Lisbon, Portugal - Day 1

Our trip to Portugal (finally!) started out about as eventfully as it ended!  We have been waiting to take this trip for over a year.  We booked it last summer - and it was originally supposed to happen over February vacation this year, but the Omicron variant was hot, and at the time, you had to take a Covid test to fly to Portugal (and then one to get home!)  There were so many restrictions that we all decided to kick the can and move the trip to July, hoping for fewer restrictions.  The good news was - they had already removed the testing requirement to fly BACK to the US some time ago, and on July 1, they removed the testing requirement to fly TO Portugal!  Hooray!  Our flight was scheduled to go from Boston to Dulles (in DC) and on to Lisbon, with only a ONE HOUR layover at Dulles and if you've ever been there, you know that is an almost impossibly tight turnaround to begin with.

PLUS... the night before we left, we were notified that because of the threat of severe weather all up and down the east coast the following day, we were able to change our flights for free, if we wished.  I checked out some of the short range models (HRRR and such) and I didn't like what I saw around the time we were supposed to land at Dulles. I'm a nervous flyer anyway, and a missed connection in DC meant we would miss our flight to Lisbon.  NOPE.  So we changed our Boston-DC flight to one that was about 3 hours earlier.

Thankfully, even Kathleen and Lynne were able to make the change, so all was good!  Time for a cocktail at the airport! (Or... a Shirley Temple for Natalie!)

Baileys and honorary Bailey Lynne were ready to go to Lisbon!

Our flight was on time, and you know I love to snap a good jetway pic.

Bailey family selfie on the flight from Boston to DC!  Let's go!

Adios, Boston.

AND OF COURSE... right on time. That master's degree in meteorology paid off for once!  We arrived with no issues, but our original flight was delayed because of the weather.  I think it arrived about 10 minutes before our flight to Lisbon took off.  But no worries!  Because we made the flight change, we were there with plenty of time to spare.  We had dinner and watched the storms roll in.

It was a doozy!  (Who talks like that?)  This Virgin Atlantic plane sat there for probably 20 minutes before it left.

But after the storms, the sun peeked out again before it set.

Alas, we boarded our flight to Lisbon!  Adeus, America!

I think we arrived on the hottest day of the year.  And my kids and I were in long pants.  And Grant had a long sleeved shirt on.  We couldn't check in until 4 pm, so we went to the Restaurante Martinez to drop our bags off and wait for Kern and Dorothy. I think my kids were melting here, but the adults (while also melting) had some really good Sangria!

Finally our friends Kern and Dorothy from the San Francisco Bay area (originally from Massachusetts) joined us and we slowly made our way toward our apartment.  Which was hard to do, because not only was it boiling hot (the high was 104 degrees F), but there was very little wind.  I don't know that I've ever been this hot.  And that is saying a lot (see posts about Athens, Colmar, Abu Dhabi, etc.) 

This restaurant was a 3 minute walk from the last restaurant we were at.  That's all we could manage before we needed to stop for yet another cold drink!  The weirdest part of this was that there was actual visible pieces of ash raining down on us as we ate because of the wildfires that were burning nearby. They kept falling into our drinks!

Melting, but enjoying beverages with good friends!  Todd is sort of ironically wearing an Iceland t-shirt!

FINALLY we were able to get into our air conditioned apartment!  We weren't directly in the downtown area (not near the Baxia or the Barrio Alto), but we were directly above the Roma metro stop, which was AWESOME.  It took us everywhere we wanted to go, and did I mention we had air conditioning???  The guys went back to get our suitcases in the heat, and then went to the Continente Bom Dia for some provisions (which you can almost see in this picture on this street and down to the left).

In the evening, everyone was hungry, but Grant was tired and wanted to stay behind, so everyone (except Grant and me) went over to the Restaurante Os três for some dinner, where the waiter took this selfie with Kern's phone!

They all thought that was really funny, and everyone had a nice meal.

Meanwhile, Grant and I enjoyed a plate of meats, cheeses chips and bread, along with some MILKA chocolate for dessert!

We had an early night (well, at least Grant and I did!) because we had to get up early the next morning for our tour of Fatima!

And we're on to Fatima!