind us each and every day.