Arrival in Portugal

We were packed and ready when our Uber arrived exactly on time and whisked us away to Terminal 3 at Las Vegas’ Harry Reid International Airport. Our check-in at British Airways was quick and easy. We checked our backpacks and made our way to the Sapphire Club Lounge, one of the perks of David’s new credit card.

What a way to start a trip!

Wow! From the champagne bar as we checked in to our reserved table in this posh club, we were impressed. A lavish buffet was on offer along with an open bar and a made-to-order lunch menu in which we indulged. Living large and enjoying every single sip and second.

Yup, we ate!

Lunched and adequately champagned, we wandered over to our gate (a terminal away by train) a few minutes before boarding time. We texted our last goodbyes to family and boarded the Boeing 787 for the ~10-hour flight to London Heathrow. Settling into our seats, a round of champagne was offered. How could we refuse such hospitality? Clear, sunny skies above, our flight took off exactly on time and we were on our way. Hallelujah!

Dinner, movies, some chat, some Portuguese practice, a little reading, breakfast, and an uncomfortable attempt at a nap, and six hours had elapsed. I can usually sleep hanging from a hook but not this trip. It was smooth and calm enough, but I think I was just too wound up. Four hours to go and they dragged on tediously.

Welcome to Heathrow… kind of! At last, we landed. It took a while to deplane… we were early, then we descended a flight of stairs and were herded onto a bus to Heathrow’s Terminal 5, where we walked and walked, passing through security once again, then finally to our gate in time to board our final flight to Lisbon.

Aboard in our cramped seats (‘gen pop’ Brennan calls it… David’s knees were under his chin), we experienced the opposite end of the hospitality scale where nothing but water was offered free and even that was skimpy… distant memories of champagne at the Sapphire Club wafted through our minds.  Luckily, we were stocked with snacks and survived. Once again, we waited for a set of stairs and herding onto a bus which drove half way to the city before dumping us at the terminal. An interminable line to get through Immigration and the new ‘EES’ (the EU’s new Entry/Exit System) for non-EU entrants. In fairness, the new system was just introduced on April 10th this year, but it has its bugs and it still was painful waiting in the slow-moving queue for over an hour to get to the agent who cleared us in. No more passport stamps. We’re ’in the sytem’ now. We had pre-registered for the EES at our friend, Catherine’s suggestion, but the system wasn’t quite ready for us yet.

We collected our baggage, the last bags on the carousel, and made our way to the pre-arranged rendezvous point to meet Catherine. She was there with hugs and welcomes, helped us tote our gear to Michael who pulled up nearby, loaded us up, and we were off to their home in Figueiro dos Vinhos, a two-hour drive away.

Our blogs will be a bit behind, but we’ll try to update more often, so bear with us. We want to share the experience with you complete with details… not just photos and ‘then we went here and did this’ kind of rhetoric. We want you with us all the way!