Landed in Lisboa, Portugal at 8:20am (3:20am EST). Didn’t really sleep much on the plane due to crappy seats and slight turbulence. After leaving the plane, we took a bus to the main terminal to get our bags. Walked behind an American couple on the way to the customs officer thinking that my wife hadn’t put any deodorant on only to discover that it was the couple in front of us. I made the comment to Annie that it was starting to smell like Portugal as she has told me so many times at home. After getting our passports stamped, we headed to pick up our baggage. Once again, we were hit with another unpleasant scent. This time, it was the smell of urine! Apparently people pee in the airport we thought! Fortunately, our bags were some of the first to arrive on the conveyor belt. Next step: rent our car! We walked past the area where people are waiting for clients, loved ones, etc. No one waiting for us, though. How sad. Waited in line at the car rental kiosk for almost 45 minutes. Only one woman working on a busy Monday morning. We finally got to her and rented our automatica Opel Corsa!

I step in and realize that it’s not completely an automatic. It works like American sports cars where you can shift gears even though it’s an automatic. It also doesn’t have a “Park” position so that threw me off for a minute or two. Next we were on the road. I handled my first European roundabout pretty well. The Garmin put us on our trip to Annie’s grandparents’ house to meet up with her parents and grandfather in the town of Bom Vento (“Good Wind”).

After we unloaded, Annie, her parents and I headed to Foz Do Arelho. There we ate at a little café where I had my first pistal nata which is a little custard tart. Annie and I shared a lemon torta and a galao (coffee with milk and then steamed). Foz Do Arelho is a small beach town typically full of tourists in the summer months. After our treat, we parked in front of a hotel and took photos of the beach. Having never been to the West coast, this was my first experience at a beach with cliffs and mountains. We drove on to a small commercial town called Caldas da Rainha and stopped in a Portuguese grocery store called E.Leclerc which was like a small version of Wal Mart. You could buy everything from a laptop to fresh octopus! After our shopping experience, we bought gas from the same store. I forgot that they measure gas in liters and not gallons. One liter of gas is about $5, so filling up the car cost about $70! And we complain about how much gas costs in the States!

We drove back to Annie’s grandparents’ house and had dinner. We fell asleep not long after. More exploring tomorrow!