To Lisbon! (Thursday 3/23 and Friday 3/24)

We're spending the girls' Spring Break in Lisbon! We left today, Thursday 3/23. We were very sad to leave the pets, very worried about Farrah's happiness and Nutmeg's ability to do the ONE THING she has to do this week (eat hay and not cause a big emergency). We flew to Newark then got on our flight to London. We chose this flight because Andrew's miles got us first-class seats--each of us had our own pod, with a lie-flat bed. This was familiar territory for Andrew but novel for the rest of us. 

When we landed in London, we had a long layover in the United Polaris lounge, where we had some very nice food and snacks. Unfortunately, this is where our planning decisions were revealed to be hideously unwise, as Mom and Dad arrived in Lisbon many hours ahead of us and ran into all kinds of difficulties with our Air BnB. We did what we could from Heathrow, getting them an Uber and screaming at the Air BnB people over the phone, generally causing a ruckus. It turned out that the key DID work for the apartment, but Mom and Dad were trying the wrong apartment's door because of the difference in how Americans and Europeans think of the "first floor."

Our flight to Lisbon was delayed. At this point we'd spent all of Friday 3/24 in transit. What on earth were we thinking with this plan?! It's like we've never planned a trip before. Flying first class was lovely but not at the expense of an entire day of Lisbon. Just very very very bad priorities and planning. Rookie errors! And we're not travel rookies by any means!

We didn't end up getting to our apartment till well after midnight. It is a very old apartment building, not easy to navigate after traveling all day and arriving in the pitch dark and trying to carry heavy bags quietly up ancient stone stairs. Had we planned differently, we could have had the whole of Friday in Lisbon.

But! We will turn this trip around.