This year we decided to fly into Lisbon and drive to the Algarve in our rental car. We have done this twice before with the goal of spending three or four days in Lisbon at the end. That's our plan this year after not being able to visit in three years because of Covid.
It's not that different from flying directly to the Algarve with some exceptions. First we save $2000.00 on airfare as the Faro run has become wildly expensive ($2250.00 each) as opposed to 1230.00 for the Lisbon run. Secondly we have a 3-4 hour drive from Lisbon to the Algarve and the fuel and toll generated. Third it does add some stress making the run from Lisbon airport to the Vasco de Gama bridge when you are fresh behind the wheel of a new rental car and I'm getting long in the tooth.
So after the flight from Toronto that left promptly on time at 8:55 pm we made the long...gg walk through the Lisbon airport to customs and eventually to the car rental. All went well and after studying the Pugeot 308 so I was familiar with it we took off through the streets of Lisbon through unbelievably heavy traffic. Mary did the navigating and I was the wheel man. We made it to the bridge in about 15 minutes and enjoyed the always spectacular view over the Tagus Estuary from this 17km marvel.
The drive down was punctuated by 3 stops at servico vilocomedes so we could pee and I could rest. Travelling is great but when you drive to Toronto on Saturday and fly overnight to Europe and then drive more hours and then have to buy food and register at your apartmento the hours mount up. And that's not even counting the suffer dinky loo on the plane when you have to pee so badly that it hurts.
None the less we made it to the Algarve and made our usual food stop at the Intermarche' grocery store before registering at Monte Santo. Great people here and a bottle of wine and cookies when we entered was a nice touch.
No comments:
Post a Comment