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Sunrise, Sunset – Trading Northwest Mountain Sunrise for Atlantic Ocean Sunset

Our first visit last October went so well that we couldn’t wait to get back here. So, we booked a flight for Lisbon and an Airbnb in Lagos. Lagos was the place we fell in love with last year and we wanted to return to check out the real estate options. However, we started to question our choice of living down south without first exploring places closer to Lisbon, such as Cascais, Sesimbra and Ericeira.

 I kept shortening our Lagos reservation until it was down to zero. Unfortunately, each time I shortened it I was penalized 50% until I had wasted $300 due to my impulsiveness! There are plenty of places available in March so I really didn’t have to reserve so far in advance. I could have found bargains practically any time. Also, I should have considered the refund policies more carefully. Not all places have such strict policies as this one. Expensive lesson learned!

Unfortunately, that wasn’t my last expensive lesson this trip. I was carrying about $200 in cash which disappeared somewhere in the Dublin airport. No, I wasn’t pickpocketed. I’m 90% sure that it fell out of my money belt one of the many times I was taking out my passport to show to some official. My wife, Cathy, is 90% sure that I left it in my wallet at home and it never even made it into my belt. She has no factual basis to think that. She is just annoyingly optimistic about everything in general. This time, I hope she is annoyingly right.

Plan Ahead

We planned this trip well in advance, shortly after returning from our last trip back in October, which was partly the reason why I made the mistake with Airbnb. Another thing that happened was that they changed one of the legs of our flight. This was totally unnecessary because our original flight was still available and more convenient.

Unfortunately, I hadn’t noticed the email stating the change back in November so when I tried to change it back in March it was too late. However, because I was on the phone with Travelocity for three hours, they offered me a $200 voucher for my inconvenience, without my asking! I love Travelocity. We used that voucher for two nights in Porto, which I will discuss in my next blog.

We spent the first night in an Airbnb near the Lisbon Airport. Small but conveniently located. The owner came and picked us up at the airport, which was also convenient. We will also spend the last night there and he will drive us to the airport. He charges 25 euros round-trip but it’s worth it. The guy’s making a killing, actually, when you consider that he gets 60 euros a night for a tiny room and he has lots of them.

Renting a Car from Auto Europe

We rented a car this time and we’re very glad that we did. Decided to pick it up after our first night rather than at the airport. I didn’t want to deal with that after a 17-hour flight. A two-week rental is only costing us $300 from autoeurope.com and that includes full insurance coverage with zero deductible. You would pay that same amount for four days rental in Hawaii and NO insurance.

While I am not thoroughly impressed with Portugal’s train system when compared to other European countries, their highway system is second to none. Somewhere, it was even voted number one. I don’t know by whom. Maybe the Portuguese Tourism Authority. Regardless, it is well deserved. Most of the time, we felt like we had the roads almost entirely to ourselves. That is in stark contrast to the cities, such as Lisbon and Porto, where the roundabouts alone seem to be designed to give you a heart attack.

One downside to the highways, though, are the tolls. We passed through many and I don’t know how much they cost us because our credit card still hasn’t been charged a couple of weeks after returning the car. Still, we had the option of taking the back roads but with the price of gas between $6 and $7 a gallon (about 1.50 euro per liter), the tolls appear to be cheaper (toll charges finally came through at $76 so maybe it’s a tossup).

Arriving in Ericeira – World Surfing Reserve

After spending three nights in wonderful Cascais, which I will discuss in my next blog (including our nefarious encounter with the Gypsy woman), we headed to Ericeira. Upon arriving at Ericeira’s coastline, the first thing we noticed was how uncrowded it was compared with Cascais. Granted, it was a lovely Sunday morning and most people were still sleeping but still, it had a peaceful feeling that immediately had a relaxing effect on us. There were a few surfers in the parking lot putting on their wetsuits. One had crawled out of his van, apparently having spent the night in it.

There was a cellphone tower in the town square allowing free wifi. That was an inviting touch. And we didn’t have to search too far for a public restroom. Surfers were already out in the water even though the waves were only three to four feet. Ericeira is a world surfing reserve and surfers come from all over the world to enjoy it. There are three main beaches and we found several other beautiful beaches up and down the coast.

Buying an Apartment in Ericeira

Over the course of the week, we grew more and more in love with Ericeira. So much so that we decided that this was where we wanted to live, and we met with an amazing Realtor who showed us around until we settled on a new apartment that hadn’t begun construction yet. We loved the location; the plans checked all the boxes we were looking for. We even met with the builder and checked out one of his other units that he had recently built.

Was it within our budget? Well, it depends which budget. Our ideal budget had us using the equity from our home to purchase an apartment outright. And we found that and felt proud of ourselves. However, the duplex apartment available on floor above ours was bigger and will have a better view. But it’s about $100,000 more. What are we to do? What we’ve always done in this situation. Extend ourselves, of course, because that’s the way we roll! You only live once, right?

Now that we felt confident in our selection of a permanent location and a future domicile, we thought that we would venture out to some of the surrounding villages and cities to see what else Portugal had to offer. We weren’t tempted to seek out another place to eventually live because we knew that we didn’t want to live further north. The half-hour drive to the airport from Ericeira was as far away as we wanted to be. In my next blog I will discuss the places we visited while using Ericeira as our home base.

Back in the USA after a Long Flight

We’re back! The flight was long and uncomfortable. The last leg, Jet Blue from JFK to PDX was a major disappointment. It was a “pinkeye” flight. Not exactly a redeye but late enough where we would like to catch a few winks. My wife and I were not seated together. I guess five months advance notice wasn’t good enough for them. Or maybe it was because we didn’t pay extortion fees for premium seats. I complained about that and received a $50 per person credit to be used only on Jetblue.com. I’m sure I’ll never use it.

Regardless, we both had center seats with seatmates from hell. Mine was the only one using her overhead halogen light, which burned as bright as a thousand suns. I asked her, seeing as that she was using her laptop with illuminated keys so the overhead became rather unnecessary, if she would mind switching off the overhead. She said that she was writing a book and falling asleep and the overhead light helped keep her awake. If she was falling asleep writing her book, then I can only imagine how exciting it would be reading it.

L’esprit de L’escalier

Anyway, I was speechless and thought of a dozen fabulous retorts the next day. I might write a book of retorts someday. The French actually have a word for it, l’esprit de l’escalier, or the wit of the staircase. It is the perfect retort you think of only after you reach the bottom of the staircase.

Fortunately, the kind man on the other side of me had extra eyeshades and he let me have a pair. Unfortunately, they weren’t adjustable, and I think they had been made for a Ken doll. They practically cut off the blood circulation to my brain. I never realized I had such a ginormous head.

Cathy, sitting in her middle seat, had her own ginormous person sitting next to her. Not just a ginormous head but an entire ginormous body which couldn’t fit into just one seat and who was forced to keep the armrest up for overflow.

We finally landed at one o’clock in the morning. Too late to bother a friend to pick us up. Clicked on Uber and they wanted $72 for a 22-mile ride. About the same as a taxi. Lyft came in at $36, exactly half. It felt good to finally arrive home with the thought of a comfy bed ahead of us.

Oh, almost forgot to mention, Cathy was right and the money that I thought I had lost in the Dublin airport was safe in my wallet all along. It was the first time that I can remember saying, “Yes, dear, I was wrong and you were right” and feeling good about it!