When we last met, Kathleen and I were sitting in the airport in Paris, waiting to board our flight to Lisboa (The Portuguese spelling–trying to be authentic). We were exhausted, tired, beat, worn out, and did I mention…exhausted. I wish I could tell you how we liked the flight from Paris to Lisboa, but I don’t have a clue. From the moment we got on the plane until five minutes before we got off, I was sound asleep. Well, as asleep as one can be in the seats that pass for Business Class on intra-Europe flights.

I am pretty sure I have mentioned it before, but intra-Europe flights don’t have Business or First Class seats. What they do have is a regular coach seat (these on Air France had the worst legroom I have ever experienced), three on each side of the aisle, with the middle seat left empty. That’s Business class. I only want a US domestic FC seat for my money, but I have never seen one. But in this case, it only meant I woke up enough to shift my legs to the other side of the seat in front of me before I went back to sleep again.

We got to Lisboa expecting to have to clear passport control, mainly because we had been told by our original Delta pilot that if we were just transiting between two flights, we would not go through passport control and customs and would do that at our final destination. It turns out he was WRONG! All that time spent waiting in line in Paris paid off. We got off the plane and kept walking, expecting to run into someone who would ask for our passports. But we never found them. We did find our luggage, and then our driver (who I had booked before we left home) from Welcome Pickups. They are all over Europe, and if the service we got here is any indication, I will be booking them a lot in the future. The cost was slightly more than a taxi or Uber, but it was so nice to be met by a friendly man with a sign that had your name, who helped you to the car, got you to the hotel and then walked you right to the front desk.

We are staying at the Hotel Portugal. They call themselves a “boutique hotel in the center of old Lisboa.” We learned about them from our good friend Mike Priesman, who stayed here a few years back when traveling with his son. If you want some great recommendations on anything travel-wise, go over to Mike’s website (click here) and find your destination. If Mike has been there and has stayed at a hotel, you can stay there and know it will be exactly as he has described it. This one certainly was—as were any of the ones he has recommended in the past.

The best part about this hotel is the location. Walking distance to just about any place you want to go. And if we can’t walk, it is within walking distance of almost every mode of transport we know of. A huge taxi line is a block away, and a big hop-on, hop-off bus stop, a trolley line, and a metro stop. All within 10 minutes of walking time. But there are lots of other reasons to stay here as well. They pass what I call the Big Three Hotel Test—lots of hot water, great water pressure and the included breakfast has superb coffee. I can put up with everything else, and this place has those and more—including a big shower, comfortable bed and the aforementioned breakfast. Our only quibble is intermittently poor WiFi. I’m working on this at 3:30 am today in the lobby, where the WiFi is awesome.

One of the things we loved when checking in was that the young lady at the front desk was beyond helpful in showing us directions to just about everything we wanted to see. She had maps for us with food recommendations and lots of great tips about where to go and what to see. She gave us a dinner recommendation that was only a few blocks away and told us the food would be great and the prices would not be “tourist prices.” She was right. Most of the people eating there were locals (the servers greeted many by name and knew their regular orders), and the food was wonderful. I had a superb octopus salad (regular readers aren’t surprised) and a dish called, “Portuguese fish and rice. So much great fish, so little time. This came in its own pot and was amazing. No way one person could eat it all, and I can’t begin to tell you how good it was. This restaurant easily passed the “Steve Test.” (If you eat in a restaurant while traveling, and that restaurant were near you once you got home, would you go there again?) If it were in Redmond, we would eat there weekly.

After a short walk back to the hotel, it was off to bed. The first night was not great (our only minor setback so far) as I had committed a big travel no-no and had not hydrated enough on our flights. This meant that I woke up in the middle of the night with a SPLITTING headache. Worst I have had in years. But after some Tylenol and lots of water, by the time I got up for my pre-dawn photo walk, I was feeling great. Crisis averted. Let this be a lesson to me—and to everyone who reads this—when you fly, drink a lot of water. One of my hardest conundrums when flying overnight is to balance the water intake with the number of times I have to use the facilities on the plane, interrupting my sleep. I went for sleep this time and paid for it later on. BTW: I also tried something different on this flight to help me sleep. It did get me a few hours of shut-eye (that would have been more if some tech-types sitting next to me hadn’t talked throughout the entire flight). I purposely did not have any alcohol, didn’t turn on the in-flight entertainment system, took my Kindle, and just read a book. I have to say it worked pretty well. May try it again in the future.

After that fun night, I was up for my usual pre-dawn photo walk. The photos I took on the walk are below. If it looks like the streets are wet, they are, and it’s from rain. But we never saw the rain. It rained again during breakfast, and we never saw them either. The weather here has been close to perfect since we got here. The highs are in the 60s and sunny, with the lows in the high 40s when I go out to walk just before sunup. I will take it. Speaking of pre-dawn photo walks, here are the pics I got yesterday morning (and a few from the night before). Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

When Lisboa decorates for Christmas…

…they go all out. Wait until you see my stuff from last night.

I took these from just outside the front door of where we ate dinner.

One of the many Christmas Markets around the old city.

Pre-dawn streets

The Santa Justa elevator.

Waiting for the trolley.

Here it comes!

Never had to stand and wait for a photo before.

This incredible monument (Arco Da Rua Augusta–R. Augusta 2) sits in front of a huge square that faces the river.

It is beautifully lit at night.

And if you were on this P&O cruise ship and awake that early, you could have seen it outside your window.

The waterfront is beautiful during the golden hour.

Even for this lonely gull.

Looking back at the square from the seawall.

Looking down to the sea.The bridge you see is likened to the Golden Gate.

Ah sunrise!

The big reason I get out of bed on vacation.

And it did not disappoint

A statue to echo the Christ statue in South America.

More of the bridge.

More of the square.

With some incredible skies.

And the famous Trolley 28 on my way back to the hotel.

I was originally going to give you our first full day in Lisbon, but I have only gotten to breakfast (which, as you can see from Kathleen’s smiling face), which was awesome. And there is so much more to tell about the food tour we did and the incredible Christmas decorations and Christmas markets that I need to make that an entirely different post. This trip is going to be tough blogging. Just too much to cover (on the first day) and no time to do it. It is a good thing I am back on my regular schedule of rising at 3:30 am (local time). But still, between processing photos and writing, this will take a while. So be prepared for me to be writing about Lisboa when we are actually in Prague (on Tuesday), writing about Prague when we are in Vienna, and finishing the entire trip sometime after we are home on the 18th. I hope you like it so far (the trip and the post) because there is much more to come.

I’ve got two places I like to be—Portugal is one. —Cliff Richard