Lisbon, Portugal

Oh boy, where do I begin on the adventures of traveling with a child?!  Chris and I are making a ton of rookie parenting mistakes, and just when we think we have it figured out, we make more  So, what do you like to do when you visit a new town while traveling?  Let me guess.  Walk around to explore the sites, perhaps even “get lost,” and eat the local cuisine (image: sitting outside at a café sipping a drink and people watching).  We do too!  For some strange reason, Quinn is not interested in these activities, let alone sitting in a stroller and/or high chair for 3+ hours.  Therefore, we really need to develop a strategy to keep her entertained while in ports with ample walking time, and see enough of the place ourselves, to feel satisfied.  This is our goal for Bilbao, Spain, since we definitely did not accomplish this in Lisbon, Portugal.

First, I must say that Quinn is more interested in the local cuisine than one would guess for a two year old.  In fact, Chris and I are quite sure she is a “foodie” already, as she is a bit pretentious in her eating.  Because once we got off the ship, Quinn ate like a champ (finally!).  She ate fried meatballs, omelets, a ham and cheese sandwich, pizza, and the local pastry famous here, Pastel De Nata.  Anytime we ate on the ship, she continued to refuse and spit out the food.  She   She knows the ship food is horrible.  Thankfully, today we had taco day, so she ate well for lunch.  We have had to hit grocery stores to supplement her diet on the ship, and I am quite sure we are feeding her 85% of her waking hours.  After our long meals in the dining area with little eating, we then go back to the cabin and continue to chase her around the room and shove food into her mouth while she is playing.  To illustrate the constant and mindless feeding that takes place, the other day I tried to shove a banana into Chris’ mouth while we were talking because it is such a habit.  Ha!

But in terms of Lisbon, we did manage to see a few things.  The first day we signed up for a tour of the city on a rib boat.  The field office coordinator and even the guide were a bit surprised that we were taking a two year old on a “speed boat,” as emphasized with large eyes by the field office coordinator.  It was the one tour that seemed the most likely to entertain Quinn so we decided to give it a shot.  The tour guide was completely game and later told me she was the youngest he has ever taken by many years.  She was bored at times, but she did great overall, given the fact she couldn’t walk as much as she likes.  The boat took us along the river and we were able to get close to the bridge that is a replica of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Fran (designed by the same architect), Belem Tower (a defense structure for the military), Discovery Monument(see pic, famous for being the place many Portuguese explorers set off on their voyages), and the Monument to Christ (built as a thanks to God for having spared so few lives with WWII due to the country’s rare neutral stance).  It was a fun tour with eight others from the ship, and gave us a nice perspective on the city.  On another day, I toured the city alone and visited Se Cathedral, walked on the square, and then hopped on a sight seeing tour bus around some neighborhoods of Lisbon.  While trying to find a restaurant, Chris and I stumbled upon the Castelo de Sao Jorge (see pic taken from a viewpoint earlier that day) and Panteao Nacional. 

Unfortunately, we never did find an authentic Portuguese restaurant this entire time at port because we used up Quinn’s limited sitting time while walking along the city, as we bounced along the insanely narrow cobblestone sidewalks, up steep hills, in this pathetic lightweight $20 umbrella stroller. Those cobblestone streets were once cute to me; now they are my nemesis. 

We had two particular days where we made a lot of mistakes regarding traveling with a child.  One day, we decided to hit the second largest aquarium in the world, thinking this would be a kid-friendly activity for Quinn.  However, she wasn’t into the fish (or otters or penguins or any other cool ocean animal).  She just wanted to walk!  So, she wasn’t particularly happy because it was crowded so we couldn’t just let her run around.  We ended up staying out way beyond her nap because we wanted to grab a quick lunch and hit a grocery store, which meant she was a monster before and after her nap that night.  She was sleep deprived and nobody had a spectacularly fun day to feel like any of it was worth it.  On another day, we decided to go to the quaint town, Sintra, which is known for a beautiful palace and castle.  We knew it was a metro and train ride away so planned for an hour each way, but it definitely took much longer and we got off to a late start due to traveling with others.  Time is limited for us because she needs some kind of nap, both for her growing brain, but also for our sanity.  So, we arrived later than planned to Sintra, and for some reason, we had groupthink going on and we ended up attempting to walk up to this palace on this narrow, steep road with virtually no sidewalks, and with Quinn in this umbrella stroller (vs. taking a hop on/off bus).  Her half-life in the stroller is about one hour, and by then, we had only made it up to the entrance of the palace (and then need to pay 14 euro). We knew this would only be an activity she would tolerate in perfect conditions, but she was tired of the stroller, she/we were now hungry, time was ticking, and we still had a long way to go in order to get back to the ship.  We grabbed another quick sandwich lunch and headed back to the train.  So, we briefly saw the castle and palace from the outside along with the cute little town, and then we left.   It was hugely disappointing to travel that far and see so little (see pic of the palace, aka what we hoped to see). 

We now realize that if we are going to attempt to see these kinds of sights, we really need to be as efficient as possible.  Therefore, we need to sign up for the touristy on/off buses where we can get to places and learn quickly.  The positive is we went with four other SASers, and had a really nice time getting to know them.  Hopefully, they will still travel with us!  They stayed later to see more, and even brought back some pastries  for us which were recommended by a man on the train.  So thoughtful!  And, so yummy!   With all the chaos and stress in visiting this tourist attraction, I am pretty sure Quinn’s highlight of the day was figuring out she could use her mouth to hold up a water bottle free of hands (see pic). 

With all this, we definitely gained a surface perspective of Lisbon, Portugal, and it is a nice place.  I wouldn’t rate it as one of the top places I have visited but it definitely has its charm.   Since we have left Lisbon, I have already spoken to a more veteran mom on SAS that has a two year-old boy and four year-old girl, to arm myself with more travel tips.  We also found a better stroller that was left on the ship due to the Hotel Director, John.  We plan to use this stroller in the next port, which may be more conducive to sleeping.  Perhaps these two things, along with learning from all our mistakes, will help our travels in the next port.

As mentioned, we are now at sea, and I have a list of about 10 babysitters willing to help out with Quinn, mostly while she is napping (due to us wanting to keep the caregivers to a minimum).  One student, Paige, is going to watch Quinn tomorrow night so Chris and I can both go up to Glazier Lounge to socialize with other faculty, staff, and dependents.  We are both excited to have our wing man vs. going solo.  Also, a wife of a faculty member, Mary, loves kids so she has been spending some time with us.  She is going to take Quinn one hour a day while we are sea.  Today, I left Quinn for 20 minutes and she did great.  So tomorrow, I may have an hour to myself while Quinn is NOT sleeping and NOT with Chris.  Aside from this being a nice break, it will help Quinn transition into a part-time daycare setting when we get back. Minus mealtimes, being on the ship is extremely smooth.  Though, I must make a shout out to the staff during meal times because they help us with the high chair, fill up her milk sippy cup, deliver bananas to our table, and dote on Quinn the entire time.  Anyway, our goal is to now learn how to make our traveling slightly smoother.  I don’t think it will ever be completely smooth, but we can definitely make it less stressful.  Bilbao, here we come!