August 2 – Lisbon, Portugal to Barcelona, Spain

bags made it!

Portuguese specialties

Weather – 21º first thing in the morning when we left Lisbon…lovely, 30º and moist when we arrived in Barcelona mid afternoon

Steps – 12,381

Just when I think I’m done with the ship, it sucks me back in. As the end of a vacation approaches my mind gets around being done with it – last night after we had our last drink and meal on the boat (until Christmas) we realized how much we enjoy it…mostly because of the staff.

Anyway…we’re not staying, some people were staying on for the next 12 days back to Rome – that would been great, but nope.

Today, the Pope’s arrival for the start of World Youth Day had us in a bit of a

pre-siesta snacks

tizzy. The ship advised that we get to the airport even earlier than normal, so did the airline. We planned to take a taxi or Uber to the airport, but with the Pope frenzy we looked into a confirmed private transfer – as time went on, these got booked up which tizzied us a bit more. We were leaving at 8, the airport is only a 15 min drive from the port and didn’t require driving through the city centre where the Pope action would be, so we figured we should be fine, but we didn’t know. We talked to someone from the ship who actually confirmed that we should be fine and guess what…we were! When we woke up and saw that there were a handful of Ubers hanging around the port I relaxed even more. 

moonlit Mediterranean

Sure enough, 15 minutes after getting in the Uber (the usual trouble of the Uber knowing where we actually are happens in Europe too), we were at the airport. If we hadn’t read about and been told about World Youth Day we’d never have known. There were certainly groups of 18, 19, and 20 year olds around, but probably not a lot more than usual. 

Anyway…security was a breeze and soon we were settled in the premium lounge thanks to Chris’ credit card with some refreshments. I hoped to try Pastel de nata in Portugal and I as able to here, just before leaving. Pastel de nata is a traditional Portuguese pastry - kind of like a custard tart. The crust is a flaky pastry almost like a croissant with a custard filling, some are sprinkled with cinnamon before baking (this one was)…very good, I’ll have  another some day. This was washed down with a white port – something I’ve had before, but not this trip. 

After a 90 min flight were back in Barcelona, unpacked, found our neighborhood Piggley-Wiggley for some snacks and had a siesta. Jamon flavoured chips were meh...they were chips, so I ate plenty, but they are no oyster omelet chips from Taiwan!

A late evening dinner followed by a walk along the moon lit Mediterranean and that was the day!