Well, I guess the Olmsteads took too long a break from Europe. We decided in the winter of 2018 that with a hot Austin summer rearing its head in the not too distant future, we would treat ourselves to a month’s long stay in one European country.  We have traveled to many European countries, but never to Portugal, so we didn’t waste too much time making the decision.  It did not hurt in our decision making process to know that Portugal is about 15 degrees cooler in the summer than Austin.

With my birthday coming up on July 13th, Clay informed me that for my birthday we would travel to Lisbon via NYC.  Listening to NPR, I had heard about a new Broadway musical called Hadestown that really appealed to me.  He bought us 2 tickets for Saturday night for my birthday.  We flew to NYC Saturday morning and planned to go see the musical Saturday night before flying on to Lisbon late the next evening.  As luck would have it, NYC experienced a major blackout from about 7:00pm to 11:00pm, and our plans were turned upside down.  Standing in line at 7:30 for the musical, parts of Manhattan went dark, including the venue for our show as well as our hotel, we later learned.

Extremely disappointed when they told us at 8:30pm that the show was canceled, we left for a bar and drank a few beers.  We reminded ourselves that this was not a major problem.  We are retired and in good health, so we should not let a minor setback ruin our only night in NYC.  We toasted to that, and by the time we left the bar, it was a little after 11:00pm and our hotel’s power was back on.

The very next day (July 14th) we left for Portugal with a transfer in Paris, and arrived in Lisbon jet lagged, but excited.   We were met by our soon to be discovered  perfect Abnb host.  Since we booked his apartment in Lisbon for a month, he had volunteered to pick us up at the airport.  Walking out of the airport there awaited our handsome middle aged host with a big smile on his face. I then received the first of which would be many – European style kisses from both men and women – one on each cheek.  I am liking Portugal already.

Wondering if the apartment would meet our expectations, we arrived and opened our front door to walk up a staircase to our 2nd floor apartment.  Photos below show our small, but functional apartment.  We have been here almost a week now and love the location (except for a noisy restaurant across the street).  It is in a great location in the Alfama district of Lisbon, which is the oldest district in the city.