Adventure is Just Another Word for Miscalculation

You really shouldn’t let old people out alone. I think that was the first thing I said.  Today we had a very full day beginning with a light breakfast at the Copenhagen Coffee Lab though none of the staff seem to be Danish. We went to the Museum of Decorative Arts and then down to the tourist information center where we got directions for the Time Out Market.  To see more of this go to Netflix, Somebody Feed Phil and then to the Lisbon episode.  I think it’s the second season.  You can ask Nick Mosca as he got us to watch this program. The Time Out Market was everything Phil promised.

It was a hike there and back and over to the Yellow Tour Bus where we took the purple route. Mmm, not really my cup of tea or for that matter, my glass of wine, though by the end I was ready for one. The route takes you to the modern end of town and to where they built a bit for either a world exposition  or Olympics, can’t remember.  Some of the new architecture was quite amazing but I am more interested in the old.

After our return to the starting point, I wanted to stop at the Fado Wine place again and this time try the €20 bottle of wine.  Jim said only if he had a hand grenade. 😀 So back we tramped to the #28 Tram to go back to our Alfama neighborhood, deciding we would have a glass of wine and a tapa at our Loucos de Lisboa restaurant. We got on the tram without a problem and began moving up the hill.  Almost to our street, the tram stopped to let other vehicles pass.  Then moving on up the hill, I noticed two gas pumps. Hey we’ve never passed those before! Guys! We’ve missed our stop.  Off the tram we go, across the street to wait to catch a tram back to our Rua Escolas Gerais which we cannot pronounce but which I now have a photo of on my phone. Leaving the tram and into our new favorite restaurant Loucos de Lisboa, we go. Pleasant way to end the night.

New day, new adventures beginning with a stop at a gift shop that carries only designs by Portuguese artists.  Jim and I will show you what we bought in another blog (something to look forward too?). Then down the hill again to get a tuck-tuck to take us a couple of stops we haven’t seen.  Today is more drizzly and a bit cooler.  On the way down we pass a wine & Ginja shop which we mark for a return stop.  The tuck-tuck takes us up to an amazing view of Lisbon which was absolutely the best part of the tuck-tuck tour.

That, and he delivered us back to the wine and Gingja shop.

Alfama Gourmet is a little shop owned and run by Nuno who entertained us with tales of his life—working in France coming back to Portugal, etc. A delightful afternoon stop with a very charming man.  Then naps all around!

Rain, rain go away, come again when we can’t stay. Out come the umbrellas for the taxi ride to the meeting point of the Fado and Dinner Tour.

The Gospel According to Dennis:
I’ll try to keep it brief.  Tonight was a walking tour of our neighborhood followed by dinner, drinks and a Fado show.  What’s Fado? It’s traditional Portuguese music that is mournful with a singer accompanied by a Spanish guitar for bass and a Portuguese guitar for melody. Since its sung in Portuguese, I can only guess that it’s mournful from the tone and gestures of the singer.  She looked mournful and unhappy. I knew she was unhappy because someone at our table (not one of us, honest) was talking while she was singing.  She stopped and pretty much said in English that “she’d slap the shit out of the talker”  if she didn’t stop talking (add mean to mournful).  I think its kinda like our country western music without the trucks, trains, gettin’ drunk, going to prison, and mama. But that’s my opinion. I could be wrong.  The food and wine was good and everyone but the singer had a good time.

It was raining at the beginning of the evening, during the show and at the end. So the walking part of the tour was a cancelled and when it was time to leave we were told there are few taxis in this area and that we were a six minute walk from home, so we might as well walk.  Our guide put the directions on Pat’s cellphone and we took off in the rain with our umbrellas.  Within 100 yards, yep—we were lost at 11 PM in Lisbon.  Thank God we had cellphones which old people are hard pressed to use just to make a call  but we followed the directions to get even more lost.  We spotted a guy in a doorway having a smoke and asked him if he knew where the #28 tram ran.  We live by the #28 tracks.  He gave us good directions and after climbing 5000 feet up the cobblestone stairs, (Cindy said, according to her Fitbit it was only 344) we spotted the tram as it went by, and followed the tracks home.  She might be right when she said, “Old people shouldn’t be allowed out alone.” 😁

I’m sure there will be more of these adventures to come.  Stay tuned.
 

What a Difference a Decimal Makes

We began the morning having coffee in our favorite Copenhagen Coffee Lab.  From there we stopped in at the Services Office of the Yellow House.  We got the idea of staying at the Alfama Yellow House from the book, A Year in the World by Frances Mayes.  In my opinion, her best book, yes, much better than Under the Tuscan Sun.  I read a chapter of this book each morning of the spring when I retired.  In the chapter on Portugal she has recommendations for what to see, what wines to try and where to find the best chocolate cake in the world!  At the office Sofia helped us ensure that we were set for our tours in Lisbon.  Off we went following the tram tracks down the hill, around the bend, up a slope still following the tram tracks, down again to a tourist office.  We left behind a disappointed tuk-tuk driver who offered us a tour.  We booked the Yellow Bus tours which allowed us 48 hours of routes and passes on the tram. Off we went to see the city and many of its gorgeous spots.

We stayed on the Belem route from beginning to end and then went off on a search for a glass of wine before taking the number 28 tram made famous by Somebody Feed Phil and others back to Alfama.

The Gospel according to Dennis—
We had a fun day beginning with a late breakfast and then walking about a half mile into the old part of town.  Saw an old church (we spend part of all our trips in old churches 😞). Looked around & then got tickets for the Yellow Tour Bus to visit Lisbon and its sights—but that’s not what you want to hear. What was most interesting was what happened when we left the bus.

Somebody (who shall remain nameless) suggested we have  a glass of wine. Voila! A great wine bar appeared not far from where the bus dropped us.  We asked our host (the owner) which white wine, dry  and crisp, he would recommend.  We were surprised when he showed us two bottles of wine, one for €20 and one for €7.9.  I thought, why would he do that? I asked like in €8? He said yes. We tried it and it was great! We drank it. Jim said, “For €8. Let’s have another”  and we drank that too while enjoying a charcuterie plate which was also good.

So, after enjoying wine and food, laughing over past memories, we asked for the bill and also asked to split it between Jim and I. Then we thought for 8 bucks a bottle, let’s each take one home for later. Jim got his 1/2 of the bill first, swallowed his tongue, peed his pants and said, “there must be a mistake.”  The bill was for €330 (about $380.00). He showed it to me and we noted the wine wasn’t €7.9 a bottle but €79 a bottle, a mere mistake in the decimal point.  Now what the hell were we going to do? The first thing, obviously, was to say that we didn’t understand.  The next thing was to say we didn’t want the extra bottles to bring home.  (We were quite sober now!) End result? We had in U.S. dollars, a $20.00 appetizer, and two $95.00 bottles of wine or $105.00 for each of us to pay. What do you do? We had drunk the wine, we couldn’t return it.  It’s like trying to return underwear you’ve worn. Ain’t gonna happen! We paid our bill, left, and I thought, yeah, it was expensive...but what a great story. Out on the sidewalk we collapsed with laughter, not quite believing what just happened! And there you have it. BTW, next time I ask the price of wine, I’ll ask for it in writing so I have backup if I need it.  😃

#28 Tram to Alfama

What adventure is in store for tomorrow?  Stay tuned...

Planning for Portugal

We’re in that first wonderful stage—anticipation, kind of like falling in love. We can’t see any of the blemishes or warts at this point in the journey. Portugal, country of romance, sad songs (Fado), wine—Vinho verde, port, red, adventure.  And this time, just like last year we are using Travel Leaders to book flights and some hotels.  I’m sure Debbie cringes when she hears it’s me on the phone with another hundred questions. I also called Rick Steves Travel Consultants again though I don’t think this time was nearly as good as Lisa, last year.  And this year for much of the trip we will be with our next door neighbors and great friends, Pat and Jim.

The first year we retired, we spent a month in Mexico with old friends Karen and Jim.  From them we gained an encyclopedic knowledge about having a great time even though we’re in close proximity much of the time.   We set up a kitty for day to day groceries, came up with things we wanted to do together and activities we would do separately. No one wanted to take painting classes with me and I didn’t want to play pool, drink beer, and talk smart with Dennis and Jim.  Karen and I both wanted to shop!  Most days we had dinner together, sometimes in our casa, most often out enjoying the local cuisine and always getting separate checks.

We all made it to  Gate 13 for our TAP (Air Portugal) flight.  Do we go to the bar or do we check to see if they do take-away. Oh yeah, take-away is possible. Learned something new. Eventually we boarded, got settled, and we’re on our way to Portugal!

First adventure— taxi lets us off at 46 Ecolas Gerais but there are two of the same streets apparently. So here we are on a cobbled stone street surrounded by luggage with no way of knowing where we are or what to do next. An older (probably our age) gentleman leaning on his cane, has been watching us from across the street. He wants to help. He calls the number we have listed for the hotel and takes us down the street.  We are joined by a lady from the building that has our address but isn’t our Alfama Yellow House.  Pretty soon we are joined by others who want to help. We are part of the Pied Pipers parade.

The Gospel according to Dennis:
Our trips for me, begin when we’re actually at the airport. Call me a doomsayer but I always think somethings going to happen & we’ll have to cancel so why get excited? Has that something happened? No...but it might...
Flight to Lisbon, Portugal was perfect—left on time, arrived on time.  Took a Mercedes cab to our rooms—driver dropped us off in front of the apartment building and left.  We banged on the door—no answer. In defense of the driver, the street was about 6 feet wide at best, cars were stopped behind us and a trolley was bearing down on us from the other direction.  I understood why he wanted to “get outta Dodge.”

So we started asking anyone who looked “local” “Do you know where the Alfama  Yellow House is?  Everyone wanted to help. Cellphones came out, people ran up & down the street trying to help us and then our landlord appeared.  After trying to talk to me in Portuguese and French, he finally realized I only spoke English. Luckily, he did too and said to me, ”Follow me.”

After thanking all the wonderful people on the street for their help, we followed him to his office, dragging our luggage over the cobblestone, signed in, and a few short blocks later, we were home.

All four of us took naps and then had a great meal with a wonderful restauranteur, two bottles of wine, wonderful food, and went back home to climb the flights of stairs to bed to dream about what was going to be the next adventure.  To be continued...stay with us.  

Cindy’s final note—the next adventure may be in the middle of the night. The bathroom is on the ground floor, the bedroom is on the the third. May not be a pretty adventure. Need I say more?