Okay, another of my morning posts: Vitor, how can you be a photography purist - you were using a digital camera!

cloygirl - I'm sorry, your question evadad my attention until now. Day trips south? Well you can actually take the train to Faro for a few hours for lunch. However a long way to go: I suggest Evora as a must and there is more than enough to do in a day. Or perhaps Obidos, I know not south but wort seeing if you have time. Are you wanting beaches or old towns?

Matt

Nancy, why do you have to leave? Keep reading and posting. You are a full right member of the LDC family.
Cloy, if you like old towns, Evora is the place. traveling by bus should take a little more than 1 hour.

Lobo, I'm thinking tonight has to involve Sardines and wine before the castle, a traditional Alfama meal. Of course that depends on whether or not Barb likes fish.

Call me when you are close, until later,

Matt

Matt, I was thinking about a "tasca" with "pestiscos". Wheather or not Barbara and DH like sardines, we might have as well bifanas or grilled febras. Hopefuly we may find octopus salad, pig ears salad, moelas (chicken stomachs) and other delicatessen.

Lobo, there's a strike on the ferries today, ending at 8.30pm so we'll have to drive over to Cais do Sodre and park there - I hope that Barb is staying on that side of the river and not this...

Matt

Matt, I'm dealing with some problems with logistics too. Anyway I hope to park the mule in Praça do Municipio (City Hall) by 06:50pm. If I'm delayed, I'll let you know.

Nancy and Meyer. You will post a trip report here and people will ask you questions for their trips and you can stay forever!

Hi Sher,
Have just been waiting for my head to clear before I wrote you about Economy.com rental cars.

Unfortunately, my report is not a good one. We took the bus to Faro from Seville and called the Lisbon number when we got there. They told us to go to the airport and look for the Thrifty sign. We did that and couldn't find them anywhere. Lots of people holding lots of signs for cars and other things but no Thrifty. We asked around and no one knew anything about them. So after about 15 minutes we were fed up and went to the Europcar desk and rented a car in about four minutes. It cost us 160 euros for four days, which we didn't think was too bad. We called the Lisbon number back and told them we couldn't find the Thrifty guy and rented another car. She said he was there and looking for us. We actually saw him as we were leaving, but decided to keep the Europcar. When we returned the car in Lisbon, we went right to Europcar with no problem; I didn't see any signs for either Economy or Thrifty, so I figured it would be more complicated to return the Thrifty car as well. Maybe this was a fluke but, given what happened to us, I wouldn't rent from them. Others have probably had better experiences.

And while I'm on the subject of difficulties...and this is NOT my trip report, because we had a great time...I wanted to warn everyone to BEWARE OF IBERIA!

Our flight from New York to Madrid was delayed 6 hours for mechanical reasons. That's understandable but, when they got another plane, it was not an airbus. Everyone with seats up to the 30s got on, and there were a lot of us left who were in seats 40 to whatever the end was. We asked them if we were all going to get on (how could we?) and they kept saying yes. They kept us standing for 45 minutes by the gate until they started calling people, seemingly randomly, to board. We got the last two seats and there were plenty of people left behind us.

But that's not all. Coming home, we arrived at the Madrid airport two hours ahead of time. Waited in line 45 minutes to check in. When we got to the desk they told us the plane was full and handed us a standby card and told us to go to another line! When I said we had made reservations three months ago, they said that didn't matter. It was first come, first served, and overbooking was legal.

So, we waited another 45 minutes or so in the standby line and finally got rerouted to New York with a connection to Chicago, which was our final destination. With delays and layovers in New York, we arrived in Chicago at midnight when we had been scheduled to arrive at 2pm. Needless to say, I would never fly Iberia again. And yes, there was compensation. When we got to that desk, after a long wait, Meyer got 600 Euros and I was told I was "not on the list" so I couldn't be paid. We had no time to argue with them, for by then our plane for New York was boarding. We intend to complain, etc. but I don't hold out much hope for the compensation. If anyone has had experience with that, please let me know.

I don't want to end on this note, because our trip was wonderful. I loved all the hotels we stayed in and happy to recommend them:

Washington, D.C. The Tabard Inn and Capitol Holiday Inn
Madrid: The Palace (won three nights from Luxury Link auctions) and Hotel Senator Gran Via
Granada: Hotel Casa Morisca
Seville: Hotel Puerta de Sevilla
Sagres: Pousado do Infante Sagres
Evora: Solar de Monfalim
Lisbon: Hotel Dom Carlos Park
Chicago: Crown Plaza Silversmith

The Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon and the National Tile Museum were outstanding...what treasures they both were! We fell in love with Lisbon, much more so than Madrid, and wished we had been able to spend more time there.

Bailey, What pottery did you buy and where did you end up buying it?

Sher-

Hey, we're practically neighbors ! We live about 3 hours north of PIT in Warren, near the NY state line, east of Erie. Ever been here ?

When I realized where you are it made me realize that instead of flying out of NYC I may try to change to PIT.

I get more excited by the hour (and it's about 2600 or so hours away !)

The folks here (Fodorites) are just fabulous. I've spent far too much of my work day just reading the questions and answers and ramblings...

David

Just time for a quick ditty before heading off to bed: 0215hrs Lisbon time.

Another LDC success. Barbara and Jim you were wonderful company for this evening. A great meal and Dulce Pontes, oh Dulce Pontes how you brought pleasure to this weary old traveller who is me. Your voice is beautiful and your concert was just excellent. (Yeah like she reads this thread ;-))

A perfect Lisbon evening.
Full report and photos to follow over the weekend.

I will be doing an interview with the head of C.P's public relations in the morning with regard to tourism and the Portuguese railways, namely the historic steam service that will be running on the Douro line. For the first time in 50 odd years there will be a steam train running on a certain line in Lisbon, yours truly will be there with notebook and camera.

Speak later, take care and have a good weekend,

Matt

LDC meetings are getting better and better Today's included Alfama, Castle and Chiado districts, a fine diner, a concert of a Portuguese top artist, all for 25 euros.
Report to follow, depending on Matt's availability.
Berbara and Jim, it was so good to have you in town. I hope one day the good winds may bring you again.

Nancy, We are also renting from economycarrenals.com. You have me a bit worried but I am going to go ahead and try it and I will let you know when we get back. We are renting in Lisbon so I hope that makes a difference. We are also having the car dropped off at our hotel. Our car is from Sixt Car Rentals. Has anyone used them before? We will be in Portugal from June 18 - July 3. I will make sure and report when I get back. Matt &Lobo: We will be in Lisbon on June 30, July 1 & 2. We would love to meet for a LDC if you will be up for it. After reading these posts for months now I feel like I know you.

Nancy. I am so sorry to hear about your troubles with Economy.
I realize that they are not at the Lisbon airport and thought this may contribute to the low cost. We are especially careful with car rentals in Europe because the cost of automatics is so expensive. Did you pay Economy a deposit and do you think you will be able to have it refunded?
I did talk with Thrifty and they have our reservation on file. Now let us hope we can find them. Also, they will drop us off back at the airport but maybe we will have difficulty finding them upon our return.

Sarasara. I have never rented from Sixt, but they are well known in Europe and have a good reputation as far as I know. I really have not heard anything negative about them.
I wish you luck and let me know how it goes.

David. Yes we are very familiar with Warren and in fact my husband does training in Erie once a month. We are actually Northeast of Pittsburgh and about 100 miles or maybe a little less from Erie. Have a wonderful trip. Remember to report back because we Fodor's posters love to hear about travels.

Sherry

Namaka, you are renting the appartment in Chiado, right? Barbara, Jim, Lizz, Matt, Gert and I passed by the door of your appartment this night at 1.30 am

Well Lobo, this morning's events will provide a good report: a most pleasant time I had.

So, this afternoon some work on last night's photos and report and likewise today's photos and report to be worked upon.

Speak later,

Matt

lobo,

You passed by the apt I will be staying at? Sarasara will be checking in as I check out. So, how does it look from the outside? Nice? If only we would have known you would be so close, maybe we could have persauded the owner, Paulo, to let you inside to have a look. Then you could have reported back to us. I guess I will be the one for that.

Oh, I just re-read and noticed the time that you went by the apt. Guess it was a little late in the night to see what it was like.

Namaka, it looks real sweet. Very very nice with a posh coffee shop below and about a million drunken revellers outside the front door Oh you will be so in the heart of a very cool place.

Matt

Yeah! That sounds great, I think! I'm not so sure about the drunken revelers but I am just hoping that it has to do with all the festivities that will be going on this month.

On another note, I just read a trip report for an apt in Paris that was very, very bad. It is not the apt we are renting there, but is owned by the same person. A little worried there.

Dear Fodorites, I'm leaving for a weekend break and weight gain program in Sogra's Inn.
Matt, I'll see the report tomorrow night, if you have the opportunity to upload it meanwhile.
Namaka, email Matt the phone number and other contacts of Paulo and we'll invent some kind of B.S. as a pretext to visit the appartment.