My Journey Home

The journey home

The journey home isn't always wonderful under the best of circumstances...but when you have a terrible cold, it is much worse!  I am trying to focus on how lucky I am to not have gotten sick on the rest of the trip, but when it is hard to breathe, and being so weak with a bad cough and not much of a voice, it's hard to focus on luck.  People around me were sick before I left, people on the cruise were sick, and when someone with a terrible cough was behind me on a very long tour, I felt it was inevitable that the cold would win at some point.  Unfortunately, it arrived on my second, and last, full day in Lisbon.  I'm wishing it would have waited a few more days.

At least it was mostly a quiet day, and we just walked around the downtown for a while.  By dinner, my energy was depleted and Cesar went to the great little Portuguese restaurant a few blocks away and brought back delicious 'take away'.  We'd eaten at the restaurant the night before and there was more I wanted to try.  Even with my bad cold I was able to enjoy the wonderful flavor of the food I had.  I do love Portuguese food!  The restaurant was Serra da Estrela and I loved the bacalhau com natas, cod baked with potatoes in a cream sauce.  The second night I had a francesinha, which I may have described in my last entry, Cesar had it the night before.  I was sad that it was the last Portuguese meal I would have, but it was delicious!

The next morning after breakfast Cesar left for his job and after a wonderful shower in the lit up tub that was in the middle of the bedroom, I finished packing and soon my friend, Paula, who I met on the Budapest nightmare flight, arrived. We visited for a couple of hours, she is an absolutely lovely person!  While we were visiting in the lobby, there was a photo shoot going on in the lobby.  A lovely blonde lady was posing in a white dress.  Of course, me being me, just had to ask my friend, a manager at the design hotel who that famous person was...it was clint eastwoods daughter.  Wish i would have paid more attention!

Then Paula  gave me the best gift ever, she went to the airport with me.  It is a gift to be there with a Portuguese speaking person, making the experience much more pleasant.  It was going to be the first time without Cesar and I was not looking forward to it at all.   It is a fallacy that everyone speaks English there.  So when my extra bag was paid for, 50€, I said goodbye and headed to security. Luckily I was allowed into the premier club there so I was able to have one last pasties de nata, my favorite pastry.  And then the waiting began...TAP is not known for on time flights and this was not an exception.  We left almost 2 hours late, a long time for someone sick and weak.

I was so happy to arrive in London, and was soon in a movie type taxi to my hotel.  My that hotel is dated, but what a big smile I was greeted with, such a nice welcome!   The young man took good care of me as usual, and after a fish and chips dinner it was off to sleep.

Now I am sitting in the lounge at heathrow with a bit of a wait for the long flight across the pond.  Hoping my cold doesn't get any worse in the air...

Cheers from London...last stop before the US