This morning we woke up late. After a cup of coffee Poppy pulled up the computer and we all checked email/sent important last-minute messages (such as letting my Momma know where to meet us in the airport and when). When I finished emailing people Ahmee and Poppy were more than ready to go eat breakfast, so I hurried and got dressed to go down with them.
We ate breakfast again in the circular booths downstairs (me in the middle this time so Ahmee and Poppy didn't have such a hard time getting out), where we talked about what we were going to do that day. The first thing on our list was to take the rental car to the airport. After breakfast we went back upstairs to grab a few things (like the map and our purses) and then we went down to the car and drove to the aeroporto. It wasn't difficult turning in the car, and finding our bus wasn't difficult either (even if it did cause a bit of sweat on my part-I thought a cab would be better). We road back to our street where we went and took a look at the bull ring that was nearby. Under this bullring there was a mall. We enjoyed doing a bit of window shopping down there, but after about 45 minutes we needed to get back to the room so we could pack our things.
The idea was to consolidate all of the things we'd gotten into our suitcases and our carry-on's without inflicting damage (and also thinking about preventing damage) to the items. I had to move a few books and postcards (and other flat things) to the bottom of my suitcase and sort through the clothes I wanted to keep and the clothes I no longer cared about. I did this for every bag/container I have. Anything I will not use when I get back has been thrown away, thus making room for gifts and keepsakes. It didn't take me long to get everything into my suitcase and surprisingly enough I think I have more room in there than what I started out with (same goes for my pregnant backpack). I even had room in my suitcase for one of Ahmee's "black uglies" (aka: her black tennis shoes). I have room for more, but I think I might end up breaking things if I put too much more in there. I'm proud to say that I managed to do this packing in under an hour.
After we had everything packed I was hot from running around. I sat down for a minute, fanning myself, and then I pulled on my jacket, my coat, and my scarf. I then grabbed my purse as Ahmee was just finishing up putting on her things. Just as we were heading to walk out the door we got a phone call from the desk saying our tour had arrived and they were waiting for us. Perfect timing really. We were down there in less than 2 minutes after they gave us that call.
We went down, saw a woman in a black coat, and followed her out to the small tour bus where we hopped into the seats up front and showed her our vouchers. The bus went all around the city to different hotels, none of which had any people in them who wanted to take a tour. We stopped at the park in front of the Christmas tree to wait for other tourists and our tour guide. Several buses lined up and several tour guides got out and chatted with each other in the rain as we waited patiently on the bus. As we waited a couple came up and asked where their tour was. We ended up doing a musical chairs where we got out and went to another bus when they really needed to go to that bus and we needed to stay on. Once this was sorted out our tour guide came and stood on the bus with us and talked to us for a little bit. She told us there was another group of 13 that would be joining up with us.
This group of 13 arrived 10 minutes later. This group was a group of frenchmen who were having a guys trip out and who were (as Ahmee puts it) "all intent on having a good time". Each one of these men said Bonjour to us as they got on the bus, and each one of them smiled and talked to us (it's the thought that counts right?). Our tour guide's name was Paula and she was absolutely outstanding! Later we found out that she spoke Portuguese, English, French, Italian, Spanish, and a little bit of German. She told the men in the back that the tour would be done in English and in French, because the three of us at the front were English. The men acted surprised at this but definitely didn't complain.
We then commenced with the tour where we saw several different sections of town including: the April 25th Bridge, the Cristo (Christ statue), an example of the Manuel architecture (more ornate than the gothic), the tower outpost that had originally been in the middle of the river, the monument dedicated to the navigators (had a wonderful map of the world done in stone), the Church of Our Lady of the Sea (had the tombs of kings and of the great navigator Vasco De Gama and some pretty spectacular carvings), a restaurant where we ate killer pastels and where we had an excellent time talking to the Frenchmen (through Paula of course), the Alfama section (where everyone lived before the 15 century: Jews, Moors, rich, poor, etc.), an old palace that had tons of TNP bubbles in front of it and blue and white christmas lights decorating it, the elevators built to aid those who want to go to different levels, the shopping center, and the road that lead up to where we began except this time the tree was all lit up. After this the frenchmen got off the bus and the busdriver eased through traffic to get us to our hotel.
After this we went in, we emailed people, we ate dinner (had newbee's in training), and we came back upstairs where we got our last few things together and where I wrote this day. I have to apologize for the shortness of this blog, unfortunately I'm short on time: the sooner I get to bed the better able I'll be able to cope with getting up at four in the morning tomorrow. Tomorrow we'll be spending the whole day flying from one airport to the next and waiting in between until we finally get to Louisville. I'll have to write a short version of this day too.
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