We are both awake around 0800. Blue sky sunny day in Lisbon with a high expected of 24. The weather during our entire trip has been fantastic.
We are sad to be leaving Portugal after having such a great experience wherever we went. So much great food and superb wine! During our adventures we met fellow travellers from around the world and briefly got to know some basic Portugese (even though we both agree it sounds like Russian to our ears!).
It is an under-rated country that merits more consideration for travellers. Your Euro goes a fairly long way here compared to other western European countries. Our analysis of its woes are of a people and culture that doesn't give itself enough credit. Failure to market the country, people, wine, food and destinations is hurting its economy. When we were talking about this with some Portugese they brought up the same challenges.
Anyway, we have a long flight to Toronto and then another longish flight to Vancouver. No complaints here as there is a downside to travelling across the oceans and across our country. Lana has arranged for two seats in "premium economy" for the flight to Toronto. From Toronto to Vancouver Lana is flying first class using her upgrade credits. Not enough credits for me to fly in first class, but I am more than good enough being in economy.
We had a good breakfast in the hotel with hot and cold food, inclusive of fresh fruit and pastries. Weighed our luggage again. All three bags are below 50 pounds, although my bag is slightly below the maximum weight. We check out easily and our taxi driver is about 10 minutes early so all is good. I get to talking with him and he is a fan of Sporting Lisbon's football team. His favourite players are Ronaldo (Portugese) and Messi (Argentina).
Arriving at Lisbon's airport and it is a zoo! It appears to be chaos. We find our check-in terminal although we had to wait quite a while due to a slow gate agent. While there is a long line for security we luck into getting into a newly opened belt. Our Air Canada Rouge plane is super busy, but we lift off on time and arrive in Toronto somewhat earlier than expected. We cannot taxi to our gate as it is still occupied. We get through NEXUS very quickly and then are delayed waiting for our luggage at the conveyor belt even though it is tagged Priority. Given we only have a 2 hour window to get to our connecting flight, every delay is making us nervous.
Off to Customs and another queue. Fortunately, we get a Customs agent that is overwhelmed by the wine numbers (we are 15 bottles over x 0.75 litres per bottle x average price x red vs white x country of origin. As you can see it is complicated. He decides to basically give up and charges us for only being 5 litres over our limit. So the net is that we pay only $22.45CDN for 15 extra bottles. Easy math makes that about $1.50CDN per bottle. Yeh!!! I pay cash at the Cashier and we are good to go.
Now we race to get our luggage on to the connecting belt and then we have about 55 minutes before our flight to Vancouver departs. We get to the Air Canada lounge so all is good. I need to stuff myself with food as I won't get fed in economy. That means we have about 15 minutes in the lounge. We arrive about 30 minutes before the flight departs and then an announcement indicates our plane is in maintenance and expect a 1 hour delay. Back to the Air Canada lounge we go.
The plane is ready about an hour late. Lana is in her First Class seats and I have a window seat close to the front! Yeh! During the flight Lana sends back her dessert of an ice cream and cookie. Very yummy. Uneventful flight and we safely land in Vancouver. Our bags come off the conveyor belt fairly quickly by Vancouver standards and we get a taxi home.
While it is a late arrival its good to be back home. First thing I check is to ensure each wine bottle, cherry liqeur and extra virgin olive oil is not broken and we have a perfect record.
Hope you enjoyed our blog!
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