Portugal

Posted by Helen:

Leaving Canada was not without in incident.  I realized the night before leaving for Portugal that not only was the clip on my back pack broken but I was also missing a critical part for the solar charger to work.  Fortunately, my friend that was taking me the airport was able to leave earlier and we raced not only to the airport but made a pit stop to Mountain Equipment in downtown Toronto first. 

Just arrived to Lis

While there I quickly picked up the two items that I needed and also met a cop there who was picking up all the items that he needed for his trip to Kilimanjaro.  Was sure to give him our blog address and hope that he will look us up as we would love to hear how his climb goes as well.  So while continuing this 'amazing race' we were off to the airport, after several calls to my brother in law to be sure we were going in the right direction, we arrived safely to the airport - with time to spare - or so I thought. There the fun continued.  At the checkin counter I was asked to fill out my customs deck while they pulled up my reservation.  Not such an easy task......after some strange faces were made looking at the screen, they advised me that there was not ticket for me in the system.  Nothing and they could not check me it.  They asked me how that ticked was booked and told me that I needed to contact expedia to see what they have done.  One hour later and now 30 minutes before my plane was scheduled to leave I was provided a boarding pass.  Keep in mind I am wearing 4 layers of cloths in preparation for Kilimanjaro and racing to the gate on the way telling that guard that as much as I know Lis loves dolmades, no I do not care to go back and check them in

Lagos Avenida

Lisbon

So I finally get to the gate and take a small breath.  There we 2 flights going to Newark - no New York and the one that I was on was reschedule to leave at 3:30 pm.  According to the lady at the check in counting she had been desparately looking for me to change me to the earlier flight so that I would not miss my connecting flight to Lisbon.  Now the bags, which were tagged to Lisbon, were incorrectly tagged again to Faro.  

Could you imagine me not getting my luggage!!!!  Fortunately the ladies that checked me in a EWR were great and went digging for luggage to be sure it was tagged correctly.  At this point I needed and totally enjoyed a beer before getting on the plane for my pleasant 6 hour flight to Lisbon.  From this point, even with a language barrier, I very easily found a cab to the bus station, purchased by bus ticket and was met by Lis 4 hours later in Lagos......beautiful Lagos.

We spent the next couple of days strolling around in Lagos and finally the 28th morning we set out on our way to Lisbon where we spent the day and evening acting like the tourist we are. A big thanks to Paul for taken us to the station and by the way Lis got better by the hour after taken her first Malaria tablet !

Early the next morning we took the flight from Lisbon to Amsterdam and our hotel were just down town so as soon as we arrived we hit the town and had a great time experience the atmosphere which only can be found in Amsterdam. Tomorrow morning we will fly out to Kilimanjaro airport and start the adventure there.