It rained this morning. Rain feels unexpected in sunny Portugal. It’s good though since Portugal is having a severe drought. The winter rains have been a lot less than usual.
We did our packing and left our bags at the hotel reception office. There was no front desk, just an office in one of the rooms on the 5th level (4th floor, European style). I think Dream Chiado was only on the 5th level of the building.
We headed out to wander. We were drawn to the open space of Praça do Comércio again. There were lots of tourists and a giant polar bear entertaining children, but it was spacious, breezy, and relaxing. We’re learning how to do relaxing when we travel, I think. A key element is to be in a place for longer, and this was a nice long trip.
We got a final snack of pastel de nata and drinks at Martinho da Arcada, a café on the square, across the street from the beer museum. The we headed back to our hotel to get our bags and call the Uber. The Uber driver was from Brazil and we talked about learning European Portuguese. He thought English was easier! In Portugal, speakers slide their words together making it really hard to understand. And there are many different possible sounds for any given letter, making it hard for us to pronounce. Actually doesn’t that happen in English too?
At the airport
Our flight was at 18:00. Lines weren’t long and our checkin was uneventful. We sat in the arcade and got some pastries. We thought it would be crowded with no sitting space at the gate. Well, we sat a little too long. As we walked toward the gate, we heard a last-call announcement for our flight. And, there were two more checkpoints! We hurried into the gate where they were closing the entry, and we made it on. Don’t dally and get complacent when you get to the airport early!
Back in Boston, the airport stuff was easy. Last year we signed up for Global Entry. Going through the checkpoints was so fast. You don’t need the actual card at the airport. The machine scans your passport and checks your face and fingerprint.
Back home, our fish and their aquarium looked good — thank you to our cousin for feeding them regularly; the house was OK; the lawn was long but only in spots — not much rain while we were gone; and the fridge was pretty empty. So back to normal life for a time!