Our flight was scheduled to depart Lisbon, Humberto Delgado, International Airport at 9.15pm and we received a text notification our shuttle would pick us up at the hotel at 6.15pm. Barbara was concerned all day that the pick-up was too late as we were supposed to a be at the airport three hours before scheduled departure. As it happened the shuttle turned up at 5.50 and had us at Terminal 1 at 6.10pm. Although we had already done online check-in, Lisbon International didn’t have kiosk check-in or printing of boarding passes, luggage tags etc so we had to join a long line to go to the check-in desks. It was quite quick although they only had three desks operating for all the Emirates economy class flights leaving Lisbon that night.

Just as when we arrived in Lisbon, our plane was parked miles away from the terminal and we had to transfer from the gate to the plane by a fleet of buses. This made boarding slow and we were half an hour late by the time everyone was seated. Then a lady in our row, but at the window, had some sort of medical event. At first she was taken to the staff area at the rear of the plane and then was taken off the plane back into the terminal. This meant her cabin luggage and then checked in luggage had to be unloaded. After an hour the pilot informed us there was now a take-off direction change and that they would also take on more fuel so they could fly to Dubai faster to make up time. So all this meant we actually took off two and a half hours late. Our lay over time in Dubai was only two hours ten minutes so we thought this was all getting very interesting. We did make up some time during the flight and as we disembarked the plane there was a staff member with a sign of our Sydney Flight number, who rounded us up and marched us quickly through the huge Dubai Terminal to a security check point. The quickest security check we have ever done and then more quick marching and just got onto the tail end of the passengers boarding the flight to Sydney. At this stage we don’t know if our bags made the transfer. I think our layover in Dubai was 15 minutes at the most.

The two flights, Lisbon to Dubai and Dubai to Sydney were not too bad. Coming home the flights seem to pass more quickly than when going. We are now in Sydney, with a three hour layover waiting for the last leg.

Update: Our bags did not arrive at Wellington Airport, so we are assuming the short layover in Dubai was too short for the baggage handlers. Fortunately we had all the chits with the bar codes so they can track them on the worldwide computer tracing system and hopefully we will get them in a few days.

Further update: we arrived home Friday afternoon, Barbara’s bag was delivered by courier on Sunday night and mine on Monday night. So all is well.

Filling in time in Lisbon

Our flight tonight is at 9.15pm am and a shuttle is picking us up at 6.15 so we had a day to fill in in Lisbon. Had an “American Buffet” for breakfast at the Ramada (€12.50 each) which was exactly what you would imagine an American breakfast to be. We then got the metro down to the waterfront and wandered about. Checked out the Time Out Food Market, Pink Street (very quiet in the morning but very lively at night), sand and stone sculptures at the river’s edge, Coffee at Rossio train station (to get out of the heat and humidity), had a ride on a funicular (Lavra Funicular, opened in 1884) and walked through some of the Moorish Quarter (the old part of Lisbon that survived the earthquake). Then back to the hotel to wait for the shuttle and a long, long journey home, which we are dreading.

Santiago de Compostela to Lisboa

This was one of those necessary but not very enjoyable days. A transfer day

Our hotel Alameda Rooms in Santiago is one of a group of eight hotels. Breakfast is not in our hotel but about 250 metres away in a sister hotel. It was steady rain on our way down to breakfast but had paused on our way back. We had about a twenty minute walk to the intercity bus station and made it before the rain began to fall again.

Our bus was scheduled to leave at 9.30 but we didn’t get away until 9.55. It was large and comfortable, sixty seats, very quiet and smooth, On board wifi and a small entertainment screen on the back of the seat in front. Movies etc and you could track the progress of the bus. There was an onboard toilet but a €1 charge to use it. Only one person on the whole journey made use of it. The buses yesterday and today had seat belts and it is compulsary in Spain and Portugal to use them. We saw very few people using them. The bus was almost full. We met a lady from New Plymouth on our bus. She had just finished walking part of the Camino Frances and was going to Lisbon for a week and it nice talking to a fellow Kiwi for a change.

Ours was an express bus so only stops at Vigo, Braga and Porto Airport before arriving in Porto City for a lunch break of 45 minutes. Porto is roughly halfway to Lisbon and it had rained all the way. When we crossed the border at the Minho river we had to put our watches back an hour. After the stop in Porto the bus was practically empty, only about 10 passengers. The only stop between Porto and Lisbon was at Fatima.

We got into Lisbon at 5.05pm so a time of 8 hours plus, allowing for the one hour time difference between Spain and Portugal. In the 8 hours it took to bus to 608km to Lisbon we could have walked 30 kilometres on the Camino, or flown from Lisbon to Dubai. Our preference by far would be to do the walking.

At Lisbon bus station, Sende Rios, we bought a 24 hour Metro/bus/ferry pass. You can’t buy these using a money card at a machine so we joined a long line of people at a ticket office. This was painfully slow and took nearly an hour as most of those in the line were students wanting a student metro pass which involved pages of documentation and providing a photograph to be adhered to their card. When we finally got to the front of this queue we were directed to another desk and had our cards in a few minutes. Fortunately we know the metro well and it was a breeze to get to the hotel. We are back at the Ramada for one night.

We also had a comedy of errors at check-in at the hotel. We were given a room on the fourth floor and told it was also an accessible room, which was okay by us, even though it was out the back looking into a light well. When we got to the room it hadn’t been serviced (now after 7pm) and the room, bed and bathroom were an absolute mess. Back at reception they gave us another room on the sixteenth floor, looking out to the river. When we went into this room it already had another guest’s bag and shoes in it. Back to reception and another room, now on the sixth floor. Third time lucky and this one also has a nice outlook toward the river. We felt a bit sorry for the very nice young man on reception. He spoke beautiful English and was very friendly and helpful.

We are now feeling quite worn out, even though we have basically just sat on our butts all day. Tomorrow we will just be filling in time before our shuttle takes us to the airport at 6.15pm.

Bus tour from Santiago de Compostela

Today was just being a tourist. We had prebooked a bus tour out to the coast from Santiago de Compostela. The coach left from a park very close to our hotel at 9.00am and we didn’t get back until 6.30pm, so a long day. Unfortunately it was a foggy and slightly drizzly day. The coach sat 60 and it was full, and we had a driver and and Ivana an English speaking guide. Ivana made quite a few announcements and commentary during the day and they were in four languages, Spanish, French, Italian and English. As you can imagine each announcement took quite a long time. She also varied which language was spoken first. The main highlights of the trip were:

The Muros estuary with many beautiful beaches and it would have looked great on a nice day. We stopped at a fishing village with time for coffee.

The Horreo de Carnota at Carnota. This is the second largest horreo in Galicia and was the result of two parishes competing to be the most important.

The Erazo Waterfall. This is located in a fiord and is a little unique because it falls into the sea. Dozens of these in Milford Sound when it rains.

Finisterre, the end of the earth. It was very foggy here and we could hardly see the lighthouse. Traditionally pilgrims walked from Santiago to Finisterre where they burned their clothes and shoes and bathed in the sea. Burning is now banned. We did see the steel boot and the 0.000km marker.

Then down to the fishing village of Fisterra where we could go to a restaurant for lunch. They allowed one and a half hours for lunch!

We went to Finisterre and Fisterra eight years ago and the weather was exactly the same, foggy and drizzly.

Muxia also on the coast which has a lighthouse, a charming Sanctuary of the Virgen de la Barca. There is a new monument there to the hundreds of pilgrims who came to help clean up the coast after a tanker accident. In 2002 the Prestige Tanker spilled 70,000 gallons of oil into the Atlantic Ocean. The biggest industry in Galicia is fishing so this was a disaster for the province and it was five years before fishing could restart.

The final stop was the village of Pontemaceira, considered one of the most beautiful villages in Galicia. It has a wonderful medieval bridge and of course a few legends relating to the bridge. Pilgrims who carry on walking from Santiago to Finisterre cross over this bridge and stay in the village.

The highlights were Muxia and Pontemaceira. It was a sleepy sort of day. At least this is how we feel when we are in a coach for a long time. We got chatting with two America guys who had also walked from Porto to Santiago. The older one was 84 and his young mate 79. They didn’t look very sturdy on their feet and took ages getting on and off the coach. One had a steel knee and the other a replacement hip. I thought they were an inspiration. Barbara thought they just didn’t know when to call it quits.

When we got back from the tour we found a nice bakery and bought two pieces of cake to celebrate Barbara’s big O birthday. A sort of apple crumble cake. It was scrumdiddlyumptious.

It was probably not too bright doing the coach tour today as we are back on a bus tomorrow. Leaving Santiago de Compostela at 9.30am and getting back to Lisbon at 5.45pm  – a distance of 608 kilometres.