May 26, 2016
It felt strange this morning to not pack my backpack and ready my poles for walking. Instead, we met a local guide at 9:00 who took us on a walking tour of the old town and the cathedral. Some in our group stayed for the noon mass, but Becky, Marianne and I headed out to explore the town some more and do some shopping. We had a late lunch and then headed back to our hotel to check in for our flight the next morning to Lisbon and to gather up all our dirty clothes and head to a laundromat. By coincidence, the laundromat was right next door to a bar so once we got our clothes in the washing machine we headed to the bar for a sangria. This was by far the most pleasurable laundromat experience I've ever had! And it's so nice to have clean clothes again.
May 27, 2016
Our cab picked us up at the hotel right at 8:00 and zipped us to the airport. Santiago's airport is very modern and was a breeze to navigate through until we came to the security checkpoint. Marianne had packed her poles and a metal cross she had bought the day before in her backpack and the security guard was not going to let her proceed through unless she either discarded them or went back to the ticket counter to check them through. After a bit of deliberation, we decided she had enough time to check them. She was able to get her backpack checked through to Lisbon and get back through the security checkpoint with time to spare. Everything went smoothly after this and we met up with Rich and Jerry in the Madrid airport (both of them looked a bit the worse for wear). Our flight to Lisbon was uneventful, but the guys were super tired so Rich, Jerry and I rested (I hadn't slept very well the night before - very noisy neighbors until @ 2:00 am), while Becky and Marianne explored the town. We met up with Lee and Mary in the afternoon and group consensus was that we all wanted to go to a fado show (fado being Portuguese folk singing) that evening. The show was very enjoyable and dinner was a feast! Lee had asked the waiter to pick out some local specialties so we had cod, sole, octopus, prawns and lobster, plus two types of sausage (one being a type of blood sausage - ugh!). We also polished off two bottles of wine. We need to start bike riding if we're going to continue to eat and drink like this.
May 28, 2016
Today we explored Lisbon. The clerk at our hotel arranged a 'tour' for us with a private car and driver. Well, we got the car and driver, but no tour guide, so we were all a bit upset. I wish I had brought my Rick Steves guide book so we would have had more information about the places we visited. Our driver first took us to Belem, a suburb of Lisbon where we toured the Belem Tower and saw the Monastery of Jeronimos, although we were unable to visit either the cloister (too long a line for the time we had) or the church (closed for a wedding). From Belem we drove back to Lisbon and toured the Alfama district, with its impressive Sao Jorge Castle and panoramic view of Lisbon from Largo Santa Luzia. Our driver then took us to the center of town, Rossio Square, where we parted ways and went in search of lunch. All in all, I wish we had taken our own walking tour of the city with our Rick Steves guide book under our arm. I think we would have learned more and enjoyed it more than the way we did it. Disappointing!
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