Delays and Detours

 I got here, and I'm showered and rehydrating with some decaf green tea.  But boy this was a hard one.

The smoothest part of the trip was my pick up to the airport.  I woke up feeling lousy, but not actually sick, and all I had to do was sit in vehicles.  I completed my organizing and packing.  When I was picked up I asked the driver how hot it was.  It was 90F.  I felt glad I was going to a cooler place

I checked in, found my gate.  Then came the first delay.  The flight crew was caught behind a traffic accident, so the flight left about 45 minutes late.  No biggie.  The flight was pleasant.  My seat mate was quiet and wore a mask as did I.  The in flight meals were even good.  I am not in to hard liquor but one of my travel rituals is when I fly a British company to have a gin and tonic before dinner.  Very refreshing.

We arrived at Heathrow.  I like to snoop around duty free, but I was concerned about my connection.  I was rather forcibly directed to a certain area.  Ok. Passport control.  I'm used to this.  Only it wasn't for connecting travelers as I found once I got through.  This path led to baggage claim and the exit.  I asked and was told to go to departures up stairs.  An airline employee thought I was ok and just to go through security.  She was right, but security was backed up.  It made me wonder if there was an intelligence warning because I got searched and wanded (I tend to think sort of thing is funny) and a lot of people had their carry on luggage pulled aside for searches.  I also learned that one is allowed only one baggie full of TSA compliant toiletries and watched as women tried stuffing everything in one bag.  Not all succeeded.

I didn't have a lot of time left, but the gate wasn't showing so I sat down with my computer.  This place does not have 24 hour reception and I doubted I'd arrive when they were open, so I reviewed and wrote down instructions and directions.  I figured I take the airport bus.  We boarded.  Then there was some kind of toxic waste accident near the plane, and we couldn't move until it was cleaned up.  This delayed the flight for an hour, but once we got underway it was fine.  We just had to park in the middle of nowhere and have a mobil deplaning device and shuttle buses.  I got my luggage was was off.

I found the airport bus stop but no way to buy a ticket so I went as asked at Tourist Information, and I'm glad I did because the airport bus was not running at all.  I went and found the metro and got a ticket from the machine, and found the train.  European metro systems are easy to use unless one is burdened with luggage, and the reason the metro was not my first choice is that I had to change trains and not all the stations have escalators or elevators, so I struggled on the stairs.  A couple of very kind people took pity on me and helped out.  I was so grateful!

But at my destination, I was lost.  I'd written down directions from the bus, and I got really turned around with the metro.  After wandering futilely I asked at a news stand.  The lady didn't know where the street was but kindly figured it out from my map, and here I am.

But the saga does not end there.  I used the entry code to enter and then proceeded to automatic check in, but my credit card was rejected!  That was kind of the last straw.  I did have and use my debit card, and the machine liked that better.

Despite all this I liked what I saw of Lisbon so far, and now that I'm well settled in I can begin to enjoy the city.