Hello!
(Trying a new font here; we’ll see how it goes!). Well…I’m fair to partly jet-lagged now, and the first thing I want to say is that we are really and truly here in Portugal – Evora, Portugal, to be exact, and it’s a beautiful sunny, spring day; gorgeous!
Getting here, however was truly an ordeal. I figure I’m going to have to write “War and Peace” to tell you about some of the worst 48 hours we have seen either individually or as a couple, ever. (Speaking of which, our 40th wedding anniversary is May 14! Ha! Who said it wouldn’t last?!). What we went through on Tuesday to get here – truly, it made me, the travel-any-where-any-time-any-place gal, say, honestly, I’m not sure that international travel is worth this! And those of you who know me well will really be surprised; I know I certainly was. Even the ever patient can-out-wait-any-airline-on-hold guy, Robert, was doubtful that we’d make it. So … to get War and Peace started, I will say that we have now been Covid-tested three times within four days at a total price of $778. And all six tests were negative. Why, do you ask? Well, that’s the tough part. I know that everyone knows how difficult these past Covid years have been to try go get straight answers to straight questions where it seems like you’re trying to hit a moving target. Today the answer is that, “But stay tuned, because tomorrow it will change”.
We know that returning to the U.S. would require Covid testing within 24 hours of departure, and I had purchased two iheart videoproctored test kits so that, unlike France, we wouldn’t be having to find a location to test in Portugal before our return. We’ll do it ourselves and have the information – on line - in 15 minutes to an hour. Of course that’s always interesting too!
However, getting IN to Portugal was the difficult part. Did we need a test or did we not? The U.S. Embassy was saying one thing. The Portugal tourist office was saying something else – and American Airlines had basically no information at all! Just “make sure you are ready for the country you want to visit, or we won’t let you on it our flight.” So, to be on the safe side, we got tested on Sunday afternoon at CVS looking at the 72 hours before departure window and a PCR test. Our appointments were at 3:30 PM and 3:40 PM that Sunday. Figuring, 72 hours, we were leaving for our trip on Wednesday at 12:35 PM for our Phoenix-Philadelphia leg to catch the Philadelphia-Lisbon flight to Portugal, that should cover it. Our results came back on Monday night, and we felt we were on way.
But wait! American Airlines uses something called Verifly now, to track Covid test results. We logged in, signed up, and then, 24 hours before our Phoenix flight, tried to get our boarding passes. Well … we couldn’t because it seems that CVS’ lab (Sonora Quest) had listed the time of the tests incorrectly! They said Robert’s test was taken at 12:35 pm and mine at 12:32 pm – so no boarding passes. Mine, at least would have been over the 72 hours – by 3 entire minutes! Ha! As it happened, we had to go to the Tucson airport anyway, to pick up our rental car to get us to Phoenix, so we checked with American Airlines counter personnel. To say they were no help at all is an understatement. They could NOT in any way help us, as Verifly is its own entity; they just took the results. So … back to CVS to see if we could get the errors corrected. No, but thanks anyway for the $139/each PCR tests.
With help from Kathy Spiller and Jay and Tommy Stramat, we were able to find two places who would do rapid antigen testing – oh, did I mention that it was now past 2 pm on Tuesday? Tommy knew of a place on Grant – and they were wonderful – who would do the testing quickly and free. Incredible! Cannot thank them enough! Okay! So, in an hour or so, we had two more negative Covid tests – but then came the big question. We still couldn’t log into Verify and get boarding passes – because apparently the clock starts ticking from the time you board your actual flight into the foreign country – that is, our departure time from Philadelphia, not Phoenix! But can you find that any place at all on line or on the phone? Nope, we couldn’t; but apparently that’s the “rule” … so, back to square one, as our flight from Philadelphia didn’t leave until 9:35 pm Philadelphia time – 6:35 pm Tucson time. We had the rapid antigen tests taken at 3:30 pm Tucson time – more than 24 hours!
At this point, we were both pretty discouraged. Jay and Tommy were absolute angels, as we were pretty depressed; we cannot thank them enough. So … to continue! It was at this time that I decided that enough was enough – we would close up the house, and get up to Phoenix Tuesday night (rather than leaving bright and early on Wednesday morning), overnight near the airport and get the tests done at the airport on Wednesday morning. So … (sorry for so many “so’s” but that’s what comes of writing War and Peace!). Fortunately, we had everything packed, so were able to get out of the house about 6:15 pm. The drive to Chandler (suburb of Phoenix) got us there about 8:15 pm. Had to make due with a Denny’s for dinner (Chandler closes fairly early!) which was fair to partly awful (and definitely no food pictures here!). I made it to bed by 10:30 pm and we were up at 5:30 am and on our way.
Tommy had sent us information about a testing place at PHX airport, and we had made reservations at 7:00 am even though they didn’t open until 8 am – so those spots both got magically changed to 8:00 am on our confirmation. We were waiting at the door of XpressCheck at 7:30 am. They opened promptly at 8 and we were the first in line – surprise! Very nice and competent staff and techs – and for the low, low price of $250 each, we got rapid PCR tests done. Results came in about half-an-hour, and down we went to American Airlines to check in and get boarding passes!
Well, to say that the gal checking us in surprised us, was an understatement. We hadn’t really looked at the first page of our tests at all – just grabbed them and ran – and the gate agent looks at them and says, “NO! These are inconclusive!” What?! She took our Covid cards, however, and gave us our boarding passes?! What? We don’t need a test? Well, we do, but … so back up to XpressCheck. Seems apparently this gal had never seen one of the test reports before – which, as XpressCheck said was interesting, as they are doing them all day long. There is one column that says: “Outcomes Positive, Negative, Inclusive”. Right next to that it says: “RESULT: NEGATIVE”. Oh, people, please, you’re making this up?! They weren’t, of course!
However, as we had our boarding passes, we headed to Gate A and guess what?! We were into the boarding area! We still had to wait about 3 hours for our flight, but on we went. As Robert said, the “real test” (no Covid-testing pun intended…) will come when we try to board in Philadelphia.
Flight was full, but I had a bulkhead aisle, and R was just behind me. Not bad, but my first shock came when it turns out this plane has NO video screens on it! What??? How can I watch movies all the way to Philly?? Well, seems I can watch them on my American Airlines App on my phone – but I needed wireless Blue-Tooth ear buds – and I had JUST received my Amazon-last-minute-delivered ear buds (with wires and no Blue Tooth) about 15 minutes before we left for Phoenix! But our iPhones have NO headphone jacks! Robert, ever the genius was able to get my lap-top out of our carry-on luggage so that I could watch “Marry Me” – which I absolutely LOVED, by the way.
Landed in Philly – American Airlines, Gate C23 … Having never flown into or out of Philly before, as we were walking – our new gate was A23 – folks, that would have been a very, very long walk for two fairly tired travelers – but somehow, someone was watching over us, and a cart actually stopped, turned around, and saved us the I’d estimate half-hour walk to our new gate. Got there about 20 minutes before they started boarding – had our passports checked and information reviewed – and we were, truly, actually, surprisingly, ON the plane!
We had booked American’s Premium Economy, and it was truly wonderful. We had two seats together – large roomy seats with actual footrests that came down, not one but TWO bathrooms to use, amenity kits including socks, sleep mask – remember the days when “mask” meant to sleep in??? – small handcream, toothbrush, tiny pen and even tinier tube of toothpaste, all hygienically sealed in a plastic bag with nice pillow and very large and comfortable blanket! Wow! And the even more surprising thing?! THEY HAD SCREENS!!! I could use my new ear buds after all!! And, last but not least, when we unrolled our normal “plastic-ware” bundle with dinner – there was actual METAL FLAT WARE – two KNIVES, for heaven’s sake, and two forks! Are we dreaming here, or what??
The flight was fine – a little over 6 hours, and we were landing in Lisbon. (True confessions: I did watch Marry Me again; really love the music, so of course it continues running through my mind constantly now…) Of course, as drama seemed to be the focus of our trip, there was also a medical emergency on the flight – a woman went down with (we found out later) very low blood pressure, and then they couldn’t get it stabilized. She was about two rows behind us and across the aisle, but two doctors answered the call for medical assistance, and they - plus the flight attendants and purser - were extremely responsive and capable. Very impressive! There was one extra seat on the entire plane – it was the one in front of me – and they moved another passenger into it, so that the woman could lie down next to her husband (3 seats across). The ambulance was waiting when we landed in Lisbon, and they sent the passengers down the steps (no jetways, apparently) while the medical personnel came in the back door.
Onto the bus, and the bus ride from the plane to the terminal was so long we thought we were going to get out in Spain … and into the customs/immigration hall. Here, the line was almost an hour long, but it moved quickly, it wasn’t too warm inside (although some ceiling fans could be put to good use) and “Welcome to Portugal, we hope you have a wonderful time! Obrigada!”
We’d made it. (Maybe I should try getting paid by the word…) We found our rental car person (the cars are at an off-site location) exactly where she was supposed to be – in the arrivals hall, between a Vodaphone booth and Ola Ice Cream. Waited about 10 minutes for the shuttle to come – the nice meeting-gal put us aboard, and when the driver took off – I mean TOOK OFF – I was thinking, all that time and $$ and we’re going to die within the first TWO MINUTES on the road! However, somehow, Parnelli Jones (OLD American race-car driver; I am definitely showing my age!) got us to the location, and we had our car in about 15 minutes - no trouble at all - and there was the car! As the handsome young man was showing me the vehicle, I asked: “This IS a manual transmission, right???” He smiled and said “YES! Is that a problem??” NO, I’m saying, we WANT a manual, please!! He replies: “But most of your countrymen do NOT want …” Yeah, yeah, I said, but we do! Lovely white Isuzu – barely big enough to hold the 21-inch cases plus carry-ons, but we’ll manage! R got Emmy, our GPS hooked up and we were on the road.
While driving in any large city isn’t always fun, it was such a beautiful day – weather in the mid-60’s, sunny and puffy white clouds – could NOT have been better! We took “back” roads avoiding the toll roads – only because it was such a great day, and the countryside is stunning. Made it to Evora in about 2 hours – stopping along the way for cokes from McDonald’s and so that R could change into shorts and I could find my eye drops (dry eye) as flying these days is VERY dry! Also, a chance to clean my sunglasses, as they were their usual crusted self!
Got to Evora; the city walls are still incredible – and I realized that while there might be fewer tourists traveling in our normal “off-season”, things look SO much better in the sunshine! Found our beautiful hotel – Albergaria do Calvario easily – same lovely receptionist from our last visit pre-Covid. Our room – suite 23 was ready (thankfully!) and up we went. She confirmed that the cave tour that I had requested (but never heard back about) was on for 10:30 am tomorrow morning (yeah!!) and made dinner reservations for our favorite restaurant – will look up the name later (Bistro Barao) - with Miguel, who we loved last time for 6:45 pm.
R into the shower (oh, yes, first set up the computer and has Caltech work to do…) while I unpacked. Me, then, into bed about 3 pm hoping for about 2½ hours nap before shower and dinner … but after being up for something like 23½ hours, I could only sleep for an hour! R, bless his heart, fell asleep before his head even hit the pillow – and has now slept soundly through his phone alarm! I’m into the shower and then off to dinner and hopefully a little walking through Evora to share with you too!
Much love to all, and SO sorry to be so verbose – but it has been an event-filled, very frustrating couple of days!!
m
xxx
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