Later this week, we fly to Portugal, for our first international flight since 2019, when we went to northern Italy for two weeks. In fact, since that trip, in September 2019, we had not been on an airplane of any type until our round trip flight to St. Louis early last month. Those flights went smoothly, but the process of checking in, checking out, checking in, checking out, checking was so different than what had become our vacation practice (getting in the car and turning the key – or pushing that starter button) that I did write a post about it the next day.

This time, it will be even more complicated, in that we are flying with one of our daughters and her family, including her two and one half year old son. And of course, we aren’t taking a two hour flight to St. Louis in the middle of the day, but an overnight flight to London and, following a couple of hours at Heathrow, a two and a half hour flight to Lisbon, followed by a 90 minute drive to our first destination. We hope the flights are on time, the entry into Portugal is not difficult, and the fellow who is to meet us at the airport Starbucks (an old Portuguese company, I am sure) will in fact be there with his “Hessel” sign and large van. And we hope that our luggage accompanies us all along the way. And we hope that some of us (the younger ones especially) get to sleep on the 7 hour flight to England.

The good news is that the hot European summer does not seem to be affecting Portugal – the highs during the time we are in the country should be between the upper 70s and lower 80s, with no rain. We are spending the first week with both of our daughters and their families (the other daughter in fact is flying to Lisbon this Sunday to get a little extra beach time in on the Algarve) in a large house in Foz do Arehlo, about half way up the coast. I just checked the weather there now (about 6 p.m.) and it is 71. Fahrenheit.

Then we are spending four or five days in a condo in Lisbon owned by a friend who has graciously given us a key (not yet) and promised us the sheets will be clean. This will just be four of us (except for the first night). On the 9th, we fly home, this time going directly to Philadelphia and then a quick hop to National Airport.

The condo is in a close in residential neighborhood where there are a lot of restaurants and parks, and where the terrain is relatively flat. We won’t have a car there, so Uber and trolley it will be. The bad news in Lisbon is that it is International Catholic Youth Day (it’s called something like that) and it attracts thousands and thousands and thousands of young folk, and one Pope, so Lisbon may be in a state of standstill. We shall find out.

No one in our group but me have ever been to Portugal, and I haven’t been there for 51 years. I assume I will no longer see farmers taking their crops to market in primitive carts pulled by oxen, and I will no longer see women walking by the side of the road with goods they are carrying piled on their heads, and that every woman over the age of 50 won’t be wearing long black mourning clothes. I assume that the historic part of Lisbon will be just as attractive, that the views from the city over the Tagus will be just as breathtaking, and that once again I may miss Sintra.

I assume that the fishermen in Nazare will not be as picaresque, and that I will no longer be chased by a very angry dog in Obidos. I will also miss the Algarve, where the church bells at Albuferia kept me up all night, where the hotel desk staff asked me if I wanted to play soccer (futball) with them on the beach, where I got to see Prince Henry’s Navigation School and where I woke up in a hotel overlooking the Atlantic where all I could see out of my window was the Atlantic.

I am looking forward to the food – I will try not to replicate the day I decided to taste too many different varieties of port – I will try not to speak Spanish to the Portuguese again (although my Spanish and Portuguese are equally non-existent) – and I hope I won’t meet an old Nazi on the beach as I did 51 years ago.

Whatever happens – you will probably hear about it.