The start

Storyline: Winter 2025: Portugal and Spain

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For this trip we fly to Lisbon, take a train to Faro, one of our favourites, but where we’d only spend one night, and continue to Sevilla by bus the following morning. We’d spend a week there to fight off jetlag and acclimatize. Then we move to Ronda (our daughter is telling us we should have booked more time there), a week in Cordoba, a few days in Madrid (last time we were in Madrid was in 2016). A train will then take us to Vigo, just on north of the Northen tip of Portugal and about 100km south of the famous Santiago de Compostela. From Vigo we take a train to Porto. Our favorite! It’ll be the third consecutive February we’ll visit there. Finally, we’ll hop on a train to Lisbon from where we’ll fly back home. We love Lisbon too, but this time with the few Spanish cities, the month is full. And for travel insurance purposes we limit our travel to a month at a time.

Jan 13, 2025

The train for Faro departs from Oriente train station in Lisbon. Across from it is our frequented Vasco Da Gama shopping mall. From the airport we take a metro train three stops to Oriente, where we buy tickets for the 2pm train to Faro and cross the street to the mall.

First things first. We need SIM cards for our phones. We know where the Vodafone booth is, one level down from the street to the left. We buy our SIM cards; the staff activates them and off we are to the food court. Coffee and croissants, then buy sandwiches for the train, walk around for a while. More coffee… Until the time for our train comes.

The IC (intercity) train takes about three and a half hours. We arrived in Faro at sunset. First snapshot for the day. Hotel is not far from the train and bus stations. Checked in. I asked for a quiet room and quiet it was, the window facing a small alley.

Next thing – drinks and a bite to eat. There are many meal options around but we are tired and jetlagged. Alex checks the restaurant on the top floor of the hotel. Nice views from the (somewhat chilly) terrace. We sat at an indoor table as it was too cool outside for our jet-lagged bodies. Menu!? We could do better elsewhere.

Tapas and prix fixe menu. Their prix fixe menu (3 choices for each: appetizer, main and dessert) seemed overpriced but we shared one, and it was plenty. After having snacks at the airport before departure, being fed on the plane, had breakfast/lunch at Vasco da Gama mall, and having my sandwich in the train, we were more thirsty than hungry.

We spent a couple of hours enjoying our drinks (sangria for me and wine for Alex) and slowly munching the food. It was time for bed.

And then disaster struck. Suddenly my tummy was off and I guarded the toilets most of the night. It was obvious food poisoning, but not sure from what. Alex was OK.

We shared the restaurant food. We had the same meals in the airplane, I even skipped the breakfast there (a sliver of cake and yogurt)…

So could it be the egg sandwich I ate on the train? We’ll never know, but we have a three-and-a-half-hour bus ride to Sevilla in the morning. (Later we’d learn that there was a toilet on the bus, but it wasn’t visible). Luckily just when I needed to wake up, all settled down. I even managed to have my breakfast. Sumptuous buffet breakfast with tons of choices. Love the European breakfasts in the hotels. The choices they have are something we never see in North American hotels.

Shortly after breakfast we headed out for our bus. We’ll miss you, Faro. At the bus station Alex met an American guy who was checking it out. They’d take the same Flixbus bus in a few days but had heard that it is hard to find at the station. We bought our tickets online from Canada. Asking at the bus station was useless. They pointed out to a direction, but then what? Eventually I spotted a lady with a Flixbus green jacket and asked her. She pointed out to 2 spots and said we’d have to wait…

And so Alex continued chatting with the guy. (He was a retiree from rural Northern California, touring Europe for the winter. Asked me what I thought of the US election results. Not wanting to make a misstep, I didn’t answer but I’m sure he read my thoughts, and appeared to agree – A). We had our seats booked. In the meantime, I was finding and using the WC. Coming out of it, Alex was still chatting and told me the bus had not arrived yet… Hmmm, getting really close to departure time. I looked at a bus that had people lined up and boarding. I asked them and yes, they said, this was the bus to Sevilla. C’mon Alex, what are we waiting for. Apparently, he was waiting a green Flixbus and this was burgundy red with a different bus line’s name (codeshare for buses? – A)… and of course the Flixbus lady with the green jacket was next to it talking to passengers… Can this be your clue? (Not a mother so don’t have eyes in the back of my head. I’d seen the bus arrive but it wasn’t Flix green. Still … my mistake – A) In the end we boarded and off we went shortly after.

Crossing the border, the bus pulled into a special lane (somewhat before the actual border), pulled up all his blinds, stayed for a minute and then pulled back on the road. I guess there was a way for border control (In Schengen countries?? – A) to remotely see into the bus.

The bus driver was a bit on the rough side. Later on we found that it was a prerequisite for the job😊. The first and only stop before Sevilla was in Huelva. 2 minutes he shouted in Spanish. A guy got off, but then he returned. He had forgotten his notebook, map and the address he was going to in the seat. “No, no, Huelva… you said Huelva,” the bus driver shouted in Spanish, not letting him back in… He took his ticket and showed it to him… “see, Huelva… this is Huelva” and he point out to the board. Eventually someone from the bus translated. The bus driver then reluctantly waved the guy in to take his map, but kept the passenger’s backpack… just in case… That was probably the most entertaining part of the trip. In the meanwhile, Alex was getting messaged from our Sevilla host on the Booking app.

The previous day she had said that the cleaner would wait in the apartment and give us the key. But things had changed the last moment. We now had to take the key from a Turkish convenience store nearby. The caveat was – they close at 3:30PM. And our bus was delayed due to some roadwork congestion leaving Huelva. 30 min) …Google time… from the bus station to the Turkish bazar (that’s how they called their store. We rushed through the streets, Alex with Google maps in hand… Eventually we made it with time to spare and picked up the keys.