Chocolate Shorts and Scenic Dreams: Boarding Day in Lisbon

The big day arrives (eventually)

We were getting excited—today was the day we’d finally board the Scenic Eclipse. But with check-in not until 1:30pm, all we could do was pack, sightsee, and kill time. First stop: breakfast, accessed via the world’s slowest lifts from our third-floor room to “-2”.

Postal delusions and portside confusion

Feeling clever, we thought we’d send some stuff home to free up bag space. But the post office quoted us an eye-watering amount, so that idea was shelved for future-us to deal with.

Back at the hotel, a Scenic rep confirmed we could drop our bags at the pier from 10am. Perfect—bags packed, we hopped in a taxi. The driver was great, except for one small detail: he dropped us at the wrong terminal. We weren’t quick enough to identify our mishap before he had gone. And apparently, Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 aren’t exactly connected—unless you count a long, uneven sidewalk that turned into a 20-minute sweaty obstacle course that criss crossed through roadworks, past a train station over a few roads with an obscure sign that you see when you're up close.

Tarts before embarkation

We handed over our multitude of bags to the Scenic people for safeguarding and taking into our room later. For now we had a bit of free time so thought we would wander up to the castle to have a look. Our initial thoughts were to get a Tuk Tuk up the hill, but the only did tours and wouldn’t drop you up there. Off we went on our hill climb! Also the price was astronomical, Ros was not prepared to fork out 200 euros for 1 hour.

30 minutes later we arrived at the castle, via all kinds of up and down roads, footpaths and stairs. The views were incredible out over Lisbon though, so it was definitely worth it. We rewarded ourselves with a Portuguese tart (to share) and drinks.

Ruins, ropes and reward ice cream

We wandered the castle grounds and visited the archaeological site, which featured remains from the 3rd–7th centuries, the 11th–15th, and finally the 17th. Sadly, they were all roped off—only the most recent one could be viewed up close. Still, it was a fascinating little detour.

With 30 minutes to go before check-in opened, we rewarded ourselves again—with ice cream. Big mistake (though I didn’t know it yet).

The chocolate incident

As we made our way downhill (taking a slightly more direct route this time), I noticed a smear of chocolate on my blue shorts. Not super obvious, but I knew it was there. Ros handed me a wipe—no effect. So she doused it in water and handed it back.

A few dabs later, Ros was in fits of laughter—my shorts were now so wet it looked like I’d had a little accident. Five minutes later, she was still laughing uncontrollably. Honestly, I couldn’t blame her.

Thankfully, by the time we arrived at the pier, my shorts were dry (but the suspicious stain remained). We were ready—chocolate and all—for the Scenic E