Off we go on the next adventure! We had all bags packed and ready to go the minute that Victoria got off her last ever elementary school bus drop off (and was hit by water balloons and water guns as her reward). Noelle was close to delirious since she stayed up all night finishing packing and getting the house in decent order, along with 3-4 other final volunteer duties at the school. I don’t know how she’s going to make it, but we loaded up our lyft car with our carryon bags and headed for the airport.
In typical Hodgson Adventure fashion, the trip started with some issues. I’m so used to just punching in “airport” and hitting go that I forgot to point it to the international terminal instead of domestic. I realized this on the way there and told the driver I actually needed the “international terminal” several times and he repeated it back to me several times and we nodded in agreement that we were all on the same page. Maybe this was this guy’s first trip to the international terminal, but it turned out he had no idea that these were separate things also. Luckily, I was paying attention during the ride as he was missing all of the correct exits, but eventually I took over and passed him the correct directions and we got there right on-time, 3 hours before departure. The line was pretty easy, and we made it to terminal very early, with a quick Mcdonald’s lunch to hold us over.
We’re flying Delta (fancy), with one stop in Amsterdam, with the final destination being Lisbon Portugal. It had been awhile since I’ve flown Delta internationally, and it was definitely a good choice. The dinner they served was very good (one chicken option, and one mushroom pasta), and seats were comfortable. Noelle did wave me down shortly after the flight started so I could watch a drama that had started to unfold with a Karen that took extreme offense to person in front of her that had the nerve of leaning his seat back. The delta flight attendants calmed her down and rest of the flight was uneventful. One person left their window open for some reason, which let you watch the sunset in sunrise. That was a very strange feeling because when you’re flying east, all of that is extremely accelerated. We went from sunset to sunrise, in what had to be ~2-3 hours. Victoria actually thought it was “the longest sunset ever” since she thought they were combined. Noone really slept that well – maybe 2-3 hours of uneasy naps with people constantly smacking into me walking up and down the aisles to the bathroom.
The Amsterdam airport was excellent – very clean with nice amenities. We chilled out for awhile in leather chairs and recharged devices, with a quick from the girls to one of the nicest starbucks they had ever seen. 2 hours before our flight, they route you through a custom’s check-in type place where they check your passport and ask you where you’re going before sending you on to the international terminal. One weird thing that they do that I’ve never seen is each airplane gate closes (and locks) their doors in between flights, and it doesn’t reopen until ~30 minutes before boarding. We were a bit confused when we took the elevator down to our gate, but found the closed glass doors and no way to go but go back up. We went back up, waited until gate open time, and went back down again
The second leg of the flight was through KMS and was only 2.5 hours. They did give a little dutch sandwich as the inflight snack that was whole wheat bread with some kind of cream cheese. Not bad. The girls slept a hard 2 hours straight and woke up once we landed. I believe this was the first time in my life that I got off the plane from rolling steps onto the tarmac.
The Lisbon airport was a bit more chaotic than the Amsterdam airport, but easy enough to navigate, with English language on every sign. KMS had requested that we check our bags, so we had a small stop at the “belts” to pickup the luggage. I have Google FI internet service, which is amazing because it just magically switches over and uses the international 5g Portugal internet without you having to do anything. I was the only one that had internet, but at least I had it! I don’t know what other people do – maybe get a SIM card and switch it out temporarily. No idea how people did these trips before the internet. Lisbon actually has really good coverage with Uber, so I decided to skip the challenge of car rental and driving in a new location and we were picked up by Francisco in an UberXL from the airport uber pickup area.
The ride was a little hectic. It was only 45 minutes but Lydia started having horrible stomach pains and was crying in the backseat miserable in the ~80 degree car. Our driver didn’t speak English, so the situation was a little bit hard to communicate. We tried to open the back windows and cool her down but she was very miserable the whole trip. Lisbon highways were kind of grungy looking, but the ride quickly got more beautiful with hilly views of the terracotta villages and ancient stone walls and buildings everywhere. The road got very curvy as we drive out towards the west coast, which didn’t help Lydia’s sick feeling any. Eventually we were dropped off at one of the most beautiful places that I’ve ever seen – Colares.
We’re staying at an Airbnb with an ocean view in Colares. I didn’t do a ton of research, but this place has to be some kind of historic landmark type area. Francisco dropped us off as close as he could get us, and we were immediately hit with the crazy view. Huge wall of stone that looks half man made, half carved by the sea that kind of looks like a castle used to be there, falling away to a beach with waves crashing. Looks like a good spot to hang out for a couple days…if I can find it.
I had the address, but the address took you to a clump of white houses with a bunch of stairs going up and down every which way. The Airbnb had sent me information that day with some pictures of the building to help with the navigation, which took me right there, but it was a bit unclear which was the right one. I checked the address again and it had a “12” in the address, so I thought maybe that meant building 12, so I went through the fenced in gate and found the lockbox that looked identical to the one in the picture. The only problem was the code they gave me for the lockbox didn’t work, which was strange. I went through some of the bottom of the instructions again and it had a picture that showed how the lockbox worked, along with a code. That code worked and I went and got the girls. and we went inside….we did have a problem though, since someone else’s stuff was in there. First we saw a pair of sneakers and sandals, then a bunch of stuff on the counter and we went in the bedroom we saw this:
Umm – it looks like there’s someone in our room… I quickly sent a message to the airbnb owner with some of these details. To their credit, they messaged me back very quickly and were quite confused themselves. I then read back up and started reading chat instructions from the top and realized that we’re actually staying in #10, not #12…whoops. It was actually the unit right above the one we just broke into. I quickly skedaddled out of there and locked the place back up and put the key back in the lockbox and got into our airbnb with the key.
I apologized to the airbnb owner and he responded with: “No problem! It happens! It could be worse. :)”. Yep – I’m very glad my neighbor wasn’t home!!!
The actual airbnb was great. Epic views out of every window with the sound of the ocean crashing in the background and everything we could need, including a surf board! Not sure if that’s supposed to be a decoration, but the girls probably want to try it out on those waves we’re seeing.
Everyone had 16 hours of travel stink on them so we all took turns taking showers. The bathroom had a big windowed door that went out onto a little patio, but no way to close that window off to the public. I was a little worried at first, but in the end I figured it’s Portugal – if nude beaches are ok, then it’s probably ok if someone gets a quick peek at me scrubbing down. I felt a million times better after a quick shower – even if the hot water ran out halfway through.
By the time we were showed up, we were all starting to feel a little starved, especially the girls who hadn’t a meal since the small breakfast from starbucks. I started looking around for places to eat and it looked like there were several very good options within walking distance, although most seemed to not be open for the season yet. One that looked really good was a place right on the water, but from the reviews, it sounded like you needed to have a reservation and all reservations were booked till monday (4 days from now). Oh well…there’s one other restaurant there that we could try that didn’t open for another hour. We threw on some decently nice clothes and went out for a walk.
We’re took the 3 minute walk through some ancient stone paths down the beach area, past the unbookable restuarant. It was a beautiful little beach with soft brownish sand and only a handful of people there taking pictures. The cliffs skyrocked up on both sides and there were huge (10 foot?) waves crashing right there. The girls tested the water and it was fairly frigid which stinks. Probably too cold to surf in unless we got wet suits. We heard that there are warm currents in other areas that keep the ocean other places of Portugal warmer, but definitely not here.
We started to walk back up since the other restaurant was about to open, but Noelle suggested we walk in the fancy unbookable restaurant and just ask to see if maybe somebody cancelled. I walked in and asked if anything was available and the host checked his computer and answered “maybe we’ll have something open up in 2026” with a smile then motioned us to follow him and SAT US. He actually sat us at one of the best tables with more of that epic view – probably best i’ve ever had for a meal. The Hodgson charm / luck continues to work!
The food was very good – probably not as good as the view, but still very tasty. The girls got steak kids meals with chips, Noelle got Shrimp Risotto and I got a local specialty – octopus. The octopus was very good – kind of tasted like steak to me. I offered the girls a bite and they all reused until I told them they could get a $50 souvenir if they tried it. Victoria was the first one to “bite” at the offer and actually liked it (or at least didn’t spit it out). Once Lydia saw the coast was clear, she also took a bite, making the dinner that much more expensive. We finished the meal with icecream and a chocolate cake. The chocolate cake was so good that I almost ordered a second piece. If you’re ever in Colares, check out Restaurante Azenhas do Mar.
After dinner, I convinced the family who was exhausted and begging for sleep to go on a quick hike up the stair pathway, which looked like it would have a crazy view of the sunset. They gave in and we made it to the top and the view definitely didn’t disappoint! We snapped a couple of pictures, but it was windy and a little chilly so we quickly ran back to the airbnb a full octopus heavier than we left it last. Sleep came quickly – I don’t even remember laying down. The trip starts in force tomorrow!
