By this stage in life you know who your real friends are, and the list is short. It's the second marriage for each of us: to repay some of those old favours we offer to treat 20 of our friends to a long weekend in another country. In the event, 15 are able to come.

This is the second half of the trip report which began here. [And yes the driverless bus is a true story.] Now with links to photos and hotel websites.

We have chosen Northen Portugal as the ideal destination for our weekend. We hire all the rooms in a Quinta, a former monastery converted into a sort of hotel owned by a British couple: Piers and Kate Gallie.

The Quinta has 40 acres of vineyards and is located on a hill just south of the town of Barcelos. Piers has made several arrangements for us including a 12-hour bus trip to the Douro district and Winegrowing areas. We will also visit the Mateus Palace with its splendid gardens.

Some of us will also go the 100 miles north to the pilgrimage of Santiago de Compostela

Or to the church of Steps in nearby Braga.

And of course to the city of Porto at the mouth of the Douro, famous for its Port-wine which is shipped in from the country in boats

But the highlight of the weekend is a garden-party in the courtyard of the Quinta where we are entertained by a Fadista singing Fado, the traditional bluesy Portuguese folk music.

The weekend turns out a huge success. The Douro landscape is stunning, the Douro wines and ports are marevllous, and the Fado singer was fantastic. Above all wherever we go we are treated like visitors, not tourists. That's why we chose Northern Portugal.

Nice trip report! Very nice way to reward & treat your close friends ^

It's a 20 mile journey from Oporto airport terminal to the car rental concession, if you miss the turning. We are sent around a spaghetti of freeways before getting the opportunity to turn back. But finally we can return the car and try to check in, only to find the flight cancelled.

We are told to join a long queue at a service-desk but I persuade the Star-gold checkin to simply check us in to the next flight. That's TP1967, some 4 hours later, but the TAP lounge is welcoming and my Star-gold card gets two of us in, the third person paying 19 euros, good value considering the quality and amount of port we got through.

Our friends who took the express train have arrived in Lisbon in under 3 hours, and are waiting outside the hotel. We all have to check in together, because...

...We are staying at the Pousada Dona Maria, formerly the Royal Palace and normally rather expensive. Pousada is the name for a hotel which is a converted palace or mansion, and this year the website offers a massive discount if you are aged over 60. We need 3 rooms and exactly 3 of our party are over 60, so the rooms are booked in their names.

And they do scan the passports when you check in to make sure you really are that old.

TP1967 is a 35 minute Airbus hop OPO-LIS, no time for food or drink. We sit in economy 11a,b,c and are quite comfortable.

Lisbon airport is less of a shambles than we had expected and soon we are outside our hotel in Queluz, tracking down a most enticing smell of grilling meat coming from a churrasceria over the road. It's a workers' cafe but the food is glorious, surely better than the two fashionable looking restaurants alongside, and we don't have the appetitie for the 19 course spectacular offered by the hotel.

A volcano rears up from the water and passes close to our wing.

We are in mid-Atlantic flying past the Canary islands on TP159 from Lisbon to Salvador, Brazil. A comfortable A330 with individual IFE and cheerful FAs. In 20H/K economy, seats thoughtfully preassigned at booking-time by TAP, it's a tight seat pitch but doesn't feel as bad as the knees-by-ears seating on last week's SQ326. Seatguru doesn't extend to TAP, seat 20G may have been better, an aisle seat with no-one in front. But we're glad to have a window and take pictures of Lisbon, Tenerife and Brazil.

Lunch is passable, chicken or pasta, with plentiful local wine and cheerful FA's. The aircraft is half-full - that is, the back half is full and not a soul in business, some 54 empty seats up front. We had earlier tried to upgrade, no way. Thankfully LIS-SSA is one of the shortest routes from Europe to Brazil, some 7 hours flight time.

We had set off from the Dona Maria Palace at 8am for our 10.15 departure, anticipating a schemozzle at LIS check-in after reading another FT report. Lisbon traffic is solid at that hour, so our cab took a detour using the ring-road-freeway and we made it comfortably before 9am.

No schemozzle at TAP check-in at LIS, less than 5 minutes wait at the Star-gold desk once we find the separate check-in area for Brazil flights. Security line long but moving quickly, through in 10 minutes. Pleasant breakfast at the TAP lounge, just a little crowded this Thursday morning. Set off for the gate around boarding-time....

..turn a corner to be confronted by a seething mass of people, it's the queue for passport-control. Seems LIS has about 10 flights departing to Brazil just now. The EC line on the far left [European passports] moves quickly, through in 5 minutes. But the "other" passports lines is very slow, a 30 minute wait with agitated families of Brazilians begging to push to the front.

Half-expecting to see the back of our plane disappearing, we heave a sign of relief as TP159 is delayed too. The first bus hasn't even left the gate. When the bus does come, it takes us on a scenic tour of Lisbon airport.

Our flight is uneventful but there's still a round of applause from the cabin as the plane lands smoothly in Salvador. The Brazilian customs-check is perfunctory, and we step out into the airport. Exchange some money at a booth in the arrivals-hall but may have done better to use the ATM at Banco-de-Brasil, at the far left-hand end of the terminal as you come out of the customs-area. We also purchase a taxi-voucher in the arrivals hall to avoid a rip-off. Though to be fair the cab-drivers we will meet in Brazil are all scrupulously honest.

We step outside into tropical sunshine and that intoxicating atmosphere unique to Brazil.

The battle with Varig is over, and we have lost.

Our round-world Star-Alliance ticket has 5 defunct Varig sectors. We're offered a refund for the whole round-world ticket, or we can pay for a reissue at the new higher price to route onto Varig's remaining flights - which doubtless will soon also be cancelled.

Neither of these options is helpful so we will skip the Amazon at Manaus, and instead enjoy longer in Salvador, where we are watching the sunset from the balcony of the Pousada Santo Antonia

Salvador is a wonderful holiday destination with its beaches, historic churches full of gold-leaf-ornaments, and wonderful food such as the Brazilian answer to hamburgers known as A'carraje, served by street vendors in billowing costumes. It's also the music capital of Brazil, where the African and South-American cultures meet.

The bay of Bahia (pronounced "BY-ear") is full of traditional boats and we find the harbour-front has more character than the ocean-side.

We are staying at the Pousada Redfish, a hotel in the historic centre of Salvador run by an Englishman, Charles Butler. The rooms are clean and well equipped, and the tropical breakfast is out-of-this-world. We demand the cook give us her recipe for the Pudim-cake and the pancakes, and she obliges.

Salvador's a great place for a honeymoon

Thanks to Varig's demise we are not flying back from Manaus via Brasilia today.

We hurry to reassure anxious family that we are still alive, because an aircraft operating that route has gone down.

Looks like the whole town is out to greet us. Once the nation's capital, Porto Seguro is now a remote community where our plane is the big event of the week.

Stranded by Varig we were forced to buy new tickets from Salvador to Rio, and the prices are a nasty surprise. The best we find is a meandering one-way fare of $250 on TAM, Brazil's domestic airline, via Porto Seguro and changing planes at Sao Paolo.

We arrive 90 minutes early for TAM check-in at SSA, where the desks are flight-specific, and there's already a line for our plane. Our heavy bags are checked without comment and we're assigned 18EF by the window on the first flight and 8AB by the window on the second for a good view coming in to Rio.

We have no lounge access in Salvador but there's a wonderful coffee-shop on arrivals-level, always a number of flight-crews there.

Security is perfunctory but we needn't have hurried. Boarding is DIY, that is you walk through the door and across the tarmac to your plane. And as TAM has a number of departures and arrivals around now, we must wait our turn to use the door. Hence our flight departs 30 minutes late, which becomes important later.

It's an A320, comfortable seat pitch rather spoiled by the pilot proudly announcing that TAM is to "improve" its fleet by cramming more rows of seats into its planes. Cheerful FAs but only tme for a quick drink then we are at Porto Seguro.

There's a rush for the exits, leaving only a handful of souls in the cabin for the next leg - oh no, that crowd wasn't here to greet us, they want to leave town, here's a wave of people coming across the tarmac. Somehow they all find seats and we set off for Sao Paolo.

We're watching Brazilian TV in a high-rise apartment in Sao Paolo. Inevitably, it's a soap opera. Nearly every apartment is watching this channel, we see as our plane weaves between the buildings towards the runway at CGH.

Good service, pleasant meal but some serious turbulence on this 90 minute flight. And the luxury of aerogates at Sao Paolo, as we gallop across to our connecting flight, due to leave Gate 4 in 1 minute.

"We got on the wrong plane", I mutter as we shuffle towards our seats 8AB which are occupied, in fact the plane is almost full.

CGH Congonhas, pronounced "Con gone? Yass", is a queer airport where you can just walk on the planes without a boarding-pass. With no connect-time left, we rush aboard. Not a GA in sight and no visible FA on the plane. But a helpful Portuguese businessman in an aisle seat assures us yes this is our flight number, and it's "Free" seating. So we squeeze into the last two free (middle) seats 9B and 11E.

Ah, they do have FA's and we are offered a quick drink during the 40 minute Airbus shuttle to Rio.

The Nitteroy Bridge passes alarmingly close again as we approach SDU for the second time, after a go-around when the airport disappeared under a squall. Santos Dumont is Rio's second airport, in the centre of the city. Thankfully the approach is over water, not between the buildings, but that pretty church on the water's edge has been lucky to survive.

De-planing is a slow process as each passenger is handed an umbrella for the walk across the tarmac through the driving rain.

Convinced our baggage will be on the next flight, we take time to examine the three taxi booths which are marked red, green and blue. We randomly choose the green booth to buy a coupon and later hit the jackpot when we find a line of green cabs waiting outside, while a crowd of people waving red and blue vouchers are stumbling around in the rain outside the terminal. Best of all, our baggage has made the 5-minute connection and is delivered promptly.

Our dream has come true, we are here in Rio de Janiero , which will live up to all our expectations.

The boys in the band say goodbye as we make our way to the airport. Rio :-: :-: :-: has been as spectacular and magical as promised.

We have stayed first in the Meridien at Copacabana beach, nice enough but very busy. Wonderful breakfasts in the paderia coffee shop up the street. Then we moved to the Arpoador Inn in neighbouring Ipanema, absolute-beachfront location with the sound of the waves breaking outside your window, the only downside is the slamming doors of neighbouring rooms.

We wave a tearful goodbye to Ipanema, and the as the cab approaches GIG a disagreeable smell floats over from the favelas. Not the cardboard cities we had expected, they're acres of tottering cheek-to-cheek brick shelters (photo). Despite the poverty there are many smiling faces.

The Varig terminal at GIG is a ghost town, made more poignant as each abandoned check-in counter displays a defunct Varig destination (eg "queue here for Brasilia"), and the sad notice-board (photo) is showing all the old Varig schedule with "cancelled" alongside every flight.

At the other end of the terminal, however, is a huddle of people, it's the UA check-in which proceeds smoothly. Security is a breeze. There appears to be a United RCC but FT has warned us off, anyway it seems to be behind its own assault-course of security. Whereas the Varig lounge is open, welcoming and unsuprisingly empty. They are glad to accept our Star Gold card entry..

We are in E+, 15AB on the short leg of the 767 plying IAD-GIG-GRU-IAD, 40 minutes in a near-empty economy cabin. No service during the flight but a drink and a sandwich before take-off, delayed due to a doorstep-bag-search as we enter the plane.

The same bumpy approach to Sao Paolo, and we are at Brazil's premier airport GRU where move straight to the UA connection for ORD.

Either we put on weight in Brazil, or the C seats are narrower in the 767 (later confirmed by seatguru.com). But they make up for this with an extravagant recline, so much so that I see what appears to be an emu-egg on my seat when I return from getting up during the night. On closer inspection it turns out to be the glistening bald head of the passenger in front, fully reclined.

6AB, good C seats in a full aircraft. Definitely better placed than F row 1, especially 1G, abutting the toilets and the galley and the all-night chatter of the FAs.

Friendly FAs including a sexy Swedish announcer but no Portuguese-speakers, rather a poor show for a Brazil flight and we frequently hear the FAs repeating themselves and shouting (in English) in the hope of being understood.

Taking bets between us whether the Pol Roger will be on, I am delighted to lose and we enjoy some fine Frrench champagne. ^ The rest of the C wines are woeful by comparison. Still, there's a pleasant meal preceded by warm nuts. One odd thing, throughout the journey we never see any Brazil-nuts. The crop must have failed this year.

That sinking feeling as you see that last bag come off the carousel, and it isn't yours. We are in ORD to wheel our suitcases through customs-control and transfer to our domestic flight. Two bags checked together at GIG, but only one made it here. The agent explains we must make a lost-bag report at our destination IAH. see this thread for more on bag-tracking confusion.

No line at passport-control at ORD this morning, and we make quick progress to Terminal 1 on the Skytrain. Join the security-line scrummage and then notice a separate priority line at the left hand end of the terminal; but it's not moving any faster then we are. Through in about 15 minutes and it's down to the iconic TUNNEL ^ , one of our favourite landmarks, and the wonderful neon-art is thankfully still functioning.

But we're missing that old computer-generated music. So for old times sake, we try to remember the tune and sing it ourselves - not that you could really call it a tune. We are in good voice and the bemused morning travellers hear our wordless, tuneless singing echoing up the tunnel, la-lee, parp-parp, beep, boop.

2AB uneventful, a lot of announcements from the purser in nasal New Jersey tones

A quiet Sunday afternoon 2pm at IAH, literally no-one waiting to check in at UA. By now we are a party of 3, with Grandma, and those of us who still have bags will check them through to the final destination, SYD, without objection despite the weights of cases laden with souvenirs: 62lb and 65lb.

Our assigned seats 2A,B,C have mysteriously turned into 1A,1B,2A and the promised Airbus is now a 737. This causes a shiver to run down the spine of my companion, an aeronautics-enthusiast who can recite a dozen cases of suspected rudder failure in 737s. I assure her Boeing must have fixed it by now, as they say this is the "workhorse of the skies" with millions of trouble-free miles since the last event.

As usual, no wait at IAH security, on time boarding and departure. ^ If only there were an RCC, and a few more flights, this would be a great UA airport.

Friendly FAs, drinks, but no meal, no nuts. Brand new Oct Hemispheres, we sign the United Voices page and soon we are descending into Denver.

As Grandma gets a glimpse of the mountains ahead of us, she closes her eyes and assumes a praying position. Climbing steeply to get over the Rockies, our 757 is heading for to LAX.

I wake from a doze to see a bulky lady standing over me saying "you'd really prefer the sausage-sandwich, wouldn't you". I acquiesce gracefully.

On-time departure, assigned seats 3A,B,C no problems. Real nuts this time too though not heated. One curious event, when the pilot comes out to take a leak the FAs stand by the cockpit and lower a sort of cage across the aisle. This gives the unfortunate impression that they (the FAs) are exhibits in a zoo.

4 minutes early at LAX, which we must pay for by standing for 4 minutes till a gate opens up. Then we can disembark and make our way to the RCC for our three hour layover.

Arriving, we prepare to confront the windowless faces of the RCC gorgons, but thankfully one dissolves into a human face and makes us all feel at home. Thank you Sharon Waller ^ , we hope you are on duty every time we visit the LAX RCC.