We are in Lisbon, Portugal. Articles I read say that Portugal is a favorite retirement haven for Americans. I understand why. With ocean on three sides, the weather is moderate. It is clean, safe, there is lots to do, the people are nice, it is easy to get around, I think everyone speaks English, and prices are quite reasonable. An early fish dinner tonight overlooking the bay was a mere 13 Euro each.
Lisbon’s airport is in town. A guy on the plane who frequents Lisbon said he Ubers into town from the airport for 20 Euro. I enjoy puzzling things out so we took the train. Two tickets were were a total of 3 Euro.
A travel trip… In the Lisbon airport, there are three areas to clear customs. The “EU electronic” line is for people with electronic European Union passports. The “All Passports” is where 95% of people line up. And, there is a small area off to the left with a U.S. flag that says it is for U.S. electronic passports. If you get in that line, you will be through customs in 3-minutes even with a regular passport book. If you get in the “All Passports” line with everyone else, it will take 90-minutes to clear customs.
Getting train tickets to get into town was a treat. In the train station (exit Door #7 from Terminal #1, walk across the patio, and go down the escalator), there are ticket vending machines, and there is a ticket office. Feeling compelled to do it the hard way, I went to the machines. An eagle-eyed lady employed by the train system immediately spotted me, correctly ascertained that I was inept to the system, walked up and offered to help. In less than a minute, I had tickets and we were on our way.
Leigh Ann selected the 5-star Myriad by Sana hotel for our stay in Lisbon, which is a delight. It is on the water and our room commands a gorgeous view. The staff at the Myriad are helpful, friendly, happy, and put in double the effort I expected. They even came by in the evening to give us more bottledwater and put chocolates on our pillows. The photo is from our hotel room window.
This is our first day in-country, so we are jet-lagged. Our routine is to go for a walk (we covered five miles), eat an early supper, shower, and be in bed with lights out at 20:00. Following that routine, we are pretty much acclimated to shifting seven time zones by the next day. Night night.