Our return to Charles Town went well arriving at the house at 10:30pm! We normally like to unpack and unwind before bed but we were exhausted and simply left everything for the morning.
We had seven days before our next flight and lots of catching up to do. When you are gone for seven weeks, little things add up. Cindy began the process of laundry while I began to sort though seven weeks of mail. Needless to say, we were quite busy for the next several days. We had brought too much luggage on our trip to Southern California but that was because we were carrying a portable piano, violin, ukulele, music stand, several iPads and assorted electrical cables. We were more of a traveling sideshow than tourists. We vowed never to bring so much stuff on another trip so we took care when packing for this trip. We only carried one suitcase that fit in the overhead and one carry-on, thus avoiding checked luggage. Big mistake!
I figured I could survive a sixteen day trip without my pocket knife, chef’s knife and frying pan, all things that would have gone into a checked bag. I kept thinking if I really needed them I could buy them and give them away or leave them in the apartment. I felt a bit smug when I placed my bag on the TSA belt knowing I had nothing to fear and would be speeding towards our plane in no time. Imagine my surprise when my bag was routed on the side track and I was asked if they could open it. I was perplexed; what could be so dangerous looking? My offer to assist was greeted with a "please step away after you unlock the bag". I want you all to feel much, much safer knowing that TSA is on the job and found the offending item with only a twelve minute search. The item that provoked such concern? My old faithful harmonica! Now granted I could most likely force someone to commit suicide if they were to listen to me for any length of time, but I don’t think a harmonica by itself could do much harm.
Our flight on TAP (Portugal Air) was very comfortable. Since it departed at 10:30 pm it did not take us very long to fall asleep and we enjoyed 4 hours of sleep before landing at 11:00 am. Again, we felt smug knowing we would be the first out of the plane and be able to rush through immigration while others waited for their luggage. It was not to be. We were assigned a bus gate and while we were the first to exit the plane we had to lug our luggage down the steep stairs to the big bus where, after an interminable twenty minutes, finally started the drive to the terminal. We were the last off the bus and had to wait for forty minutes to clear immigration. As we made our way to our waiting taxi, we saw a few of our fellow passengers who had already collected their luggage and were ahead of us at the exit!
We arrived at our hotel in Estoril and were told our room would be ready at 3pm, so we stored our luggage and headed to the beach, a fifteen-minute walk down the hill. The weather was perfect, bright sun, cool breeze and glorious surf pounding on the rocks. There is a long promenade and we began to walk and walk and shake off the effect of being stored in a tube for too long. We stopped at a cafe and had coffee and a local pasty, Pastel da Nada, which is custard in a flaky tart and simply delicious. We walked a bit more in the other direction and ended up returning to our coffee cafe where we split an omelette and some Vinho Verde, a low alcohol white wine that is slightly effervescent. I was looking at the prices of the wines and noted that they were about the same as California, which surprised me until I realized I was looking at the full bottle prince not the per glass price!! In Portugal a glass of ice cold wine was only about three dollars compared to twelve to fourteen in California, and it was much better! I immediately was over jet lag just knowing we were in for some great fun and great food and wine for the next three days.
Our long-time friends moved from Italy to Portugal last year and drove to Estoril to spend time with us. It was a marvelous adventure in culinary curiosity. The weather stayed perfect and we dined outside for each meal - almost always some variation of seafood and vegetables - except for one day when it rained and we drove to Sintra to see the wet sights while negotiating the wet streets and bobbing umbrellas.
All too soon we had to be on our way to France and after a lovely farewell lunch we parted with promises to make sure we don’t wait so long to meet up again. Our driver was on time and we arrived in plenty of time to CHECK OUR LUGGAGE! Once again we had a bus gate so we were truly happy to have checked our bags. The flight to Barcelona was fast and comfortable and on time. Our luggage came quickly and we got our rental car and headed for France.
More on France later, best to all, Cindy and Wm
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