Portugal

 Day 1 April 12 - 13 Chattanooga to Lisbon - Travel Woes

Because of what would turn out to be unfounded concerns about long lines at TSA, we left Chattanooga hours earlier than our departure time. Turns out British Air doesn't staff the boarding pass desk until 4 hours before take off time. So we had a few hours to kill in the Atlanta airport outside TSA. Once through TSA we enjoyed an unhurried dinner and waited for boarding.

Boarded on time then waited two hours on the tarmac while BA changed a plane tire. First tire didn't work, so they had to go find another one, updating us every half hour. Finally left Atlanta at 12:40 am. Thankfully ATL left a runway open for our flight.

Seats were very tight and cramped, so sleep was difficult. But we finally arrived in London, two hours late with a tight connection. BA was more than wonderful. They were prepared for all of us who had to get from Terminal 1 to Terminal 5. With people every step of the way directing us where to go next, checking out boarding passes to be sure we were heading in the correct direction, sending us through an emergency door to a waiting shuttle. We got to our gate just as they began boarding. Next stop Lisbon.

End of Day 1 - Lisbon

Our driver from the airport recommended several restaurants for dinner within walking distance of our hotel. After getting settled in, we set out. Tired as we were, we wanted something simple, which we weren't finding on the main boulevard. It seemed like the best idea might be to get a block off the boulevard when we spotted one of those guys you see with a sandwich board and a menu in hand to direct you to some dubious restaurant.  We bit. The problems were we hadn't bought euros yet, and the prices in the menu were a little hard to understand. Before going in we tried to verify with the proprietress that they take credit cards. It wasn't clear, but maybe.

We got settled at a table and tried to make sense of the menu, which was hand written and again, the prices were complicated. What does 20,00 some squiggle thing then a 4 mean? We deciphered the squiggly thing was probably €. The chef/proprietor came to talk to us about the menu and that was helpful. Meanwhile the proprietress poured us small glasses of port. So we ordered, seafood rice for Laurel and monkfish and prawns for Greg and a glass of wine for each of us. 

The rice and seafood arrived and was served family style. It was enough for 4 people! The little 4 after the cost on the menu. We quickly cancelled the rest of the order, which they graciously agreed to. The food was wonderful! So much fresh seafood and so flavorful. The rice was a mix of white and wild rice. It was really good. As we finished as much as we could and went to pay the problem with the credit card surfaced. While this establishment doesn't take credit cards, their neighbor does and if we would be patient, he could take our card over there and they would somehow process it for them. OR we could go across the street to the ATM and get some euros. That's what we did. While Laurel went across the street to get just enough Euros to pay the bill, the proprietor poured us each a glass of almond liqueur to finish off the meal.

We had a wonderful relatively inexpensive fresh dinner, with no surprise upcharges (port, almond liqueur). 

Heading back towards the hotel we decided it would be a good thing if we could find the actual recommended ATM to use to get euros to be ready for the next day. Mission accomplished. 

The streets were bustling and having gotten a second wind, we decided explore a little more. We wandered around the cobblestone "sidewalks" that double as streets (or vice versa), became hopelessly turned around and turned to Google to get us home. That was worthless. Greg had already downloaded Citymapper, which worked great. So got back to the hotel and fell into bed.

Sidewalk and Street

Sidewalk 

Street and Sidewalk