Loitering with intent in Lisbon 7

I grew up over 600 miles from the nearest ocean. It's part of the reason why the only fish I will eat are ones that have no bones to choke on, no scales or spikes to contend with, no smell to gag on and definitely no eyes winking back at me. In short, I prefer my fish breaded and swimming in tartar sauce.

Lisbon's Oceanarium, the star attraction of Expo 98, remains Europe's largest aquarium and provides plenty of opportunities to stand eye to eye with various denizens of the deep.

We balked a bit at paying €15.50 each for the full-price admission, which included a temporary exhibition in a separate building, but it turned out to be worth every cent. First stop was the smaller sister aquarium temporarily housing some sea turtles. I'm still debating whether the corals were real, the colours were so garish and the shapes so fantastical.

But who cares if the coral is plastic or not, when a giant sea turtle sails past?

Much of the walkway around the tank was transparent, so we could see schools of fish darting under our feet. At one point we found a snug room with seats under part of the tank. Not long after settling in, a sea turtle glided a few inches over our heads. It was a brief encounter, but we thought it was well worth paying a little bit extra to see them so close.

Back outside and we crossed the ramp to the main aquarium which sits on a pier in the water. With its flat roof, it looks a bit like an aircraft carrier. As soon as you step in you are drawn immediately to the massive wall of water in front of you, filled with schools of fish.

Can you imagine a fish tank holding 180,000 cubic feet of water? Me neither (I never could tell my cubits from my cubics). The main tank is nearly 25 feet deep, with floor to ceiling windows on all four sides. Visitors circle the tank twice along upstairs and downstairs ramps, so there are many opportunities to find new angles on the sealife teeming inside: moray eels, manta rays, tuna, barracuda, sharks...

even an enormous sunfish.

At each corner of the building are different climate zones with separate tanks. These have open-air habitats for sea-faring birds and mammals (for instance, puffins from the North Atlantic), which you can then see underwater when passing by again on the lower floor. So on the first walk past the polar tank (which has its very own man-made glacier) you can see a flock of penguins preening...

posing...

or just pooped out.

Then, after going downstairs, on the second walk past you can see the penguins zipping by at high speed. After seeing them waddling around on the rocks above, it's easy to appreciate how much more at home they feel in the water.

Another corner of the building is home to a family of sea otters.

They were having their midday nap when we saw them floating on their backs and aimlessly drifting on top of the water, occasionally bumping up against one another.

Part of me wanted to see them splashing around and cavorting about, but I had to admit they looked absolutely adorable curled up having a rest.

The lower level has a couple dozen smaller tanks where there are some stunning specimens of sealife. Seriously, it was like our very own National Geographic wildlife special.

Frilly anemone...

a gigantic king crab...

some shy seahorses...

starfish galore...

starfish from another planet...

 brightly-coloured tropical fish...

and always an interesting up-close encounter with the much bigger fish in the main tank.

At one point we were stood an inch away from a large octopus, its suckers crawling up the glass, every vein visible in its tentacles. It suddenly became bashful, pulled itself into a tiny niche and turned colour to camouflage itself. All in all a very impressive experience.

Keep the tartar sauce at home and bring the camera instead!