June 11 Tuesday Airport to Cascais
- Knock on adjoining door at 6:30 a.m.
- Shaina and Mo ready for included breakfast buffet
- Since now awake decide to join them
- We watch them eat
- Say goodbyes
- Fun having them with us
- Will miss them
- Now we have to take over being tour guides
- Enter elevator, push 7
- Nothing
- Can't get elevator to work
- Oh yeah, even at 6:30 a.m. it wants the swipe
- Ernie back to bed
- I try the deep tub soak, then back to bed
- Up again at 8.
- Breakfast buffet - this time we eat
- Back upstairs to pack, reduce, expand
- No car to throw stuff in
- Sorry big carrot and other food items
- Thank goodness for expansion zippers on suitcase
- Yesterday Mo had suggested I tape my ripping suitcase
- Ernie the Duck Tape King pulls out his handy roll and does the doing
- His moto - Never leave home without it
- Down just in time to get airport shuttle
- Look for metro entrance
- Up, no down, now over to car rental desk then left
- Add money to Green card at ticket office
- Ask for enough to Cascais then back to Lisbon
- Scan ticket and we are in
- Thru gate up escalator walk and walk then down escalator then down again but escalator broken - walk all around in search of elevator
- No luck - carry suitcases down steps
- Red Train to Almeda.
- In Almeda switch to Green train
- Green left, Green right but that means up
- More Steps
- Find elevator but broken.
- Up steps then up escalator
- Escalator has no steps, just a flat incline
- Suitcase rolls backwards
- Then steps down and elevator broken
- Finally reach Green, board train and sit
- At end of line. Go up elevator, have to exit metro
- Enter train station
- Scan ticket
- Nothing
- Try three times then switch gates
- Nothing
- Go to ticket machine to check ticket
- Someone there speaks perfect English
- Show our receipts and tickets
- You cannot put metro and train on same Green Card since different companies
- Once it is Metro Card it has to have zero balance before it can be Train Card
- Once it is a Train Card it has to have zero balance before it can be a Metro Card
- Apparently we bought a roundtrip Metro ticket!
- Lucky us we have Shaina and Mo's Green Cards
- Load those to Cascais
- 2.30 Euros each instead of 5 Euros because we are seniors
- Not possible to buy this ticket at airport - we get smarter everyday
- So we now have 2 roundtrip Green Card Train Cards to Cascais and 2 one ride Green Card Metro Cards - so 4 cards that look alike but act differently
- Mind boggling
- 40 minute ride to Cascais to relax.
- Ernie sees casino in Estoril on the way - wants to go but I think not
- Arrive, exit train station into rotary
- Walk around twice
- Finally locate our street by honing in on McDonald's
- One minute later we arrive Pergola House with it's beautiful entry garden.
- Back to step walking but only 38 this time with a small landing in the middle
- Bed and Breakfast run by 3 lovely women
- Given a free museum pass good for 24 hours
- Drop luggage and head to garden
- Perfect place to eat sandwiches we made at buffet breakfast
- Thank goodness for Ziplocs
- Eventually set out on walk
- Find a Palace we can tour tomorrow at 11:30 in English
- Big Marina
- Harley Davidson rally this weekend but many have already arrived
- St Anthony holiday is Thursday but Wednesday night they celebrate
- Walk around Castro House (using our museum pass) designed by Manini like in Sintra
- One guard opens a rope gate and lets us up to highest outside balcony.. Lots of steps on very narrow spiral staircase - looks out over the gardens
- Wander the gardens then end up at Casa Maria (museum pass) with views of square light house
- Continue walking along coastal road to Boca de Inferno
- Pretty cool spot but ocean to calm for full affect
- Now I just want to be back in our garden relaxing
- I want to Uber but Ernie insists we aren't too far away
- After a fairly long walk we are back
- Just in time for complimentary Tawny Port in garden
- Too tired to go far, we have dinner at a family place around the corner
- We order salads with shrimp
- Use the vinegar and oil that is on the table
- It is oil
- It is not vinegar
- It is hot sauce
- We are too embarrassed to return the food
- It tastes good except for the burning
- I wipe the tears, eat bread and drink water thru dinner
- Gelato for dessert at Santini on the way back - I really miss Sicilian Gelato