October 13, 2021 – Lisbon

October 13, 3021 – Lisbon
To start, Thanks to all our friends at SRC that are following our trip. It is nice to get comments so we know someone is reading the blog,,
We went to bed at 9pm last night. I ended up waking at 3am but finally at 430am fell back asleep until 8am. Carolyn didn’t sleep much after waking at 3am.
After a good breakfast at the hotel, we packed up our bags. We went to the lobby to get a city map . I noticed that the woman in front of us in line had some Overseas Adventure Travel papers. Since she was speaking fluent Portuguese to the clerk, I decided that she was our tour guide, Sira. I introduced us and she gave us big hugs to welcome us. The receptionist said she had our new room ready just across the hall from our current room.
After moving to the new room, we went outside and started walking down Avenue Liberdad. This is a wide boulevard with trees and cafes in the center that goes to the center of town. We made it all the way to the Praca de Comercio, a plaza on the Targus Estuary. We could see the bridge that looks just like the Golden Gate bridge. We decided to stop and have lunch at one of the outdoor cafes on the plaza. After eating, we headed back to our hotel by taking the Metro. It was a comfortable and quick ride to the stop 2 blocks from our hotel.
We spent the afternoon resting and reading. At 5:30pm we met the rest of our group. There are only 8 of us. 2 couples and 2 friends and the 2 of us. Our group leader said she did a tour 2 weeks ago that had only 2 people. I guess many people are scared to travel.
After a short walk to learn where shops and ATM’s are near the hotel. Carolyn and I ate in our hotel restaurant. She had poached cod and I had Portugese steak with ham and fried egg. We each ordered a glass of wine and were surprised when the bill came that they cost 4 euro a glass. They were excellent wines too.
Early to bed again tonight. The tour starts tomorrow.