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Wow! What a trip! I am sure most of you have heard the story of our adventurous journey to Portugal, but for those who have not, enjoy!
Emily took us to the airport bright and early Friday morning. Our flight left at 6:36 and so we got there about an hour or so early. It was slow moving, but we left the Boise airport with no problems and were on our way. Our flight plan was to fly from Boise to Denver, Denver to Newark, and Newark to Portugal. At each airport we had a couple of hours of layovers to ensure we make our next flight. When we arrived in Denver, we immediately checked the board to verify we were on-time and all was good. Well, guess what, our flight had been pushed back an hour. So instead of leaving at 11:00, we were now scheduled to leave at 12:00, no big deal. So we went and had breakfast and took a tour of the airport. We continued to check our flight time and it seemed like every time we looked, our flight had been pushed back 20 min., an hour, now two hours. We started to worry a little about making our next flight and so we went and checked in at the United desk. The lady that helped us was very nice, she reassured us that we would probably make our original flight, but if by chance she didn't, there was a Continental flight leaving at 8:15 that we could make. She put our minds at ease and we were just anxious to leave the Denver airport. After about 5 hours of passing the time, our flight was able to leave Denver and head to Newark.
As we sat on the plane on our way to Newark, we started to get nervous that we may not even make our flight at 8:15. It was almost 7:30 and we were just barely landing in Newark. When we landed, the pilot ask that all those needing to catch an international flight, be allowed to leave the plane first. During this, we met another that was actually heading to Portugal with us. What a relief! As we got off the plane we realized what a huge airport we were in. There were three different terminals and you had to take an airtrain to get to each one. Our original flight was to be with Air Portugal, terminal B. We headed there with the other couple to check in. When we got to the check-in we handed the attendant the ticket we had received in Denver. The gentleman helping us started checking us in and then realized that we had been transferred to Continental and told us we needed to check in with them. He told us to look for anyone in a red jacket and they would expedite us through so that we could make our flight. Sounded easy enough. Caleb and I took off running, because, of course, Continental was at a different terminal. We got on the airtrain and headed to terminal C. Once we got to terminal C we rushed to find the Continental check-in. A nice young man printed us off "tickets" and sent us on to security. When we arrived at security there was a long line, but there were also to people in red jackets. Caleb ran to them, begged for them to let us through quickly so that we could make our flight. Well, they were not helpful and we had to stand in line just like everyone else. It is now about 8:10 and we finally make it through security. Caleb grabs his shoes and a carry-on bag and takes off to our gate. I gathered up our remaining belongings and began running right after him. As the story continues you will see that nothing could be easy. The gate numbers started at 54 and we needed gate 36 which was at the other end of this terminal. Caleb runs until he reaches the Continental desk. And with much relief, they are still boarding the plane! Yeah!!! I catch up with Caleb and we hand all of our ticket information to someone who prints us seat numbers. He starts to hand them to us and then asks his manager to double check what he had done. It turned out that we did not have tickets for this Continental flight. We began to explain how in Denver we were told to catch this flight if we missed our original flight. The lady then asked for our tickets. We handed her everything we had been given and she continued to tell us that we had not tickets. We again reiterated to her the situation, but she would not let us board the plane with out tickets. We called United, Air Portugal and neither were of any help to our situation. At this point Caleb is very upset and is arguing with the lady. I guess we were trying the good cop/bad cop routine and neither was working. So to make a long argument short, she would not let us on the plane, we were furious, and we were stuck in Newark.
After we cooled a little, we called the travel agency that was in charge of the trip. They informed us that there were two other couples that also missed the last flight and that she would go ahead and find us a room for the night. She told us that she had booked one of the other couples at the Hilton and would try to book us there also and she would call us back in 10 minutes to confirm. Ten minutes go by, 15 min., and still no call, so we called her. She told us that she was still trying to get things taken care of and to give her ten more minutes. Again, ten minutes go by, 15 min., and still no call. Again, we called her, no answer. We waited another ten minutes, called her, still no answer. We then called her back 3-4 more times and left her a message each time saying to call us back, let us know if we need to get a room, etc. Still no call back. It was now 11:00 and we had no idea what to do. So, we found one of those lovely helpers in the red jacket and he sent us downstairs to a board that had a list of hotels you could call that had shuttles to the airport.
Caleb began calling each of the more prominent hotels around. Every single one was booked. He then began calling the Holiday Inn, Best Western, etc., all booked. He finally got down to one called America's Best Value Inn and guess what, they had rooms! We soon found out why! The shuttle came and picked us up. She had Christian music playing and so we felt a little more at ease. The hotel was to be minutes away from the airport and it ended up being 20 min. As we got off the freeway we entered what we considered, the ghetto!!!! There were lots of people standing on the side of the road digging through garbage, there was graffiti everywhere, and there was a certain feeling of fear. We pulled up to the hotel and there was an iron gate all around. When you walked into the lobby, the hotel staff was placed behind a bullet proof glass with security cameras monitoring the entire building. We quickly paid for our room and became excited of the thought of a shower and a bed. As we found our way back
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Our flight left at 6:15 and we arrived in Portugal at 7:00 the next morning. There was a tour scheduled for that morning at 9:00 that we were hoping to make. By the time we got through customs it was 7:45 and all we had to get was our luggage, which Newark had promised us would be in Portugal with us. We watched the conveyor belt bring out every one's luggage but ours. Of course this would happen with the way things were going. We checked with the lost luggage and they said that there were some extra pieces, but she couldn't verify that they were ours and they would be coming out on another console. We waited anxiously praying that it would be our luggage. Guess what, it was ours!
We were now on our way to our hotel. It was now almost 8:30 and the tour left at 9:00. We rushed to our room, showered, put fresh clothes on and raced down to the bus just in time.
This began our vacation. We spent four days in Lisbon. Lisbon was a huge city and it was not very pretty. We went on some tours and everything that was worth seeing was about a 30 minute bus ride. We went and saw some castles in a local town on the first day, did a city tour of Lisbon another day, and then Caleb and I had a free day and we went walking around Lisbon.
On our fourth day, we flew to the island of Madeira. We stayed in the city of Funchal. When we first arrived in Madeira, we immediately went onto a bus that took us on a tour. We went to a
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you to get the toboggan going and then they would continue to speed up, slow down, brake, and etc. We rode in this toboggan clear down to the bottom of the hill.
After this we headed to our hotel and checked in. The hotel had an amazing view of the ocean and was definitely first class! We took a little nap and then got ready for our evening. We, again, went with the group to dinner. They took us, again, to the top of the island to an old home that had been made into a restaurant and winery. Every where we went they had wine before dinner, wine with dinner, and wine with dessert. Caleb and I always tried it, but still never
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The last day that we were in Madeira was a free day from tours or any other planned event. Caleb and I decided to go on a yacht out to watch dolphins and whales. The yacht held about 20 people. When we first got going, some of the ladies on the boat were taking some anti-motion pills. They asked if I would like one. I kindly said no thank you, thinking that this boat ride would be nothing compared to all the adventurous roller coaster riding. The boat ride was about an hour before we started to see anything. Right before we stopped to see the dolphins, I was starting to feel a little queasy, but thought I just need to breath and drink some water. We stopped and watched the dolphins for
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That evening we had a very nice dinner through the company as a farewell dinner. That ended our vacation. The next day, we were back to flying and were anxious to see the kids!
6 comments:
This is Madeira Island... I'm from Madeira. I hope you like this island. You must go to the north, is beautifull, Santana, Porto Moniz. :)
Hey Kim-
What an adventure!!! I hadn't heard about it. Blogging is a great way to journal- my sister in law said blurb.com will publish it in a bound book for you when you are ready. So, you can kill two birds with one stone when you blog.
Crazy! I never heard the whole story, just bits and pieces. What fun! Airports suck! Oh, and your blog looks great. I might need a few pointers from the looks of it.
I just love that story. I could listen to it all day! It beats our "apartment" hotel any day!
Sounds like it was fun....once you got there. Was the water really that clear? You two always seem to have 'situations' like that for whatever reason.
Sounds like an exciting adventure! I found your blog on Angela's page. Hope you don't mind me adding your link on my page.
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