Day 11 – Monday 5/27
We are up a little early as we are to meet Cristina and our driver at 8:30 am. We go to breakfast and when we return to our room, I look out our window to the courtyard below and I can see Cristina in a standard Lisbon taxi. We go down and meet Cristina and Jean Paul, our driver. We get in the taxi rear seats and are off for our 40 minute ride to Sintra. Cristina points out the sites along the way, most prominently, the Aquas Livres Aqueduct which brings water to Lisbon.
We enter the town of Sintra via car and it is a pretty typical European town, small windy streets with many old buildings. We then proceed up a one way street that leads to Pena palace grounds. The one way street is lined with expensive houses which were initially summer getaways for Portugal’s royalty. Many have been converted into AirBnB type properties. The taxi reaches the entrance to Pena Park and we disembark. At the entrance, Cristina shows her pass and the tickets that I have purchased before we left the USA. The entry is down a rather steep path.
The park is a rather dense forest with ponds and streams running along various paved walking paths (mostly in the UP direction). The vegetation is a mix of native plants and imported exotic flora. Cristina leads us through the mostly up path, pointing out various sites, buildings, and vegetation along the way. Margi and Cristina discuss plants along the way with my only comment being “Can’t eat that”. Our walk probably takes an hour as once we get to the UP location, we have to proceed back down to our original entry point.
Click here for pics of Pena Palace grounds.
Margi and I at Pena Palace grounds.
Back to the taxi which takes an down and up path to the town center where the National Palace is located. We exit the taxi and head to the entrance. Again, I purchased tickets ahead of time and with Cristina as our guide, we wait just a few minutes. Cristina guides us through the various rooms, including Swan ceiling, Central Patio, Magpie room, Bedchamber of King, Galleon room, Chapel, kitchen, and Blazons Hall where we see two workers doing restoration work.
Click here for pics of the National Palace.
We exit and see that the city center is fairly crowded now, as it is early afternoon. Cristina suggests we stop for lunch, so we get into our taxi and head down to a small restaurant that is in the town of Sintra. We have a leisurely lunch in the sun, although with the wind, it is a little cool.
Margi and I outside the Pena Palace.
On the trip here this morning, we took the super highway route, which is the quickest. For the return trip, we are going to go along the coast and will basically take the remainder of the afternoon. There is a town called Nazare, which is much farther north, and is well know for its gigantic waves measuring between 70 and 80 feet!! Where we go today, there may be surfing and wind surfing but not of that size.
Our first stop is at the closest point in mainland Europe to the USA, Cabo da Roca. We exit the taxi and the wind is howling!! Which despite a bright sun, makes it feels almost cold. We walk out to an observation point along the ocean and are about 150 feet above sea level. There are other people here but the site is not crowded. There is a lighthouse close by. We spend about 1/2 an hour there before we get too cold.
Click here to see more pics of Cabo da Roca.
We continue our trip south and our next stop is Cascais, which is a coastal beach resort. The town is fairly large and has a number of beautiful beach houses. We get to the beach which is in the center of town and exit the taxi and walk. We walk through a pedestrian area with lots of shops and restaurants. Margi is looking for a surf shop to purchase surfing shirts for our two female grand children.
Click here for pics of Cascais.
We get back in the taxi and stop at another beach town, looking for a surf shop. The second stop is more productive as Margi and Cristina find two places while I stand outside and people watch. Success as two shirts are purchased at the second shop. Fingers crossed that two teen girls will LIKE them!!
All shopping complete, we continue along the coast to Lisbon, going through Belem which we visited yesterday. It is MUCH less crowded but then it is closed on Mondays – LOL. We have give Cristina one more request. We want her to leave us off at a good port wine store in Lisbon, hopefully somewhere near our hotel. They leave us at Garrafeira Nacional, which specializes in port wine even having an automated dispenser for sampling. Coincidentally, this is also the place recommended in the Rick Steves guidebook. I pay Cristina (cash) and we hug goodbye after getting explicit directions for the 5 minute walk back to our hotel. Cristina has been a very good guide and we have had a lovely day.
Into the store and we select two bottles as gifts for a couple of aficionado’s. To say that there were a few choices is an understatement. From 10 Euros to 1,000 Euros. We give the clerk a price range and he picks one out for us. Our last purchase complete, we find our way back to the hotel with no problems.
Back at the hotel, we decide to put the port wine into Margi’s suitcase as we aren’t sure we can get through security with it as it was not purchased in duty free. Get the rest of our packing done. Margi has all the other gifts in a carry-on bag. Done packing, we sit and relax with some wine. We have no reservations for tonite so we decide to return to the Italian restaurant we visited two nites ago. Food was even better. We shared an insalata mista and Margi had tagliatelle with arrabiata sauce and I have lamb ragu ravioli.
Waiter is very nice, even with his limited English. He says they have a sister restaurant in Newark, NJ!! Margi wants to take her pasta back to the hotel and asks if they have plastic forks, etc. The waiter says no, but when he brings the takeaway container in a bag, he shows her that he has hid a real fork and parmesan cheese in the bag for her. Being an insomniac, she finishes it at 2 am in the hotel!!
Day 12 – tuesday 5/28 – Journey home
During the night, I double checked our flite to find that it leaves at 7:15 am, not 7:30. So, when we awake at 4:30 am, I call the concierge and ask that the taxi come at 5:00 am, not 5:15 am. At about 4:55 am we head down to the front desk, taking care not to slam our door. I leave a small tip for the cleaning staff on the pillow. At the front desk, we settle our bill but have to use Margi’s credit card as mine has been inactivated. The porter loads our luggage in the taxi and I leave a tip for the concierge and porters. Taxi to the airport is relatively quick and 25 Euros. We get into the airport and find the stupidest thing, there are STAIRS you have to go up to get to the check-in desks!! I haul both bags up in one go (barely). We have to ask a few times to find British Airways check-in, which turns out to be on the back side of the check-in desks. And of course, it is JAMMED with people so it takes us a few minutes to determine which is business class check-in line. And the wait is relatively long because they seem to have only one person doing check-in and many of the people have massive numbers of bags. Finally another person comes and the line moves more quickly. We finally get check-in, being about three from the end of the line.
Once checked in, we find that the business class lounge in under construction and therefore closed, so we are given two 20 Euro vouchers to get food, but we are also informed that it is a full 15 minute walk to the gate and it is already 6 am. We get through fast track security and then wind our way through all the duty free shopping. Then we get to passport control and we have to go to a special line for some reason because we came in from Spain. The line is long but moves. Oddly, here is where we get our passports stamped (and NOT when we entered Portugal). Then we still have a long walk to our gate but the wait at the gate is short.
We had refused an offer for a boxed breakfast from the hotel, saying we would get something in the business class lounge but that plan died quickly. We get on the plane and to our seats and place our carry-on under the seats in front of us. Again, business class is standard three on a side seating with the middle seat left unoccupied. But, boarding of the rest of the passengers is like a clown car as it seems to go on forever. The moral of this is we should have gotten to the airport at least 30 minutes earlier, as in leave the hotel at 4:30 am for a 7:15 am flite.
There is a 25 minute delay on the ground in Portugal as there is some sort of issue in Heathrow. Then after we were in the air, we had another 15 minute delay as we get close to Heathrow. So, instead of landing at 10:05, we deplane at 10:40 with boarding of our JFK flite closing at 11:20 am. So, we had no time in Heathrow to either do some duty free shopping nor to exchange about 180 Euros to US dollars.
To get to our JFK gate, we have to take a tram to another part of Terminal 5. Then, as usual, we have to walk to almost the last gate, N46 (N48 is last gate). Along the way, we pass through passport control again and get our passports stamped even though we will never even leave the airport!! Then at the last checkpoint right at the gate, we scan our boarding passes. Margi has been carrying the passports and boarding passes as we have been hustling along and when we scan the boarding passes, we use each others. This leads to some confusion and discussion and after we are let through, they informed Margi that she had been “selected” for an EXTRA security screening. So, we are escorted down to the jetway level but Margi is taken down a corridor while I am instructed to sit and wait for her. I can see her and it seems she had to be scanned again, take her shoes off, show her passport, etc. She is NOT happy!!
Finally, we board onto seats 10 A and E which are across an aisle from each other, but slightly offset, so we can’t really communicate. Margi gets the window. The flight is fine with the only delay being in JFK when we land and where there is a problem getting the jetway attached to the plane.
Margi uses MPC (Mobile Passport Control), so after the usual long walk, we go to the MPC line which is short and we are literally the first to baggage claim. Our luggage was tagged as business class so it comes out quickly. Once we have our luggage and make a pitstop, we call the parking garage and they tell us where to wait for the bus. The wait is relatively short and we get the front seats, so Margi is first off into the counter to pay. Our car is waiting and I load our luggage and shortly, we are heading home. Traffic, at 3 pm on a Tuesday, is pretty horrible so we don’t get to Goshen until about 5:15 pm. But, it is great to be home and see our Rosie. Oh, and nice to see Margi’s sister, Helen – FOFLMAO
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