No Power is No Fun

 The trip got off to a rather inauspicious start. I landed in Lisbon about an hour after all the electricity in Portugal, Spain and parts of France went out.  Got off the plane into a bus and sat on the tarmac for about an hour. Once inside the airport the tension was high since nobody knew then and still don’t know, what happened. They thought terrorists at this point. The baggage claim area was filled with thousands of people, but since I had most of my hiking stuff in my checked bag I decided to stay. After about an hour the police came and told everybody to leave, they were closing the airport. Outside the airport was pure chaos with thousands of people milling about.  No metro, buses, taxis and nothing was  moving. So I put my pack on and started walking away from the airport.  The roads were almost at a standstill. I finally found a cab, always bring cash! She got me to the  hotel where candles lined the hallways   The only food available was from a bodega up the street. I got in line with about 30 of my new friends.  Once inside you used the flashlight on your phone to see what was on the shelves.  Thanks Catherine for getting me a power bank! Fortunately the hotel did have a lovely garden and beer.

The next day I went back to the airport to see about my bag.  The line was massive and after about an hour I got a text message saying come back at 6:45. When I went back there were about 500 people hanging around in a parking lot where they called flight numbers one by one.  It was like having a bingo card with a single number.  A bunch of Germans started singing when their flight was called.  About 3 hours later I left with the bag.

Decided to spend an extra day in Lisbon.  Walking around here is different.  The sidewalks are cobblestones, some ornate.

And the hills are no joke. So much so that they built an outdoor elevator in the early 1900s.

On a high speed train to Porto as I write this.