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?