Portugal Trip Wrap Up

We arrived home in the evening of Friday, May 29^th after two flights, one from Lisbon to Heathrow (London) and the second from Heathrow to Dulles International (DC).  I will say getting out of Portugal was slightly annoying because the airport isn’t well organized, the check in desk didn’t open till 2.5 hours before the flight and the airline recommended 3 hours before the flight, and they you must go through a ticketing screening and border control to leave the country.  Thankfully, border control (basically like going through TSA security check but with passport verifications) only took us about 15 minutes, apparently it can sometimes take up to hour.  If you are not expecting it, Lisbon Airport will trick you, because they put all the duty free after the ticket scan but before border control, but you need to pass boarder control to get to your gate.  It is not like other airports where duty free is on the same side as the gates.   I also discovered I really hate how British Airways (BA) runs Terminal 5, which is all BA flights.  Since we arrived from Portugal, we had to go through a mini-security check, no big deal, the problem is finding your gate.  They don’t announce the gate until 15 minutes before boarding is supposed to begin and they close boarding 20 minutes before departure.  Very different then American Airports, where you arrive look at the screen and know your gate no matter what time your flight is.  In this case it was very frustrating because they didn’t announce the gate till 5 minutes before boarding and then delayed boarding for 30 minutes.  It is just very frustrating.  Thankfully both flights were very smooth and basically turbulence free.  Arriving in Dulles we had to use the people mover to get to border/customs but with Global Entry that went quickly.   Travel days are just long.

Overall, the vacation was nice, except for catching a cold and the weather being hotter than expected.  No one told me that in the last two weeks of May, winds come up from the Sahara Desert and make the temperature jump 15 to 20 degrees.  When we were tracking the weather before the trip, we saw temperatures between 65 to 72 degrees, a nice temperature to walk around in.  Instead, we got 75 - 90 degrees with most days hovering around the mid-80s, with intense sun.  Note, everything in Portugal is white, which reflects the sun, and they don’t seem to believe in shade trees, thus you roast if you are not prepared.  I did like Lisbon, it was nice and I probably could have spent another day there to see a few more things.  Porto was nice and cooler than Lisbon.   I enjoyed all the walking tours, as they provided a nice overview of the city. I just wish I had an extra day to really explore after the walking tour, especially in Lisbon. The tours would end at noon or 1:00PM at basically the height of the heat, so we really didn’t feel like exploring much after grabbing a bite to eat because it was hot out.   I would say Portugal was a pretty country, and the food was good, but I don’t feel I need to visit again.   I also felt like the Iberian Peninsula has a different vibe than the rest of Europe, don’t think it is the right vibe for me.  Also, I’m churched and monastery-ed out because those seem to be the main attractions in Portugal, or at least on the vacation we booked.

This trip also convinced my husband he is never buying a Citron, which was the type of rental car we had.  The car itself was ok but had some interesting quirks regarding safety features. It used cameras to determine what the speed limit was and then would ding at you once you went over the speed limit.  The car had a bad habit of picking up the speed limit signs, on the exits, when you weren’t exiting.  The car also tried to be helpful when backing up by providing you with a whole 360-degree top-down view while backing up and keeping that up longer than necessary when transitioning into drive.  Finally, the gear select was a weird pushbutton control that wasn’t very intuitive.    Overall, it was an ok rental car but not something we would ever buy if they were available in the US.   Quick note on the roads they were fine, a lot of toll roads, so I’m slightly dreading how much we own in tolls.

For the hotels, I enjoyed the first and last hotel because they had air conditioning that worked. The other two were nice, but their air conditioning systems were lousy and didn’t cool the room properly nor did they have decent airflow.  I had to request fans to feel like the air was moving in the room.  The breakfasts at all the hotels except the last was good, standard buffet, though I think I like breakfast at the first hotel the best.   I will miss the mini-Pastel de Nata on the buffet.  I like the tiny ones better than the full-size ones. 

Overall, the trip was good, except for getting sick and the heat. I probably could have handled the heat a little better if I hadn’t caught a cold.  I can now scratch Portugal off my list and focus on other countries. Though 2027 is a trip in the US, I’m thinking of Alaska, as that will get my husband to his 50^th state and it has nice landscapes. 

You can see all the photos from our trip here: Portugal