Oceanarium

After the big city walk, we had lunch at our apartment and had to scrape the kids off the couch to head out to the “Parque des Nacoes” where Oceanario (the aquarium) is located.

First of all, Parque des Nacoes is an area of Lisbon that was renovated in preparation for Expo ’98. It is a gleaming netherworld of Dubai-like buildings and malls, outdoor art installations, cable cars, hotels, restaurants and the Oceanario.

We got there taking Lisbon’s pretty extensive and modern subway. If Liz can figure out the Tokyo subway then this is a breeze.

This got us wondering about the spending on all these projects. We recalled being in Barcelona, Spain three years ago and Liz asking why the Toronto subway couldn’t be as extensive and modern as Barcelona’s. Jim immediately replied that it was because Canada wasn’t bankrupt. Barcelona had been through a government funded rejuvenation as well in preparation for the 1992 Olympics. We wondered whether these projects are at least part of the reason for the big debt loads in these smaller countries which of course caused much of the fiscal trouble a few years ago. One started to wonder whether it’s worth it but then we were distracted again by the Oceanario.

The Lonely Planet described it as “mind-blowing” with 8,000 species splashing around in 7 million litres of seawater (which they make themselves because they find the real seawater to be inadequate). It is the largest indoor aquarium in Europe and, according to their website, the Oceanário de Lisboa was recognized as the best aquarium in Europe and the second in the world by TripAdvisor. It has had over 18 million visitors and again, according to the website, “the Oceanário is one of the most visited cultural spots in Portugal.” Designating it as a cultural spot relative to everything we’d seen that morning seems like a stretch but we supposed you don’t have to be old to be cultural.

We started off in a temporary exhibit called “Sea turtles. The journey.” It wasn’t a long journey for us because we only saw the backside of one see turtle although we were sitting in this surround-type tank which was kind of fun. You could also walk across the water as the fish swam by which made us think again of the Sea of Galilee.

The permanent exhibit has four tanks around a large central one with different habitats and their native flora and fauna: the North Atlantic rocky coast, the Antarctic coastal line, the Temperate Pacific kelp forests, and the Tropical Indian coral reefs. There are also other smaller tanks with unique creatures.

The stars of the show were clearly the Ocean sunfish. There appear to be two here (a mommy and baby?) and the Lisbon Oceanarium is one of the few aquariums in the world to house them due to their unique and demanding requirements for care. We suppose it’s human nature to find it difficult to take your eye off something really ugly so these fish got a lot of attention. According to the signage, Ocean sunfish are the largest bony fish in the world, reaching more than three metres in length and weighing over two tons. They have these slug-like bodies and often lie on their side on the water surface to sunbathe and allow birds to pick parasites off their skin. How fitting.

Other stars in the main tank included this Devil Ray (mainly because of its eyes and its wide mouth for eating), the always popular sharks and lots of other interesting but unknown creatures and schools of fish.

They had some animals in the other habitats including the puffin and the penguin which were fun. They also have sea otters but they seemed to be out of the exhibit for some reason unfortunately. Watching these animals penned up seemed somewhat less exciting than from a range rover in the bush.

They also had a fun frog exhibit and a multitude of other pretty sea dwellers including star fish, sea horses, jelly fish, large spider crabs, bottom camouflaged flounders and many others.

What we found out part way through is that it appears Abby doesn’t like aquariums. Not sure why but David was having lots of fun so we ended up with one of the few times where they were conflicted (usually they team up against us). We managed to find some compromise but when we suggested that we should compare this to the Toronto aquarium when we’re back home (and which we haven’t seen yet) Abby said she would pass.

All was made well when we determined that after a long day it was ok for a little sugar rush. We went back to Santini’s for the most excellent gelati which was some of the best we’ve ever had.

We determined that we would try and collectively have every flavour on the menu and judge the best (Liz’s idea).  We came up with a complex flavour selection process as follows:  you got three voluntary selections but everyone could blackball a selection they wanted (once).  After that we put the rest in a hat and selected randomly but everyone got two rejects (although a flavour could only be rejected once).  It took some trial and error and some argument over the rule-making but in the end we got our list of flavours to try.  We have been back twice since.

We had an excellent local dinner of Wild Boar and bean stew and codfish. Afterwards, we wandered in the neighbourhood back to a place we had noticed while we were lost called the “Dream Pill” – it is a unique way of marketing the pretty typical kinds of candy you can get. They pitched it as a form of medicine that you packed into bottles in kind of a pharmacy setting. The bottles can be labeled for various purposes such as “For those addicted to Facebook”, “For a Happy Birthday” and “For those who are afraid of the dark”.  Ours ultimately ended up on a plate. And, as a test of will, it had to be left until tomorrow!

This was a pretty productive first full day in Lisbon.  Perhaps a bit too much so we only planned to have our visit to Belem tomorrow to have our tarts and, of course everyone’s favourite, visit the monastery.