FLIGHT
I got to SFO quite early. All of UA's security lines were long. I went to the AA side and got through in a few minutes. As this was my first time flying international as a 1P, I went to the RCC to enjoy a half hour prior to my flight. Of the few lounges that I have visited, this was probably the least-stocked one... almost no food, few drinks... and it was pretty darn full. The decor was pretty nice, reflecting San Francisco's locale.
I unsuccessfully tried to change my one-stop to a non-stop in 3 locations. Each time I was warned that only standby was possible, which apparently is a step above their normal policy that prohibits changes altogether. That the non-stop looked pretty darn full. Oh well. I'm still not sure what UA's proper boarding procedures are. 1Ps get to board only after zone 1, and not on the red carpet. One side of me thinks they should keep the initial boarding order the same, and then let 1Ps board on the red carpet after the "unwashed masses" start boarding. That way 1Ps can still get priority boarding, without inconveniencing F, C, 1Ks, GS and other elites.
On board, I met another Flyertalker, who, it also turned out, works in the same industry as I. We chatted for a bit about UA, MileagePlus, flying and other things. He was headed to LON, but on a later flight. We were delayed about 20 minutes on the ground for an unknown reason, nothing came up on channel 9 regarding this. We finally took off and had a pretty smooth sail to Orchard Airport. About an hour out, we got put behind a bunch of planes, and that slowed us down, waaay down. After we landed, I picked up my pax log book from the captain and ran to my next gate. My 50-minute connection turned into a 15-minute one. I was one of the last people onto the plane. My seatmate on the 2-side of the 767 was somewhat unhappy that I was sitting next to him. I made a remark about my 15-minute connection and he mentioned how last week he made the connection with minus 15 minutes. After the doors closed, I found an empty aisle in E+ with an empty middle, and probably made the person on the other side upset, as he was probably hoping for all 3 seats to himself. Oh well, He should've sat in the middle seat. Doors were closed, we were off. My 2008 aversion of ORD was broken.
Upon landing in LON, I quickly proceeded through immigration and to TAP. Check in was quick, but the guy 'strongly recommended' that I check my nearly-empty bag, leaving me with just my laptop bag. If I had been more awake, I would have probably realized that I could have fitted my laptop bag into my carry-on. Off I went to the Lufthansa lounge, where I spent the next few hours relaxing and catching up on things.
TAP's A32x could have passed for a pretty new bird, if not for the old style seats with fat seat-backs. This really reduced leg room. The flight was also uneventful, although a bit choppy. Flight Attendants were very cute.
LISBON
Day 1
After getting my bag, I quickly found a place to buy a 2-day ticket (EUR3.70/day) on an RFID card (EUR 0.35 for the card) and hopped on a bus that was standing outside. The ride took 20 minutes and another 5 minute walk brought me to my hotel. The hotel was literally littered (how's that for a tongue twister) with self-proclaiming ads in the form of paper pads, cards, calendars and other small items. After getting two card-punched keys and figuring out that Quarto and Cofre meant Room and Safe (respectively), I quickly dropped my things in the room and went for a walk.
The city straddles the south-eastern portion of a peninsula. To the west is a park/big forest, and the Atlantic coast. To the south and east are bedroom communities, which I didn't visit.
The old center is on the southern end of the peninsula. Houses from the late 19th century are abound, although they're in "Mediterranean condition" (read: paint is not new). Laundry is hanging out on the clothing lines outside windows facing the street, streets are narrow, and the whole area is on top of many many hills, large and small, little yellow and red trams are rumbling by every few minutes. Small shops and bakeries are plentiful. The sun reached the peak a few hours ago and was starting its descent toward the ocean. I saw a long procession of people with a small bundle of joy at the front. The kid was baptized and a seemingly endless line of friends and relatives was streaming into the little house right next to the tram line. I was approached by some lady asking me how to get to a certain street (that much I understood). She understood that I understood her. I could not provide a comprehensible response in Portuguese. Another country, another person asking me for directions. What is it about me that makes me look like a local almost anywhere in Europe?
After getting a few shots, I jumped aboard a tram and it started winding around the streets, while going up and down hills. The line ended a bit outside the centre. The new houses were not too shabby, compared to ones I saw coming in from the airport built in the 1970s. I hate houses with metal windows in concrete housing blocks, with metal window divider supports. I wish buildings like this could be given a makeover or razed completely. They tried to compete with neoclassical architecture, but failed, as evident by the way they look now.
Seeing that there was nothing on this end of the line, I jumped back on the tram and we headed east, passing some of the same areas. We reached the city centre, The hills became more frequent, turns more twisty, and views more amazing. At a few places the two tracks merged into one and passed a narrow point or went down a steep twisty hill, surrounded by houses, and then widened back to their normal width. At one location the single track was regulated by a signal and lasted a few blocks. After a few more twists and turns we ended up on one of the main boulevards.
I jumped off and went down to the Metro. After some initial confusion over the direction of travel of the Metro, I took the Green line to the Red Line to the end station. It was only recently revealed to me that most mainline railways in the west of Europe are left-hand running. Having only seen train systems in the east of Western Europe, this came as quite a surprise. The British influence was unmistakable and very visible.
The stations reminded me of Paris or systems based on Paris, with side platforms and a single arch. Trains were built by Siemens and were quite German in their internal layout. Numerous compartments facing each-other, three doors on each side of the train, a nice niche for passengers who love to stand next to doors. A mix of articulated and non-articulated cars were coupled together. It looked like every car could be used on every line. The announcement system was pretty crappy -- the voices were not of the best quality and the "delivery" was not great. The green line stations were unimpressive. Pretty typical, well-lit, minimal decorations. The Red Line was a completely different story -- newer stations, high ceilings at most stations and each one unique enough making the time spent looking at it worthwhile. The line terminal also served as a train terminal and a shopping mall was built right next to it. It reminded me of Washington Metro's subway stations, dimly-lit, high arched ceilings and plenty of "naked concrete."
By this point it was quite dark. I spent some time at the mall, looking for decent yogurt at a grocery store and eating some Brazilian steak. The mall was right next to the bay. I walked outside to find a nice cool breeze blowing. A line of flags was lining the walkway to the water. A suspension bridge on the left was dimly lit, and I didn't have a tripod to take a decent picture.
I took a roundabout way back to the hotel, touring the rest of the green and most of the yellow line. The day was done.
Day 2
I woke up next morning after hitting the snooze button a couple of times. Breakfast was nothing to write home about. Cold cuts were decent, but yogurt was nothing compared to the Swiss and German yogurt I've come to love. The weather was foggy and later the fog turned into rain at higher elevations. I walked toward one of the main boulevards of the City that headed down to the water.
Lisbon has very interesting funiculars. They are two trams that are hooked up with a cable. They counter-balance each-other on the hill. Normally, funiculars have one stationary motor at the top and two cars that counter-balance each-other. Here, these were full-sized single-truck trams with motors. The floor was level, and that required a skirt on the front of the tram. The skirt on all cars was graffitied over. The once-yellow fronts were not yellow. On Sundays, these didn't start operations until 09:00, so I had some time. I wandered around a bit, wandering into one the countless squares in the old city center, located in a valley between two hills. By the time I wandered to the second set of funiculars they were operating. A few passengers were on board. The fog was working its magic and views were obscured by the thick white paste that turned into tiny droplets of water when it touched your face. Strolling down south, I saw the city waking up. More and more people were out on the tiny streets. Laundry was still hanging outside oblivious to fog. Tiny yellow-brick-paved streets were wet and slippery.
I reached line tram line 28E (E for Electriko = Tram) that I rode yesterday afternoon. A few blocks west was another funicular. I decided to seal the deal and ride this one down. This one was different. While it was of the same design as the other two I saw, it was not a regular tram. It had 3 sections and the top and bottom section allowed a different number of passengers for assent and descent. After about a 15-minute wait, and a picture or two, we went down. Midway through the ride we stopped to exchange drivers (and a stranger who came with the driver). Neither car set its brakes, so they were bouncing a bit back and forth. We continued down. The grade changed abruptly and became steeper. The lower station was built into the ground floor of a building, and looking at it from the street, you would not be able to tell there is a funicular behind the facade.
A few blocks' walk brought me to the waterfront. In front of me was the suburban rail terminal. The cars looked like those from PATCO from Philly, with streamlined steel sides. The only difference was the number of doors (3 here and 2 in Philly). Line 15E ran parallel to the suburban line. Quite a few cars were pulling out of the depot, heading into the city. A low-floor 3-section tram 15E pulled up. Quite a few tourists were on board. We followed the waterfront, parallel to the suburban rail line. A bit later we diverted to a parallel street a bit further up. We passed under the huge bridge that spans the two peninsulas north to south. It was fogged in. Continuing on, we passed through some really bad-looking buildings. Some were industrial, while others looked like former palaces. Many were disused or abandoned.
At the end of the line were two big monuments -- the Presidential Palace and a big cathedral. Portugal has not had a king for a while.... although during Columbus' time, the country and the Queen were quite important on the world stage. As with many small countries such as Portugal and the U.K., a great navy was extremely important to their development and colonization. The Presidential Palace still has honorary guard. I got there just in time for the changing ceremony. At exactly 11:00, on this foggy Sunday, surrounded by bystanders, the current set of guards marched out onto the square, along with the horses, guard dogs, and a small symphonic band. After marching around the plaza in front of the palace, the parade master lined everyone in their proper places. She was quite tall, around 2m, and you could tell her gender only upon close inspection. The uniform made her look very masculine, not showing any of her feminine features, although her face was quite attractive. I spotted a few other women both in the guard ranks and in the band.
The replacement guard and band was already marching down the street. All of the dogs were very happy to see each-other and their handlers tried very hard, but unsuccessfully to keep them from talking to each other. As the relief marched their way around the plaza, a set of relief horses showed up from the other side. All of the dogs became quite vocal, after seeing their long-lost four-legged relatives. The horses marched on unscathed by the loud scowling and barking. A group from the new guard separated and went into the palace to relieve the rest of the old guard. Meanwhile, the combined band started doing what marching bands are supposed to do best -- play while marching. They performed flawlessly, playing many different famous pop tunes from all over the world. Then they played the Portuguese Anthem and handed off the baton. From there, after a few more marches and songs, the new guard went to the palace, while the old guard marched off into the distance. Guard dogs were very much relieved to be able to march around for a bit, although they were kept on a tight leash. By the time everything was done, a tram was already guarding the police line, waiting to continue on its journey to the destination. The plaza was not really a plaza, but rather a relatively wide street, with tram tracks. Traffic was suspended while the ceremony was performed.
The weather was turning a bit sour. Droplets form the fog were becoming bigger, and it started feeling like rain. I walked back through the semi-industrial neighborhoods towards the bridge for about 15 minutes. I wanted to get a few pictures of suburban trains in front of the bridge. Thankfully there was an overpass over the train tracks. Left-hand running trains helped here too.
I walked a bit more and passed the 120-year-old tram depot. The transport museum was closed on Sundays, so I made a left and started walking uphill along line 18E. On weekdays the line runs all the way to the city centre, but on weekends it's a 2-car shuttle, running between the tram depot and a cemetery every 20 minutes. A very picturesque descent and great timing on everyone's part allowed me to get a picture of both cars together. I hopped on the car as it continued climbing and into the fog along a twisty line. The car was filled mostly with senior citizens trying to finish their shopping before the stores closed a few hours after midday. The fog was getting thicker by the meter. Finally, we reached the terminus. I took a few pictures and rode back to the center. In hindsight, I missed a great photo op that I normally call "Ёжик в тумане" (a hedgehog in fog) after a famous Russian cartoon. The hedgehog, of course, being the tram, with nothing else around.
After getting to the center, I decided to walk the remainder of line 28E. I ended up walking it to the terminus. This took a few hours since I took quite a few pictures along the way. I'll let these pictures do the talking.
To end the day, I took line 12E, which travels clockwise along, part of it being along line 28E's tracks. This was once a two-way line, but now one of the tracks was only there part-way up the hill. I wished I had more time to take pictures, but alas, that was that. I found a metro station and took the metro back to my hotel, where I collected my bags and took the bus to the airport.
LONDON AND RETURN FLIGHT
The TAP lounge was quite nice with good food and great wines. The flight back to London was uneventful and so was the trip in London. I got to my friend's place around midnight and we chatted until 1 in the morning. We had some breakfast the next day and he went off to work and I went walking around London. I had a few hours to kill before my 13:30 departure. I always wanted to see the traffic light tree at Canary Wharf, so that's where I headed. The place was busy as you would expect on a Monday morning with businesspeople coming and going about their business. I decided to ride a section of the Central Line that I have not ridden before. I boarded a Jubilee Line train, which was surprisingly empty, I headed to Central London. It seems that rush hour in London is packed into one to one and a half hours, unlike in many other cities, where it is spread out over three hours. This is probably due to the financial sector that's so prevalent there. Central Line was experiencing "minor delays" which meant that trains were coming every 90 seconds instead of every two minutes. On the other side of the line that meant headways that were 180 seconds, instead of 90.
I got a few good shots of the trains and headed back -- picked up my bags and off I went to the Airport. Getting there proved to be a bit challenging -- Central Line service was suspended for the better part of the time I was riding the Central Line. When I got to Farringdon, a huge crowd was waiting on the platform and constant announcements advised them to use National Rail to Kings Cross and change to another line from there. I was planning on doing the same, but magically the departure board showed one, then two trains. First was a Metropolitan Line and the second was a Circle Line. I decided to take the first, since there are two Paddington Stations on the tube. The first that came was a Metropolitan Line train, which I boarded. It magically turned into an Inner Circle train while en route to Paddington. I boarded the Heathrow Express and got to the airport on time. After a brief stop in the Star Alliance lounge, where I spent more time chatting/flirting with the agent about how much time I can spend in the lounge than enjoying myself in the lounge, I headed to the gate.
This was my first proper international business class experience. While many frequent fliers do not consider UA's business class a proper one due to the service and amenities, it suited me just fine. The seat was comfy, I could easily use my laptop and food was excellent compared to coach. Very early in the flight, right after meal service, I got up to stretch my legs and use the lav. Another gentleman was standing around the galley. He started some smalltalk. I didn't immediately get that he was in a state of mind where each additional drink provides only marginal enjoyment, compared to previous drink ... and he was in this state only one or two hours into the flight. He offered to drink shots of vodka... I politely refused as I only drink Bailey's and sometimes wine with dinner... he insisted a few more times. In the end he decided to have some himself. I later saw him comfortably asleep. The rest of the flight was uneventful and we got into SFO an hour early. One time where I wouldn't mind if we were late, we ended up coming in early.
This was a great end to a great weekend. All in all, I really enjoyed this trip and hope to be back in Portugal soon.
