Lisbon - The Capital City

Good Day from Lisbon in Portugal - the Capital City.

Hope you like this photograph of Arcadia sailing past 'Black horse Square' in downtown Lisbon. Why it is called that I am not too sure as the horse is green! Lisbon is a very stylish City with great shopping, restaurants and amazing architecture. The Portuguese are very friendly and P&O started its life in 1837 with a mail run between Spain and Portugal. Many of the seafarers were from Goa which was a under Portuguese rule at the time hence our connection with India today. The Restaurant that I like to go to is called Bon Jardin where they specialise in chicken and chips and rose wine! I did not get ashore today as there was a lot of business to attend to. I met up with our ship's agent Catarina Rawes and Catarina kindly gave me this photo of Arcadia which was taken by a very well known local professional Photographer Luis Miguel Correia. Luis takes many photographs of cruise ships visiting Lisbon, he is a real ship buff and is in the process of publishing a book and this photograph will be in it. So my thanks to Catarina! Our port agency James Rawes & Ca Lda have been agents for P&O Cruises since we began. The Dome you can see in the background of Arcadia is the Dome of the Se ( pronunced Saa) - their equivalent of St Pauls in London.

Last Saturday in Santa Cruz, Tenerife I went for a walk ashore. Tenerife is where I bought my Yamaha Clavinova for my cabin - being at sea for eight months of the year is just too long to be without a full size piano. I used to make do with a portable keyboard but then I was spoilt on Aurora as I had a real upright piano in my cabin, much to the annoyance of my neighbors! I get a lot of fun out of my digital piano as I can use the ear phones and not disturb anyone day or night.
It is great for stress relief as when you are playing music only the creative side of your brain is in action (so I am told) and this allows me to leave work behind - even if it is only for a quick five minute slot when on a look break! Eduardo our Ship's Agent has a son with the same name who speaks perfect English and we went and bought the piano in a local store. This was at 1230 and it was delivered to the ship at 1430! Everything is easy if you know the right people. The Carpenters on board made a wooden case for my piano and this moves with me from ship to ship. I was on board Oceana another of our sister ships at the time. Tenerife has a very pleasant air temperature at this time of year and we walked for about 30 minutes to the shopping paradise which is el Corte Ingles, my favorite department store in Spain. The new one in Santa Cruise is one of the best anywhere, a modern building with design style. They are a bit like our 'never knowingly undersold' only far more stock to view and ranges including all the top designers and much more colour in every department - reflects the climate of course! There are staff around to help at any time and if they can't speak English they will quickly find someone who will. They all know their products so well and will go to great lengths to find your size, show you alternatives, take you personally to the fitting rooms and stay with you 'as the customer' until you have made your choice. After viewing all seven floors it was to the cafe in the sky for a coffee to rest the feet! Santa Cruz has lots of shops in the main street area selling everything from electrical goods, jewellery, and table linen and of course clothes and shoe shops. There is even a MacDonald's which is very much everywhere now. The port area has had a lot of investment to make it very user friendly and there is even a blue line to direct you from the town centre to the ship!

I have a very glamorous team of photographers to work with and here are a few of them with Kati Dyer our Photography Manager with 'The Ships Photographer' Kati is top left and alongside is Charlie Jones, to my left is Imogen Cox and to my right Danielle Todd. They capture all the special moments of the cruise, special reflect session where they make passengers feel as if they are modeling, and also compile a DVD with the highlights of the Cruise holiday. As it is Armistice Day today on the 11th day of the 11th month at the 11th hour Arcadia observed the 2 minute silence. During this time all the ship's company stoped what they are doing and faced aft in the direction of the red ensign flag. Pictured above are some of my colleagues who gathered for the silence. What a Team!

Bye for now,

James.

'The mind is like an iceberg: it floats with one-seventh of its bulk above water'

Sigmund Freud