FAO to The Story Guest House, Rua José Estevão 3A, Faro, PT €34.20 incl breakfast

Distance: 6 km

Not that I watched them, but the movies played on as I slept. It was more

for the headphones to block out the drone of the plane.

Though not hungry, when the breakfast cart came along, I ate, hoping it would get me adjusted to the time difference (four hours until they switch to DST). I stretched the bed back out and actually fell back asleep until they announced that we were descending into Lisbon. Clear skies, blue water, and green in the distance. As we came in I saw the Tower of Belem, the castle, and finally the airport.

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Now, here I sit in the ANA Lounge watching planes coming and going, including an Air Transat flight departing for Montreal. The day is perfect and there are only tiny wisps of cloud above the rising hills across the estuary, to the south of the city, where I will be cycling in about two weeks' time.

After spending an exciting day in the Lisbon airport lounge, I headed to the other end of the airport to gate S7 for my next flight on an A315 (?). Though we left half an hour late as we waited for passengers from another flight, the quick flight to Faro was a short 30 minutes. Better yet, after waiting only about ten minutes, along came a staff member with my bike box in hand. And even better, there were two bike assembly stations by the oversized luggage belt. Could it get any better? I wanted to take a photo but just wanted to get out of there.

With the bike together, I flipped on the GPS and within twenty minutes I was pulling up to my Guest House. On the way I realized my rear tire was improperly seated so it thump-thumped all the way. The gears were messed up so I had to adjust the trim on the rear derailleur, but even that didn't fix everything, so I will have to bend the hanger on my first day out. The bags were quickly packed and mounted so they were all floppy and uneven. The gps and light/radio were poorly mounted so they slipped and slopped on the handlebars. Good heavens, Brent, what were you thinking? Well, especially being late into the airport, I wanted to get rolling to get to the guest house before the sunset just before 19h.

The road was busy, I was out of practice and my load was a mess, but I made it even after forgetting to mount my rear view mirrors onto my sunglasses. Oy. It sure is a good thing that today was only six km.

The clerk at the hotel helped me bring my stuff up to the first floor, let me bring the bike to my room (so I could work on it) and in no time I was organizing everything. Anyone who has toured on a bicycle knows they have a system to store their gear. Within a very short time you know where every bit is so when you need it, you can get it. My Arkel panniers are water resistant, so I put everything into plastic bags to keep them dry. I keep coming back to it - it looks like there is no more rain in the forecast... but things change.

The only other thing I did other than worry about this, that and whatever else, was to eat. I was not all that hungry. Being in the old centre there are loads of restaurants nearby, so I will explore and sample some tomorrow. In the meantime, I went to a Mini Preço grocery store to get some snacks and some Tetra Pak Vinho Tinto. And here I am sampling it, working on the bike, and finally, just really happy to be here in Portugal. The clouds have parted and dissipated and I am in cycle tour mode.

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