Lisbon to Porto

 

Nigerian Headstones

We headed north to Porto. Our primary stop was the Alianca Underground Museum. The cellars which used to be used to age wine are now used to house an eclectic collection of 1000 year old headstones from Niger, stone statues from Zimbabwe, minerals, fossils and petrified wood from Brazil, Portuguese ceramics, and modern frescoes. The cellars still have barrels to age wine and brandy, as well as bottles of sparkling wine. The tour ended with our sampling of sparkling wine.

Tree made from Petrified Wood

We had lunch in the town of Aveiro, known for its canals which were historically used to feed the salt flats.

Gondolas in Aveiro

 After lunch we headed for the Douro Spirit, our riverboat, for the next seven days.

Porto from our riverboat

Easter in Lisbon

 

Monument of the Discoveries

We began our tour at the Monument of the Discoveries. Portugal was famed for its navigation school. Henry the navigator is at the head of the memorial. The Portuguese sailors discovered how to get to the orient by going around the African continent. The map labels the year each territory was reached by the Portuguese. This gave them direct access to the spices of India and the Orient. Nearby is the Belem Tower which defended the port of Lisbon. Then onto the Monastery of St. Jerome where we had their local pastries, Pastéis de Bélum.

Main Entrance to St. George's Castle

In the afternoon, I decided to climb to the St. George’s Castle in the Alfama district of the city. I visited the Church of St. Anthony of Lisbon. The church was built above his birthplace. The climb begins from here through the streets and staircases to St. George’s Castle where a fortification has existed since the 8^th century B.C. I walked the Castle walls with beautiful views of the city. On the way down, I took a wrong turn, but it was hard to get lost, just head down hill and west. That night, we had dinner near where I had walked, kale soup, followed by duck with rice and vegetables. After dinner, we had a Fado concert. A classical guitar and a Portuguese guitar with three different Fado singers.

Arriving in Lisbon

 

Carmo Archeological Museum

We flew front Denver to Montreal, then on to Lisbon. We arrived at the Altis Grand Hotel about 12:30. Lisbon is situated on the Tgus River where it meets the ocean. The ancient town was founded by the Romans on 7 hills which could be used for defense. I walked to the Carmo Archeological Museum, housed in a former Convent destroyed by the 1555 earthquake that destroyed most of the city. There were artifacts from prehistoric, Roman, and Moor periods as well as some mummies from South America brought back by Portuguese explorers. 

Mummy from South America

Nearby are the Santa Justa Lift and Saint Peter’s Viewpoint with views of the city and the Castle of St. George on the opposite hill.  That night the tour group got together for white port and then went to a nearby restaurant for a meal.

St. George Castle and Santa Justa Lift

Singapore

Merlion in downtown Singapore

We were off the ship by about 8:00 AM and did a tour of Singapore in the morning, since our flight didn’t leave till 6:30 PM. Singapore is an island about 50 by 25 km. Seventy-five percent of the population is of Chinese descent. Singapore is an example of how a city should function: clean, little graffiti, great public transportation, effective health care, and lots of parks and green areas. We visited the modern downtown area and the historic European and Chinatown sections of the city. The law requires that all buildings get a fresh coat of paint every six years to keep the well-maintained look of the city. In the Chinese section we visited both a Buddhist temple and a Hindu temple. 

A top the Hindu Temple

The highlight of the tour was the Orchid Garden with 60,000 orchids including 1000 species and 2000 hybrids.

Singapore's Orchid Garden

A video of this trip is available on Youtube. 

Summary:

This was not one of our better trips. We both got sick during the trip. For some reason, we met fewer people than normal. We asked for first seating, and we were the only couple at a table for eight.  Loved our waiters but missed out on conversation with others. We found the traffic and pollution of Indonesia to be difficult to deal with. We were both surprised that Bali was so crowded. If you stayed at a beach resort, you would have a different impression. The highlights were my visit to Mount Bruno on Java and the VW Safari around Bali. Having a driver and guide dedicated to us was a real treat.  

Krakatoa

 

Krakatoa

We woke up at 5:30 AM to sail past the Krakatoa caldera. This volcano is famous for its 1883 explosion, the equivalent of 13000 Hiroshima nuclear bombs. The explosion was heard as far away as Alice Springs, Australia. At least 36,417 people died, and many more thousands were injured, mostly from the tsunamis that followed the explosion. The eruption destroyed two-thirds of the island of Krakatoa. The caldera today has several islands that are above sea level. The last major eruption was in 2018. We could see steam coming up from one of the low-lying islands in the caldera.

Steam escaping on right

Singapore History

Singapore began as a fishing village named Temasek. Legend has it that a Malay prince was shipwrecked here, saw a lion, and considered it good fortune. Singapore stands for Lion City and was established in 1323. It became a major trading hub, but the city burned down in 1613. Thomas Raffles, an officer of the British East India Company, established a trading post here in 1819. The city had over 10,000 inhabitants in 1822, with a mix of cultures and a chaotic use of the land. That same year the Jackson plan was established creating four towns: European, China town, Indians in Chulia Kampong and an Islamic town in Kampong Glam.  By 1880 there were 80,000 inhabitants, half of whom were Chinese. The city became a British Crown Colony in 1867. In 1939, a British Naval base was established, and guns were placed along the seacoast because of the threat from Japan, fuel tanks were established, but no naval fleet was sent. The Japanese attacked Malayasia on December 8^th, 1941. Rather than attacking Singapore by sea, the Japanese came down the Malay peninsula through the dense jungles  using bicycles. This allowed them to quickly traverse the jungle. The Allied troops withdrew to Singapore on January 31^st. Rather than attacking Singapore by sea, the Japanese used collapsible boats to cross to the island from the peninsula. They quickly gained control of the water supply on the island, forcing the surrender of 35,000 allied troops on February 15^th, 1942. They slaughtered 70,000 Chinese in the next few weeks. The British took back the colony after the war, but the move for independence had begun, since they had failed to protect the citizens from the Japanese. The island became independent in 1959.  It spent 1963 to 1965 as part of Malayasia, but major disputes arose since Malayasia gave few rights to those of Chinese origin. Singapore returned to a nation state in 1965 and built a strong national identity and an economy based on manufacturing, finances, and trade.

Singapore's Marina Bay Hotel

Jakarta, Indonesia

 

Children playing their instruments

Today we did the half-day tour of Jakarta. Jakarta is the melting pot of Indonesia with most of the ethnic groups represented in its 20 million people. We began the tour at the grade school that Barak Obama attended for 2^nd and 3^rd grade. He lived in Jakarta those years after his mother married his stepfather, an Indonesian. The children there played traditional instruments, others danced for us, and of course we were asked questions so they could practice their English. I was asked my name, where I lived, what work I had done, my hobbies, and how old I was. They were surprised that I was 75.

Praying in Istiqlal Mosque

Our next stop was the Catholic Cathedral of Jakarta, built in 1901 on the site of the previous cathedral that burned in a fire and eventually collapsed. For a cathedral, it was a very simple church. We then walked to the Istiqlal Mosque across the street. A friendship tunnel under the street connects the two. The mosque is the largest in Southeast Asia holding 120,000 worshippers.  It was designed by a Catholic who won the architectural competition. It was built between 1961 and 1978. We were able to tour the inside of the mosque.

Altar in Chinese Temple

Then on to a walk of Chinatown and a visit to some Chinese temples. For about 50 cents a bird, you could release the birds for your good fortune. Our guide demonstrated the ritual to ask the gods about an important choice in your life. It involves the selection of a numbered stick and then receiving the interpretation for that stick. Her result was "Her wish would be quite costly".

Port of Batavia

Our final stop was the old port of Batavia, the former name of Jakarta. Here there ere wooden boats loading up for trade among the local islands. The entire dock area had flooded only two days earlier so we saw quite a lot of debris and mud. The dykes were about 4 feet high. Parts of Jakarta are sinking at the rate of 20 to 30 centimeters per year. This is one of the reasons that the country is considering the move of its capital to a different island.

We spent a lot of time in traffic today. While that has been a problem in most large cities here, this was the worst. The average commute time from the suburbs to the city is 2 hours, twice a day.

Semarang, Java, Indonesia

 

Borobudur Temple

We were supposed to do a half day tour of the sights in this city of 1.6 million people. But I’m having intestinal problems today and felt that 5 ½ hours on a bus with no bathroom would not be a good choice. At the port talk, we learned that the most interesting tour we could haven taken is to Borobudur. This is the largest Hindu temple in Southeastern Asia, a UNESCO world heritage site.

Leaving Semarang