20111025  Baltimore MD out toward London

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We woke, but didn't do much. Had a small breakfast brought in, then laid around and showered and took it easy until 11. Then we checked out of the motel and pointed the rental car north and told the GPS to use no Interstates.

So it took us through downtown Baltimore, some of which Dolores admitted she'd never seen (quite rough) and through all sorts of neighborhoods. Finally it led us past Dolores' alma mater and out to Cockeysville.

We arrived to find no Susan and no Bryant, but they pulled in shortly afterward. They were getting the rental car and getting their car ready for shipping.

We went to Au Potain Stil for lunch. Bryant got a call that the car shipper was on his way to the apartment. So he left and we ordered and chatted and ate. They gave us his food as we were leaving so we could take it back warm.

He was there, in the apartment, with no furniture and three cats that weren't very happy at being ignored. But we played with them until they warmed up, and took pictures, and chatted.

We're quite happy they're moving to Austin. It's a good move for Bryant and Susan will find opportunities there.

They tired of the situation and we were getting antsy, so they left for their motel and we left for the airport. Goodbye's, hugs, etc., and away.

The GPS, having been set for the return segment under the same conditions, led us back to the airport through the same neighborhoods. Except for a small detour, no problems. Turned in the car, took the bus to the international terminal, and waited for the British Air check-in counter to open. We checked in, then had a glass in the bar.

It came time to move, so we went through security (scanned by machine) and entered the secure area and its bar. Another glass while sitting at a windowside table. The plane came in, right in front of us. A herd of military folks were in the waiting area, waiting for the Ramstein express that runs every evening.

Now we'll wander to the waiting area and wait. More later (or tomorrow).

Later: We sat for a bit, then boarded. Premium Economy was about half-full. I didn't look at the other classes, but it seemed like a light load.  We boarded with a minimum of hassle, the plane scurried to the runway and we took off quickly. We climbed directly to 35,000 feet, finally going to 37,000.

Drinks were passed out; I had red wine, Dolores white. Dinner came out – D had the vegetarian lasagna, I had curried chicken that was a little hot for me. Then we read for a while before trying to sleep.

20111026  London & Lisbon

Owen Photos   Dolores Photos

We both slept fitfully thru five time zones to London. We had a huge muffin, orange juice, and coffee for breakfast; good, and enough for our mood. We did two circles in a waiting pattern before we could land, about on time at 0920 GMT.

We climbed down the stairs and into a bus that drove another 800 miles to Heathrow's Terminal 5. Lots of aircraft being readied, including a Qantas A380. At Terminal 5, we quickly took the escalator to transfer to Terminal Three. Another 800 mile bus ride plunked us into Terminal 3. The departures board said the gate for our flight wouldn't be advised until 1400.

So we alternately sat and walked around the huge shopping area in Terminal 3. There are, for example, three W. H. Smith bookstores, plus Harrod's, Tiffany's, and many others. One counter has 85 GBP lunches of vodka, salmon, caviar, and others. There is an Italian restaurant and lots of other eating establishments.

It's closing in on 1400, so I'll wait to add more. 

Later:

We finally got a gate assignment and went there. We then got on another bus which took us to the plane, which was finishing the refueling process. There weren't very many passengers so we sprawled after the door was closed. The ride down to Lisbon was uneventful until we got there.

Then we circled for a half-hour waiting for a storm to move off the airport. The wind was hard out of the south so there was some turbulence. We wandered around in the cloud until the storm went away, then landed a half-hour late.

Then we walked the longest walk between the gate and the baggage claim I've ever seen (construction is going on). By the time we got there, our one checked bag was emerging. We cleared immigration and customs and walked up to the Vantage Travel rep. She asked us to wait in a certain spot while she rounded up the last two inbound people (ones we'd seen in Baltimore, but didn't get involved with).

We went out to a mini-van which promptly dropped us off at the wrong hotel. Thankfully, it was a hotel in the same group and only a block up the street to the right hotel. The hotel walked us down there, then brought our bags.

We went into the welcoming dinner, just begun, and there were Glenn & Lou, and Jim & Gayle. Greetings, hugs, etc. The last couple also sat with us. The our Program Manager, Rui Barreira, sat with us. The dinner (I'll link to the menu after I scan it) was great, helped by the unlimited wine and all the laughter we created and stories that Rui started. Lots of great stories, informal education on Portuguese wine, and more.

A staff person came to get our room keys and give us other room keys because they'd gone to the wrong room. Hmmm.

Finally, we just had to call it a night. So we entered the room and found it quite satisfactory. We showered and went to bed at 2221 GMT.

20111027  Lisbon, Portugal

Owen Photos    Dolores Photos

Breakfast via the buffet in the -1 level (levels in the elevator run from -5 to 0 to +6) which was extensive and quite good. The normal European things like cold cuts and cheeses and meusli and baked beans and grilled tomato plus scrambled eggs & bacon & sausage & juices. 

Onto the bus at 0830 for the city tour. I'll link later to a page showing it all and flesh out this page, but it included:

 A ride through suburbia during morning rush hour to reach the suburb of Belem (be-leen, accent on second syllable).

 A trip along Lisbon's waterfront on the river Tejo.

 The Belem Tower, unique architecture containing nothing, but a security point in old times and which survived the 1 November 1755 earthquake, fire, and tidal wave.

 The monument to the discoverers – Portuguese navigators were dominant during the 1400-1500 years.

 The monastery of Jeronimos – semi-cathedral adjacent to the maritime museum.

 The coach museum with a horse-drawn coach used to transport the King of Spain to Lisbon in 1619 and many more; a new building is being erected to display them all

 And a long tour of most of the downtown city returning to the hotel.

Then the six of us headed for the Calouste Gulbenkian museum a several blocks away. He discovered how to get oil out of the Iraq sands in the late 1800's and received a 5% reward for many years for his discovery. He became extremely rich. He migrated to Lisbon before WWII to escape the bad guys and lived here the rest of his life. He was a great collector of art objects. When he died in his 90's, he left his entire collection to be the basis for museums here, and his money to care for them and enrich culture here. The collection isn't the largest but every piece is unique and deserving of a place.

We started in the museum cafeteria with lunch that was good and with the house wines. Then we toured the museum for a couple of hours until our old backs couldn't stand any more of the slow walking and standing. Then we hiked back to the hotel (I took a detour to get an ether-net cable I'd left home without (and got it)). Then we set up camp in a casual room in the hotel with our own wines and cheese and crackers and chatted through a couple bottles (for six of us). We decided not to do the tapas place we'd been told of by our “Green” group Program Manager Rui, but to do the restaurant across the street from the entrance – a little neighborhood place.

We took a break to wash up and get it together and walked across the street. We were seated and ordered our wines and olives and bread & butter, then our main dishes (pork medallions with clam and spaghetti for D, sea bass with shrimp for me, Glenn wanted his duck). The food took quite a while to prepare, with the long pole being the duck, but we were talking and laughing and didn't much care about time.

The food all came at once and was very good. The bass was wonderful and the others all enjoyed theirs as well. We tipped fairly well to make it come out to 120 Euro (or 20 apiece, certainly not bad for the quality of food plus wine, and for the fun we had.

We finished around 2230 and headed for bed. Good-night.

20111028  Lisbon and Evora, Portugal

Owen Photos      Dolores Photos

Breakfast as usual in the -1 level buffet. Ate way too much.

Went back to the room, prepared for the day, did some computer stuff, came back down to catch the bus at 0850.

We went east on the A2 and A6 and local roads to Evora (accent on the first syllable). We stopped at a rest stop/gas station an hour out, then kept going to Evora. The land out here is dry and vacant. Rui told us the land for years has been subsidized to grow nothing rather than have a surplus – still the case today. The land is mainly in the hands of large families and corporations.

We entered Evora and went to the Chapel of Bones. This chapel was started by three monks way back when – the walls of the city had to be moved outward, but there were graveyards in the way. They persuaded the powers-that-be to move all the bones into a chapel for display to remind people of the shortness of life. So they moved the bones of 5,000 people into the chapel and made the walls and pillars of the chapel from the bones. The three monks also contributed their bones at death. I'll link to these pictures when I can.

Then next door to the church of the Misericordia, an organization that receives tax support and provides items to persons needing relief or assistance. It's a large stone church with much adornment, but not as much as the cathedral – see below.

We then hiked uphill to the Plaza de Geraldo. He was a 12th century ordinary person who led a local army against the Moors and drove them from the area and forced them south. This is the main square of town. All the buildings are old and picturesque except one – the Bank of Portugal, erected at the order of the dictator Salazar (1930's-1970's) to show the power of the state. Eventually, he was overthrown and democracy restored.

Uphill some more, through narrow streets full of little stores to serve tourists. At the top, there was the cathedral to the right and the house of the bishop (one of three in Portugal). We entered the cathedral past a beggar at the door and found a large church with multiple chapels in the side walls and large chapels in the wings of the nave. D took many pictures.

We walked out the door and around the bishop's building and found the Roman temple remains – a series of a dozen or so granite columns supporting marble stones connecting them. This is about half or a third of those that would have been there originally. Romans had the town from roughly 100BC-400AD. This Roman Temple is thought to have been built in the first century AD and dedicated to Diana.

Behind the temple, there is an overlook giving a view of most of the modern part of the town and the countryside beyond it. All the buildings except historic ones are painted white, so the whole town was blinding in the bright sun today.

We took lots of pictures, then went to lunch on Vantage. It was a buffet in a very local place. There was a large salad bar with greens and tomatoes, a pasta salad, a strange-looking salad that turned out to be octopus tentacles and other things mixed in mayonnaise, and some pea-and-potato salad. The main buffet had pork and other normal items, including cod cakes. The cod cakes turned out quite well.

Wine, both red and white, were furnished, as was beer. We went through a fair amount of wine.

Dessert had a selection of a cake of coconut or slices of a pie with crushed almonds on the bottom with some sort of light cake above it. Very nice.

Then we were turned loose for a hour for shopping. Dolores picked up a thing for Bill & Lana, and I bought an ornamental or accent piece for the exterior wall of the house.

We walked more downhill to find the buses, and departed Evora. The bus brought us back to the hotel.

We discussed what to do, and decided to hike to the mall nearby and look around. Then we all changed our minds and brought wine to a casual room off the lobby and sat and talked and joked. Well, an hour and a half later we noticed we still weren't any closer to the big shopping center, so we walked over there – three blocks or so.

The store is huge. Corte de Ingles has seven long floors, each filled with inventory of brand-name items. The seventh floor has a full restaurant and a tapas bar and a bar, all of which were full of people. The store itself had lots of people in it, but not one item marked off “on sale” - there must be a different marketing metric here. Some prices were out of sight, some were not too bad. A single piece of Samsonite hard-side four-wheeled luggage was 391 Euros, for instance. Others were in line with US prices. Couldn't figure it out.

Then Jim and Carol decided to skip eating for one meal (we've been eating well), so Glenn & Lou and Dolores & I went to the tapas bar. The staff and Portuguese diners down the long table helped us select three tapas to share and to select a bottle of white. We ate and talked and had a good time there.

Then it was time to return to the hotel and face the music. We must pack and put out our big suitcase by 0700, then breakfast and be ready for the bus at 0830 for our trip up the coast to the MS Douro Cruiser.

'nite.