All good things come to an end, and our stay in Portugal was no different. We had a fabulous time and plan on returning to do more exploration some day.
Before taking the high-speed train back to the Humberto Delgado Airport in Lisbon we squeezed in one last walk to the Pont Luis I bridge.
There were a bunch of Rabelo boats moored under the bridge that morning. They were the kind of boat which was used up until the 1960s to ship wine from the Douro Valley to the port “refineries” in Gaia.
On the way back to the hotel I bought my one and only souvenir1, a drawing of a Porto cat — who looked very much like Moose! — staring out a window overlooking the Douro River at some birds.
I could easily imagine Moose doing just that, assuming he lived in Porto. And who knows? Maybe someday he will.
Because our flight home left fairly early the next day, we stayed overnight at the Meliá Lisboa Aeroporto hotel2. It was quite nice and had a very good restaurant. Plus, it’s within walking distance of the airport…which turned out to be important because their free airport shuttle was not at all up to the task of shepherding all the travelers trying to get to the airport the next morning.
But that was the only negative about it. I definitely recommend you consider staying there if you need quick access to the airport.
1 thought on “Adeus, Portugal!”
Hi Mark- I enjoyed reading about your visit to Portugal. It’s on the bucket list of my wife and I. (one of our friends wants to move there, too) We spent 2 weeks in Apulia, Italy, in Sept. and had a fabulous time. Using our own itinerary, we stayed in 4 cities, enabling to do day trips in our car throughout the surrounding countryside. We were not disappointed! Take care!