Day 9 ... Leaving Portugal.
A bit more about day 8 in Lisbon. We stayed at a Holiday Inn Express near the airport. We arrived around 6:30 PM. After settling in, we wanted to get something to eat. We had asked the young lady at the front de ask if there were eateries nearby. She said, yes, but we would need to walk a bit. She also said at 7:00 PM a crew came into the hotel to prepare dinners in the hotel. So we opted to do that. We decided to share a meal. We chose a veal dinner that came with a drink and dessert. Our choice for dessert was chocolate cake or fruit. That was a no brainer. After we had sat down, a young man came out to us and told us that they had dropped the cake on the floor! I thought...yea....right. Nonetheless at the conclusion of our meal they brought us two apples and an orange. I wanted cake for my 13 euros! Oh well.....
We turned lights out at 9PM even though there were many English TV channels to watch (unlike Spain). I slept great until 4AM. But since it was a travel day, my mind would not let me go back to sleep. So I read the newspaper (Deseret News) and quietly listened to the BYU basketball game. At around 6:30 AM, We headed down for breakfast. It was ok...lots of rolls, meats, cheeses, fruit juices and hot chocolate. Nothing in the food that you would see on an American breakfast menu. We ate, returned to our room to retrieve our bags, and then paid for a shuttle to the airport.
Our flight to Newark left at 10:15 AM on time. The Lisbon airport was really nice, really clean. Our process to get on was easy. And there were a lot of seats. We were assigned an exit row to share. Tons of leg room. Really quite comfortable. The flight to Newark took almost 9 hours. And even though we left Lisbon early, we arrived 30 minutes late. To give a perspective...flying to Madrid one week ago took 6.5 hours. Flying home....9 hours. The pilot said the head winds were so strong that they altered their course to take a more southern route to Lisbon, not their normal route.
We arrived at 2:00 PM to the gate in Newark. While taxing, I looked at the plane loads. Our best option was to fly to SFO and then back to SLC. More seats appeared to be available. But we were not listed on that flight. We were listed on a flight through Chicago and another through Houston. All three flights (SFO, ORD, IAH) were gated right by each other...which was real fortunate. The SFO flight was to leave at 2:45, the ORD flight at 3:05 and IAH at 3:20. Now coming in internationally, you go through passport control, then baggage control, then because we were connecting to another flight, back through the whole TSA security check. When we arrived at the SFO flight, the gate agent would not even consider putting us on. We were too late even though the plane was still there and had seats. So I walked down to the next gate where Chicago was gated to ask if stand by seats had been issued. I was surprised to see that both of us had been issued seats. So we got in line to board. I went first and headed down the jetway. As I walked down, I turned back to see if Denise was behind me. She was not. I stopped. In a minute or so, Denise came down and said that the agent wanted to check her bag. She took her ticket thinking Denise would return. I said come on....let's go see if there is overhead space...and there was. So Denise boarded anyway without her ticket. I kind of waited to see if the gate agent would be coming after her. But she never appeared. Whoooo.
I am writing this as we fly to Chicago. One more flight. If we get on, we will get into SLC at 8:30 PM. If not, we stay the night in Chicago and try tomorrow once again. No other options. In Newark, the Chicago to SLC looked full. But in standby flying...you just never know!
Yahoo...just got our tickets to SLC! It will feel good to be home.
Sitting on a seat with a leg extender. First time I had seen this I ban airport.
Looking back at the coast and beaches of Portugal. We had a great trip. And it was so nice to spend it with Kelly and Zella.
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