October 15, 2013
Portugalia Airlines Barcelona - Oporto 1215p – 105p ERJ-145 Economy Class
TAP Portuguese Airlines Oporto - Lisbon 255p – 345p A319-100 Economy Class
Portuguese Railways Lisbon – Faro 600p – 910p Pendolino First Class
It was 9:30am when the bus dropped me off at the airport. I’d intentionally arrived a bit earlier than usual so that I could enjoy a bit of lounging at the Sala VIP Pau Casals. The fact that I’d seen reviews indicating this lounge was a 2013 winner in Priority Pass’s Lounge of the Year awards in addition to offering a decent continental breakfast with various cold cereals, fruit and a variety of breakfast breads also inspired my timing.
TAP Portugal doesn’t charge for your first piece of checked baggage. Better yet, the girl who checked me in allowed me to keep both my roll-a-board and my daypack with me, although the roll-a-board would have to be checked on the tarmac prior to boarding Portugalia’s little Jungle Jet.
Barcelona’s El Prat International Airport has one of the more attractive terminal buildings I’ve ever seen. Banners hanging here and there indicate the airport was awarded Best Airport in Southern Europe in 2011 and 2012. The terminal building is high, wide and bright with an abundance of attractive shops and restaurants. Like Frankfurt Airport however, getting anywhere involves a lot of walking.
Right, then, might as well get started. On to the lounge! I followed one sign, then another, and then another and another and another… well dammit, where IS it?! Finally, after about a quarter mile I finally came across a lounge sign with a sideways rather than a forward arrow. An escalator delivered me upstairs to the glass walled lounge. The receptionist checked me in and pointed out the buffet and the work stations. Each workstation actually had a computer monitor mounted on its desk but I was thankful to find the one desk that didn’t was still available. And what work would I be engaged in, you ask? Why – typing up this trip report, of course! As of that point I hadn’t even begun to describe my first flight on Emirates between Seattle and Dubai. At present, I’m sitting here on a rainy night in Edinburgh typing about what happened six days ago.
Later, another quarter mile hike delivered me to gate C-94 where Portugalia’s white, green and red Embraer jet awaited. This flight was totally full and I had been assigned seat 19A, a single seat in the very last row of the airplane. That’s right, back by the engines and up against the rear bulkhead. The seat did not recline. It was like air travel purgatory. And to think that just 24 hours ago I was being wined and dined like a plutocrat whilst sat in an Emirates First Class suite. Sigh…
From First to Worst
Other than that, this was a pretty nice flight. We encountered very little turbulence as we shot across the Iberian peninsula in just one hour and twenty-nine minutes. Along the way we were served a complimentary snack box containing a decently sized pork baguette and a small bottle of pear nectar. For a flight as short as this, that’s about as good as it gets. Especially if you’re back in 19A.
My hour and a half layover in Porto was spent in the attractive little ANA Lounge that offered complimentary cold beer, mixed nuts and finger sandwiches to tide me over while saving me from having to buy overpriced airport food. The airport terminal is an attractive collection of steel and glass and I found myself thinking that were I to ever suffer the misfortune of an extended flight delay, I would consider myself fortunate if it were to happen in this airport.
Boarding for my flight to Lisbon commenced at 2:30. Waiting at the gate was an Airbus A319 looking quite fetching in the attractive livery of TAP Portugal. Interestingly, the airplane was named for Portuguese Air Force General
Humberto Delgado. I was unaware that Portugal ever had an Air Force! Seating onboard the little Airbus was surprisingly spacious but as flight time down to Lisbon was a mere 35 minutes, service was limited to a smile from the pretty flight attendant doing the safety briefing beside me.
Final Into Lisbon
Lisbon’s Portela Airport is an older facility but it feels “good old” if there is such a thing. It feels… immediately comfortable, like slipping into a pair of old jeans. I liked the lighting and the architecture and from a practicality standpoint it was easy to find my way, in this case to the Men’s Room, a bottled water purchase and finally out to the Metro.
Three stops later I was alighting at Lisbon’s
Gare do Oriente – or East Station. Designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, it took five years to build and was completed in time for the Expo '98 World’s Fair. Its most stunning feature is a roof of glass and steel made to look like a forest of trees. It is an impressive structure, to say the least. The station serves about 75 million passengers per year which makes it about as busy as Grand Central Terminal in New York. Today it looked every bit as busy as I remember Grand Central being when I used to ride Penn Central’s Harlem Line into the city back in the early 1970s.
My destination today is Faro. There’s no particular reason for my having picked Faro as a destination other than I tend to favor those places that are out on the edges. With its location down at the far southern end of Portugal, Faro certainly fits the bill. Additionally it is at the very end of the main north-south rail line in Portugal and as any of you who’ve read my trip reports must surely know by now, I do enjoy a good train ride.
I had no problem booking my tickets on the Internet from Lisbon down to Faro. Comboios de Portugal, the main Portuguese railway company, has a very easy to use website. A First Class ticket for the three hour ride to Faro priced out at just €18.00 and included access to the fabulous CP Lounge.
That is to say the lounge at least sounded fabulous in CP’s online description. To wit:
The CP Lounge in Oriente is a pleasant place where waiting is no longer synonymous with wasting time. You’ll enjoy personalized service, information about CP products and services, arrival and departure times, air conditioning and an area for relaxing, reading and business meetings with TV, internet, daily papers and drinks.
Silly me! Based upon this description, I was expecting an airline style lounge with comfortable seating and a quiet, relaxed ambience. Alas, the reality of it was a glass walled room independent of the concrete station around it. The “area for relaxing, reading and business meetings” was actually a collection of plastic chairs and cushioned cubes to sit upon. There were a couple of small round tables better suited for cocktails than working upon. A soccer game blared from a TV mounted on the wall. Oh yeah, this was a good place for a business meeting – maybe if you were a gangster. The only “drinks” I saw available was a water cooler along the wall. At least the water it dispensed was cold. Other than that it was warmer inside the lounge than out in the station and, after waiting for the attendant to finish his smoke outside the lounge entrance, I asked about the air-conditioning. He replied that he’d have to get permission from an elderly couple sitting in a corner but then he made what seemed a very half-hearted effort to ask them. They ignored him. I bid the lounge guy so long and headed back out into the station where at least a cool breeze took some of the stickiness off the heat. I was doing just fine until a young beggar who certainly didn’t look or sound local approached with some song and dance about how he’d missed his train and didn’t have enough money for the extra fare of the new departure. I might have been willing to spot him a Euro or two until he added that he was just trying to get home to see his sick father. That and the fact that he didn’t have any baggage. His persistence forced me back into the lounge until departure time. Honestly, it was like something out of a bad movie.
The CP Lounge at Lisbon Station
Plush Seating in the CP Lounge
The equipment operating my service down to Faro this evening was the ubiquitous Pendolino high-speed tilting train. Built in Italy, these trains are used commonly throughout the U.K. and Europe. The tilting train technology, with a maximum tilt angle of 8°, allows the train to negotiate curves at higher speeds than conventional trains. The combination of the resulting high cornering velocity and the tilting movement of the cars help ensure a comfortable ride for the passengers. These trains are capable of speeds in the 120-130 mph range though I got the feeling we did most of the trip in the 60-80mph range.
Awaiting my Train on Platform 4 at Lisbon Station
The Pendolino arrives on Platform 4 at Lisbon Station
The sun was an hour or so from setting as we rolled south out of the city. I’m not much of a city guy but I really liked what I saw of Lisbon. The buildings, the river, the surrounding countryside – it all looked quite pretty. I’d like to come back here and spend a bit more time someday.
First Class Seating on The Pendolino
Seating in First Class offers a slightly wider seats configured 1-2 compared to the standard 2-2 arrangement in Economy. First Class customers are offered a "welcome kit" consisting of a drink, a newspaper and headsets that allow you to use the audio and video channels provided on the train. An overhead monitor showed our location and speed along with some intermittent Portuguese programming. The beverage cart made an appearance and I accepted a coffee. I was handed a tiny little paper cup no more than 2” high half filled with what I assume to be espresso. As coffee experiences go, it wasn’t very satisfying.
A hot airline style meal was available for €12.50 (about $17.00 USD) though it was possible to have pre-ordered it during the on-line reservation process for just €9.00. I saw one being prepared back in the kitchen area and it looked like most any economy class airline meal. I couldn’t see shelling out $17.00 for it so I ordered a €2.50 hamburger instead.
Overall, the ride was nice and the trip passed quickly. We pulled into Faro right on time and I walked about three blocks to my hotel. It was a humble little 2 star place called the Sol Algarve. Located down in old town Faro, away from the more touristy hotels, it was just perfect for my needs.
My Hotel – The Sol Algarve
My Humble Abode at The Sol Algarve
The View From my Luncheon Table at Lagos
The Old Railroad Station at Lagos
Over the next two days I strolled around the narrow streets of old town Faro, rode the local train out west to the seaside town of Lagos, dined at a couple of great local restaurants and cafes, enjoyed a tasty bottle of Madeira that I hope to find back home and rented a car for the pretty drive out to Seville, Spain. The great rate I got on the car rental however was offset by the exorbitant petrol prices I encountered. Coming in at €1.47 per litre, this worked out to about $7.60 USD per gallon. Prior to this, the most I’d ever paid for the equivalent of a gallon of gas was $7.20 out along the southern border of Australia’s Northern Territory while driving from Adelaide up to Alice Springs.