Journey to Faro, Portugal

Buddy and I traveled back to Portugal last month to see more of the country we’ve fallen in love with.

You know from our September 20th post, the second part of our retirement goal is a vacation home in Europe. Portugal is the country we are looking at.

Flight to Lisbon

A Louisville check-in, then Buddy and I took a B737-900 to Atlanta.

We love the B737-900. Comfortable First cabin and a nice flight deck. The B737 is the plane we’ve flown the most this year – 10 flights.

A quick trip to the Delta lounge in B concourse before our JFK flight.

Another B737-900 to JFK. Did I mention we love the flight deck?

The Delta One Lounge at JFK is one of the best lounges we’ve ever visited.

JFK Delta One Lounge truly offers a retreat to exclusive spaces, exceptional dining and a relaxing atmosphere. Not only is there an extensive menu selection, but a separate restaurant as well. What stands out is the friendly, engaging service from the staff. They made sure we were taken care of and highly recommended the pizza. At nearly 14,000 square feet, there is plenty of room to relax. They also offer massage options and shower suites.

We took a B767-300 redeye to Lisbon and enjoyed chatting with the pilots.

While we normally love the wide body 767, the Delta One cabin was very disappointing. Paying that much for Delta One, we expect a roomier cabin like a B777 or A350. The seat area was smaller and the overhead bin space was very disappointing. It felt like we were almost on top of our neighbors, even though we had a single window seat. The in-flight food was good, though.

Morning Atlantic sunrise at 35,000 feet is always a beautiful sight.

Train to Faro

Arriving Lisbon at 9:15am, we were pleasantly surprised how quickly we got through passport control. The line was short and Lisbon had yet not started taking biometric data for the EES. Our passport was scanned, photo was taken and voila, we were through. We’ve seen numerous articles about the hour long lines getting through Lisbon airport. Fortunately we did not experience that nightmare. It was a long walk to baggage claim but our luggage was waiting for us. Yah!

The Uber ride was another matter. We do not use taxis at Lisbon airport. Too expensive and too many scams. Uber is much easier but that morning there was a long delay. Once our Uber finally arrived, it was a 15-minute ride to the Lisboa Oriente train station.

We love the architecture at Lisboa Oriente.

Boarding the CP (Combos De Portugal) train for the 3½ hour ride to Faro.

Riding the train is our favorite mode of transportation after flying. Peaceful and scenic. Our first class seat was only €31,45. An incredible bargain. One of the things we love about Europe is their train system. Extensive, convenient, comfortable, and affordable. We loved the views of the Portugal countryside and enjoyed the journey. Nearing the Faro train station, we saw storm clouds rolling in. It was pouring rain upon our 5:30pm arrival. Unfortunately the train station is quite small and we got a bit wet. Thankfully our Uber arrived within 5 minutes.

Finally arriving at our Lemon Tree Stay hotel after 36 hours.

It was a cute hotel, right on the main shopping street Rua de Santo Antonio.

Needless to say we slept hard the first night. A beautiful city we fell in love with. Read all about it in our Destinations page.

Stay tuned for our flight back home.

Buddy and Jordan