As is typical, I set the alarm for 6:00am yet woke up at 5:50am and shut it off before it had a chance to ring. I showered, dressed and we ate yogurt and granola for breakfast before checking every nook and cranny for things we might have left behind. Sally realized this morning that we had two bags at Erica’s yet she only brought one to dinner last night. We racked our brains trying to figure out what was in that errant bag. It was too early to disturb Erica. Since we hadn’t missed the items last night when we packed, they couldn’t be too important. We exited our room at 6:55am, ahead of schedule, checked out at the front desk and walked the 100 yards to the Avenita metro stop. Our Via Vigem cards each had less than 2 euro left on them. When we swiped them to enter the subway we were down to 45¢ on them, perfect use of the cards.
We rode the blue line to Sao Sebastian station where the blue and red lines share a station, walked to the red line and got on. We rode this line to the airport. Total time needed-35 minutes. Total cost-€1.35. Why can’t the US get its public transport system together like most of Europe has?
We made it through security. I sat in the terminal writing my blog while Sally did some window shopping. Soon, along came Rob and Caroline. We knew they had a flight about the same time as us and here they were. They walked by a little distance away. I couldn’t run after them because I had to watch our packs and they didn’t hear my yells. Sally returned a few minutes later and I chased after them, finding them on the other side of the big open area, also window shopping. We returned to Sally’s location, chatted for a while, determined our gate assignments and walked toward them, still being quite ahead of schedule. We had tea and pastries before parting. When Sally and I reached our gate, the line was gone and they were announcing the last call for boarding. We were the last ones on the bus out to the tarmac to enter our plane.
A smooth and uneventful 3 hour flight to London Heathrow in which I wrote a couple blog posts. Now the fun began.
We landed at 1:35pm. Our direct flight to Portland left at 2:45pm, giving us just over an hour to deplane, find the next gate, go through security and board. Everyone we talked to associated with British Air said we would have no problem. However, the security lines were a little long, they had to unpack my pack to inspect the Portuguese tiles I was carrying. Their security equipment flagged them for some reason. Then we had to load into a subway car to take us to the correct outlying terminal. The car was late in coming. A big crowd had gathered. We all piled in when it arrived, then it sat there for over 10 minutes not moving. Sally accidentally bumped the call for help button, a voice came on the adjoining speaker and then suddenly the doors closed and we got underway. Was the operator sleeping until Sally woke him up?
We got to our gate at 2:40pm. As we approached we wondered if they had closed the boarding gate. We turned the corner and saw a big crowd. They were late in beginning boarding and we had time to seek out a bathroom before we got on the plane.
Luckily, we were in a three abreast seat in the middle of the plane with no one in one of the seats. We had plenty of room for this 9 hour flight. I watched 3 movies, determined not to sleep so I could begin my time zone shift back to the west coast.
We landed a bit late as we had left late. Bill and Pat were there to pick us up and take us home. We walked in the house about 7:30pm, which is 3:30am Lisbon time. To bed.
What a great trip. Great hiking. Amazing coastline and scenery. Amazing people. Great cities to explore. Totally awesome public transportation. The best travel companion in the world. Good to be home, but will miss the freedom of travel.
With Rob and Caroline at the Lisbon Airport
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