September 5, 2022
Lisbon
We Made It
Happiness is the picture below. There was some worry before the bikes showed up, as our data via electronic sim, which is working well now, was hopeless in the airport. So while it was wonderful to have the AirTags we couldn’t access them in the bowels of the Lisbon Airport. We did see from the plane that at least one bike had arrived. The other was showing still in Victoria, although it said last seen there at 11 something the day before, which was when our plane took off. The little wheel was valiantly scrolling away but not updating. I suspect our AirTags are due for a battery change. We are very happy with how the AirTags worked though. I am sold on the concept. Knowing for sure one bike was in Lisbon we waited, and waited and waited and waited! by oversized luggage. We had two luggage carts, Keith found two pieces of abandoned plywood nearby and we made makeshift seats on the carts where we lounged with our fingers crossed. I wish we had taken a picture. It was a real high when both boxes came rolling out together.
All that waiting had an unfortunate side effect though. We had arranged for a driver to pick us up, and he was in arrivals, also waiting and waiting and waiting. He had another group to pick up and finally had to abandon us. We couldn’t leave the international baggage area to let him know what was going on, and we had no way of getting in touch with him. He had other people on a later flight he was picking up and we lost our driver. We eventually had contact via email when we were in the arrivals area but it was too late.
The end result was Keith standing with the bike boxes while I stood in the taxi lineup, the longest queue I can ever recall. Longer than the line ups at DisneyWorld. Like Disney though, one of the reasons the line was so long is that they keep you constantly moving. It is odd how all that shuffling makes you feel like you are getting somewhere, even if it is just around the next serpentine. Once I finally got to the front of the line our cab driver was terrific and without any drama we were at the hotel. It was a relief to get out of the absolute chaos that was the Lisbon airport. People were taking videos of the crush of people, and there was still luggage absolutely everywhere. We handled it well though. This is certainly not the year to sweat the small stuff. I was amazed at how calm we both were throughout.
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The hotel is great and we are here for three nights. First order of business was a nap of course. I was really flagging. Too many movies and not enough attempts at sleep on the plane. After an hour and a half of sleep (Keith set an alarm) we headed down to put together the bikes.
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After settling the bikes in for the night we went for a good walk and a bite to eat. We want to stay awake long enough to reset our internal clocks, and it is now 9:33 PM and I am going to be lights out immediately after I post this.
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