PORTAGE TO PORTUGAL

We depart today from the shores of the Mediterranean for the shores of the Atlantic.  We got up before the hosts had restocked the larder, so we snacked on day old bread, expired yoghurt, and oranges.  We’ll live.  I also had cereal which Loni eschewed as she thought it tasteless.  Welcome to my world, where nearly everything is tasteless due to my total lack of smell.  Fortunately, Marc showed up just as we were about to try to lug the heavy suitcases down those flights of stairs.  He took care of them while we strolled down with the lighter stuff.  He had arranged a taxi, which showed up right on time, and 40E (with tip) later we were at Barcelona’s rather magnificent airport.  The lines upon entering were overwhelming, sort of like Southwest’s at LAX.  However, our check-in desk at Portugal’s TAP Airlines was between flights and virtually empty.  They let us check in early and we just had to wait around another 2 1/2 hours (I like to be cautious) until our flight time.  We wandered through the duty-free shops and I can state with confidence that Rodeo Drive has nothing on these places.  The airport is gigantic, with 70 gates to a wing, and it took us forever just to get to our wing.  There are no gate assignments (other than the general wing) until they pop up on a notice board about 20 minutes prior to your boarding time.  We positioned ourselves about halfway down the wing in front of a board.  Ours turned out to be gate 32, just next to where we were sitting.  So we jumped up and were first in line for the cheapo seat boarding.  Unfortunately, an SAS plane was taking on late passengers, so we waited and waited.  Then, they changed the gate on us, to # 56.  Mad rush by the entire TAP mob to get to the new gate.  Loni is mighty fast when she wants to, and she again got the primo spot.  The flight was excellent.  New plane, friendly attendants, fed us twice in two hours (!), and a nice experience.  Sorta like flying in the US used to be decades ago.  There were cheaper, budget airlines, but their reliability record was horrible and customer service nonexistent, from what I had read online.  So, TAP definitely was the right choice.

In Lisbon, we were met by Collette and bused to Cascais (Cash-Caish’), our first hotel stop, a seaside resort city about 35km away on the coast.  Like in Spain, Collette uses a single chain of hotels for most (not all) of it’s overnights.  In Portugal, it’s the Vila Gale chain, and they all were quite nice.  Ours was the Vila Gale Cascais (above and below).

The hotel was really nice, and our rooms faced a large wild-growth park area which was quite pleasant except for . . . the squawks.  And the screams.  No, not an axe murderer.  Peacocks.  Lots of them.  Hmmm.  Do they call only during the day or . . . ?  It was late afternoon when we arrived, but we had some time to kill before our group welcome meeting so we took a short stroll around the immediate area.  About 100 yards up the road is this fine place, which I would take in a heartbeat.  But look at the tide marks on those rocks beneath; it comes up really high!

Throughout Spain and Portugal I admired the ways that windows were placed in homes, as well as the decorative tilework that appeared everywhere.  This is just a modest example that we passed, with stone surrounds.  When I look around our own neighborhood, including our house, I am dismayed at how boring the window installations are.

We walked a little further down to the Forte de Cascais, aka Cidadela de Cascais.  Started as a tower in 1490, it was inadequate to defend against the Spanish in 1580.  They greatly expanded the garrison, built these huge walls (refurbished after the great quake of 1755).  It later became a favorite retreat of the monarchs, and in the 1800’s was converted into a summer palace, which it remains today.

We headed back to the hotel, making a slight detour to stand on the eastern Atlantic shore.  I have no idea what the camera was focusing on, but it wasn’t us.

We got back in time for our group welcome meeting, and found out this would be a different sort of group.  For one thing, it was unusually large, about 43 in all (compared with 28 in Spain).  However, the big difference was that, except for 8 of us, the rest all were members of two groups of friends/relatives who had booked together.  Fooey.  Part of the fun of these things is getting to know a bunch of strangers, but if they’re already matched up with traveling companions, the “outliers” like us don’t get included in dinner tables, excursions, etc.  Oh well, we’ll make the best of it.  Tonight would be a little different, as the 16-member group from Denver was still in the States!  Apparently United really screwed them with long delays, equipment and crew changes, and ultimately a cancellation.  They wouldn’t arrive until the end of the 2nd day of our tour.  The rest of us, including the large group from the Boston area, went out to a local restaurant, Visconde de Luz, for a nice dinner.

Coming back to the hotel, the bus dropped us off at the entrance road, and we walked down through the car park to the entrance, overlooked by this beautiful lighted tower on an adjacent property.

 

Oh, yeah.

 

The peacocks.

 

They

      scream

               all

                 night.