Vancouver, Canada to Lisbon, Portugal…..and a “rest” day

Portugal 2024, 2017

October 31/ November 1, 2024

Tonight we are flying to Lisbon for a 5-week stay in the Algarve region of Portugal. We had thought long and hard about Mexico but ultimately concluded the value proposition was better in Portugal….we shall soon see!

Our flight is an overnight flight to London with a second flight to Lisbon the next morning so no worries about ferry delays etc.

After a tasty sushi lunch with our daughter Ella which has become almost a “tradition” we take the Sea Bus and Skytrain arriving at YVR in good order and after a quick security check get to “rest” for a couple of hours.

Sea Bus Quay

Vancouver International Airport

We are flying Air Canada to London and it was a normal pain in the butt flight. It was late leaving YVR > thunder/lightning but the food was ok and after several wines, we fell asleep ….arrived at Heathrow Airport about 40 minutes late but did not feel rushed as we had 2 hours to connect.

However, for reasons unknown even though we were connecting passengers we were forced to endure an in-depth security check including various machines checking us out, belts off etc, they even checked our maple syrup container (100 ml) for explosives and one guy had his sealed bag of duty-free ripped open …” just doing our job sir”, suffice to say we were tight in making it to our gate on time ….then 1 hour sitting on the tarmac > who knows why. The TAP flight served ZERO food, except to buy, buy – no matter we slept through most of it and arrived in Lisbon more or less mentus captus…..no further drama…e-sim got fired up and UBER summoned…they have a great system here…all UBER’s arrive at 1 place in the airport…easy peasy >>>12 euro for a 30-minute drive to our hotel.

The Casa de Sao Mamede Hotel …

is located close to the Barro Alto area is fine…showered…rested a bit … then headed up the street to the Restaurante Rodas near the Rato Metro station. Lots of locals and the food came out quickly: grilled chicken and fries & pork chop and fries for Annie + a good sized carafe of casa red…good service, tasty food some conversation with a couple from Belgium….very pleasant waiter and, yes, the food was tasty…29 Euros all-in. Afterwards, we walked around the block and purchased a bottle of red reserva from a winery outside of Lisbon (6euros) …asked the doorman for a corkscrew…no problem but do you have wineglasses … we said no matter…he said you cannot drink wine without proper glasses…off we went to the breakfast room for appropriate glasses…and he left us with, “enjoy the wine” …this is NOT a 4 – star hotel! …but it was a 4-star evening … this is why we enjoy Europe… a great start…best to get to sleep … tomorrow is another day.

November 2, 2024

Overnight we received terrible news: Ann Marie’s sister, Susan passed away unexpectedly following an earlier surgery from which she was slowly recovering but then took a turn for the worse. In the morning we walked to the Basilica of Estrela lighting several candles in her memory… may she rest in peace!