Greg and Mandy's Travels

Moved from the top of Portugal to the bottom of the country today. After waking yet again to the enticing smell of Portuguese tarts being baked outside our bedroom window, we went for our morning coffee and to purchase supplies for the day ahead.

Tugged our bags back down the hill to the station, and boarded the morning IC train back to Lisbon. Train was very crowded, but everybody wears masks. People are so compliant, and put them on religiously when they go into shops or public transport. Nobody wants to assert their constitutional right to be a public nuisance, and so everybody can get on with their life.…

Our last day in Porto. Went out for breakfast at the renowned Confeitaria do Bolhão, conveniently situated out our back window. Well, at least we had to have some compensation. Our bedroom window backs on to the bakery kitchen, and the lights are on at 4am with the exhaust fans running at full bore as they start the daily baking. The wafting smell of Portuguese tarts drifts into our room, and there was really nothing for it but to go and sample the wares.

The weather closed in around lunchtime as we walked down to the river and along the old city walls to the plaza for lunch.…

No great rush this morning, so a leisurely breakfast, did some washing in the hope that it would dry before we leave, and headed off to our morning free walking tour of the city, via a coffee shop of course. There were 18 in our tour group, and we spent three hours getting a potted view of the history of Porto from our architect tour guide – Jaime. As is usual, his life is a real mixture. If I can remember, he was born to a Jewish mother in Angola which was a Portuguese colony at the time. He then came to Portugal before living in India and studying in Mexico, before going to Argentina, marrying and staying.…

But its always onwards and upwards when you are on a holiday so, summoned by the alarm, we were out of the apartment before 7am, and trundling off over the cobbles on our way to the station. Certainly gave us a good cardio workout for the morning as we toiled up the hills pulling our suitcases, and the sunrise in the morning was lovely from the top. Have I mentioned how hilly Lisbon is?

Caught the 7:30am train north towards Porto, but took a pit stop half way in Coimbra to break up the trip. Nice town, great pastries. Came across the ruins of the torture chambers of the Portuguese inquisition.…

You’ve heard of tiny houses, but this was a tiny apartment. The bed folded out of the wall, as long as you folded the table and chairs away first to give it room. The suitcases had to live on the kitchen floor (which was also the dining room floor and the entrance floor). Not only couldn’t you swing a cat in there, you couldn’t fit it in. The cupboards didn’t have handles to save space. Actually a very clever piece of design where a single inch wasn’t wasted. Lucky we were neither tall nor overweight, or we wouldn’t have got in.…

I’m always interested to find that our sense of smell is so powerful and evocative. We boarded our old BA Boeing 787 on time, took off, and after the usual plethora of announcements and a packet of pretzels, I threw my blanket over my head and tried to get some sleep. Even in my sleep induced haze, some 5 hours later I was awakened by the aroma of freshly brewed coffee wafting down the aisle. Not wanting to miss it, I emerged from my blanket and waited hopefully – for a full two hours. Must have been the crew’s wake up treat. …

Well, I’m meant to be all chirpy and upbeat on the first day of a holiday, but my brain is feeling like its going to explode before I even get to the fun bit. The online forms and paperwork is very tedious and time consuming, but its complicated by two extra things. Firstly there is an order that they must be done in, which often seems to loop back on itself. And secondly, there are time windows that everything has to be done by, or after, or both, and these are complicated by time differences, and where you’ll be during these windows.…

Took the Conn-X-ion shuttle bus to Brisbane airport, checked in, then took the airport shuttle across to the international terminal where we did our PCR test. After receiving our results and finding we were clear, we lodged our final paperwork, checked in to our flights, had tea in the restaurant, and headed to bed.