Day 1:
Arriving in Madrid
Day 2: Madrid to Toledo to Cordoba
Day 3: Cordoba to Granada
Day 4: Granada to Costa del Sol
Day 5: Costa del Sol
Day 6: Costa del Sol to Gibraltar to Seville
Day 7: Seville
Day 8: Seville to Lisbon
Day 9: Lisbon
Day 10: Lisbon to Salamanca
Day 11: Salamanca to Madrid
Day 12: Madrid
Day 13: Madrid (extra day after tour ends)
The Toronto Reunion (plus additional links)
Sign my Guestbook
View my Guestbook
The aquaduct at Elvas
The view from my 10th floor hotel room in Lisbon
The Fado dinner
Monday, September 4, 2000
We were on the bus soon after breakfast, and on our way into Portugal. This was to be one of our longer days on the bus, although it would be broken up with a few short stops along the way. We made a quick stop about 2 hours into the drive for coffee and anyone needing to use the WC. We then made another stop in Elvas to see a 16th century aquaduct "because it's in the brochure", Jacquie told us. To get a good view and picture of it, we had to walk up a hill that got steeper as we reached the top. Many didn't even bother to walk more than three feet away from the bus, while some gave up halfway up the hill. We then continued on for about 45 minutes until we crossed the Spain/Portugal border. There were no border guards, no customs, just a sign to welcome us to Portugal. We stopped off at a restaurant/convenience store, where we dropped in to exchange currency for Portuguese escudos. The exchange was conducted by some suspicious-looking guy in a small room marked "Private" at the back of the building. We didn't question this too much. We were giving money and getting money back, and that was all that mattered. Our only other opportunity to exchange money would be when we arrive in Lisbon. We made one last stop for lunch at a small strip mall with a supermarket and a restaurant. People immediately pointed out the bread was actually fresh in Portugal and not hard as rocks as we found just about everywhere in Spain. It was then back on the bus for another couple of hours drive into Portugal. During that time, Jacquie put in the bus VCR, There's Something About Mary to help pass the time in what was already a long day on the bus.
We finally got into Lisbon sometime around 4:00PM (we also changed time zones and had to set our watches back one hour) and checked into the Hotel Zurique. This was probably one of the worst hotels in terms of availability and speed of the elevators. Jacquie warned us beforehand about the line-ups for the elevators. Luckily, we were the only group that was checking in at the time, so it wasn't as bad as Jacquie described it. The oddest thing about the elevators were that there were no doors that moved with the elevator. As the elevator would go up or down, there would be a hole in the doorway where we would see the walls and the doors to the other floors moving by. Holly, without realizing the elevator was not entirely enclosed, was leaning back against where the door would be and I had to pull her in so her backpack would not be scraping along the walls as the elevator moved up. Most of our rooms were on the 9th and 10th floor, yet some did walk all the way up instead of taking the elevators. A few sneaky guys walked up to the next floor above and grabbed the elevator before it came down to the ground floor for the rest of us who were lined up.
Soon after checking into our rooms, a few of us met in the hotel lobby to wander around Lisbon for the few hours we had until our optional dinner. Our hotel was situated near the main street in Lisbon, so it was only a short walk to all the main shopping areas. We popped in and out of several stores, but never came out with anything. My initial impression of Lisbon is that it was much more spacious than the places we had visited in Spain so far. The buildings also looked slightly more modern. With nothing else to shop for and dinner looming ahead, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.
We gathered in the hotel lobby around 8:00PM, all nicely dressed, and boarded the bus to take us further into downtown Lisbon. The bus made an illegal stop in the middle of the road as we all quickly got off the bus and jaywalked across the street. Due to the one hour time change, it got darker earlier than what we experienced up until now. It was barely 8:30PM and the sun had already disappeared. We arrived at our restaurant and went up to the 2nd floor. There were 2 long tables in a room for all of us. We started with a few appetizers and then it was onto our main course of "fresh fish of the day", which ended up to be salmon. We were told beforehand ,when we were choosing our optional tours and meals, that it would be either salmon or swordfish; everyone had hoped we would get swordfish. However, the salmon was very good. Many had thought that this was the best dinner yet. At times during dinner, the lights were turned down and a curtain drawn in the doorway, as we were entertained by Fado melodies sung by various singers. The songs were very melodic and relaxing, and completely unintelligible to us, as they were sung in Portuguese. Again, the wine was unlimited, but it was not flowing as much as it was in Torremolinos. I had made the very bad mistake of taking Sudafed and Tylenol (I had a slight headache) just before dinner, and then mixing it with some wine.
After dessert, we left the restaurant to meet up with some who did not attend the dinner, with plans to head down to Docas ("The Docks"). Jacquie had suggested a nightclub called Cosmos down there. It was along the docks by the riverfront, along with several other nightclubs all in succession right next to each other. Outside were several patio tables as well. Each club played a different type of music. Cosmos was a little more "North American" and "English" while the other clubs played Spanish dance, salsa, house, etc. The best thing about the clubs was that there was no cover charge to get into any of them, so we would be hopping in and out of all the clubs throughout the night. Most of us started out at Cosmos but quickly migrated to the other clubs, bouncing around between them. The mix of alcohol, Sudafed and Tylenol in my system really did began to take effect. For one, I was feeling extremely tired, yet I was still moving about between the clubs and joining in the dancing with everyone else. As well, whenever a strobe light would flicker, I would black out for a split second (this occurred very often). Every once in while, we would also see someone wandering in and out of the clubs, pushing roses into our faces for us to buy them. Remembering what the ladies said back in Torremolinos (and I was also getting sick of this person shoving the flowers in my face every 15 minutes), I reached in my pocket and pulled out a bill, how much the denomination was I can't remember, just that it was worth five roses, in which I then gave a rose to each of the ladies from our group I was dancing with at the time. Coincidentally, the number of ladies around me equalled the number of roses I had got. But none of them were any of the ones who were at my table in Torremolinos either. Without much prodding, I got Roni onto the the floor to dance with the rest of us, and he was dancing up a storm. Apparently, he requires quite a lot of alcohol before he could be convinced to start dancing. (The same thing occurred in Seville, but I never witnessed it because I went back to the hotel before he got drunk enough.)
At one point, many of us took a rest from dancing, at the outside patio tables. While sitting down, I was passing in and out of sleep, my eyes closing and opening with my head bobbing up and down. At one point, Federico came right up to my face and clapped his hands right in front of me to wake me up. We also found one of our own with her head buried in a paper bag, obviously having had far too much liquid that night, with others consoling and bringing bottles of mineral water to help her flush her system out.
Taking a break in between club-hopping
Those of us who were not emptying their dinners into a paper bag eventually went back into the clubs for even more dancing. I hadn't had a drink in 3 hours, yet, the affect of the medication and the alcohol in my system continued to linger without any change in strength.
It was around 3:30AM when a large number of us decided to head back to our hotel. We hailed several taxis to take us all back to our hotel. Much of the time while in the back seat of the taxi, my stomach was heaving and my eyes were closed. I was told later that we had hit speeds of 120km/h in a 50km/h zone. So it may have been a good thing that I wasn't watching. We got back to the hotel and, due to the lack of speed of the elevators, we had to line up for them. I felt extremely close to passing out when an elevator finally arrived to take us up to our rooms on the 9th and 10th floors. When I entered my hotel room, I immediately felt nauseous and made a dash for the bathroom, but the feeling quickly went away. I even was able to muster enough energy for a quick shower before I fell into bed and was quickly asleep.
