And We're Off!

Early last year, I decided I wanted to start taking a month every year to live some place different.  As many of you know, I am a big fan of travel and all the things you learn about how other people live, other cultures, other places and yourself.  July is historically a time when my client does not host meetings and I am in the planning phase for the fall and winter so it is the perfect time to work extra remotely.  I am extremely fortunate to have a career that feeds my passion and equally blessed to work for a company that promotes self-care and supports me in my endeavors. 

Porto, Portugal is one of my favorite cities and the two weeks I spent there last year were just not enough so this year, I'll be working and playing here for a month.  LuLu has never been to Portugal so I thought it would be fun to show her around and also see the city for the first time through her eyes.  A little over a year ago, my friend Elaine moved to Porto and LuLu has been her PA back in Charleston so it was also the perfect time for LuLu to see her Portuguese daughter.

At the on-set, our trip was pretty simple...Charleston to JFK to Amsterdam to Lisbon and then a train to Porto.  Well normally the travel gods are with me but this time they decided to have a little fun with us.  Our layover at JFK ended up being almost 11 hours as KLM delayed our flight to Amsterdam.  Not a bit deal as we could easily change our train to Porto and I was able to get a room at a cool hotel in Lisbon for the night since we arrived too late to take a train.  While they re-routed our bodies as we were definitely going to miss our connection to Lisbon, they neglected to re-route our luggage.  If you don't have Apple Air Tags, get them!  Thanks to them, we didn't have to wait in baggage claim to find out our luggage didn't arrive and we could go straight to Ground Force to file a claim.

A long layover doesn't have to be boring thanks to the folks at the Delta Sky Club!

A couple more houses for my collection!  On KLM international legs, they give you a replica of a traditional Dutch house made of Dutch Delft.  They have 103 different houses (they're numbered so I keep a list in my phone to make sure I don't get a duplicate) so you can collect all of 103 of them.  I was talking with one of our flight attendants and saying I always look forward to them bringing the houses around at the end of the flight.  Well she noticed they had one of the coveted #103 (rarely are they offered) and when I woke up, it was sitting on my table!  Yet another reason I do love KLM...they have such amazing service.

After a great night's sleep (in spite of our lay flat seats, we only slept about 3 hours on the flight...got our second wind during the 11 hour layover so we were pretty wide awake on the flight), we took the train to Porto.  As an added bonus to our luggage not arriving with us, we didn't have to schlep it on the train or on the metro once we got to Porto.

We enjoyed the picnic breakfast our hotel packed for us.  When we return to Lisbon at the end of our trip, we're staying at 138 Liberdade Hotel so it worked out great we could stay there on our unexpected overnight in Lisbon. During check-in, I asked Jao what time we should leave for our 8AM train and he said 7:30A which meant we would miss breakfast service.  Without missing a beat, he immediately said "since you will miss breakfast, would you like us to pack a picnic breakfast for you"?  Talk about service!  I spend A LOT of time in hotels and never in my travels have I had such proactive service!

After meeting Elaine at the train station and dropping our backpacks off, we set out to do a little exploring before heading to the airport to get our wandering luggage.  Fortunately after a similar experience last year with my flight to Lisbon and stay in Porto, I knew the Ground Force routine at the Porto Airport!  I was excited for LuLu to experience the insanity of the Land of Lost Luggage as last year there were easily 1,000 bags in this giant room but imagine my surprise to see less than 100 bags there this year.  The good news is it only took us about 5 minutes to find our bags where as last year, it was easily 20 minutes after I was taken to the room and told "find".

With bags unpacked, groceries purchased and apartment in order, we were ready for another good night's sleep. Tomorrow we begin to explore!