This little house on the cliff created a picturesque scene in Ribeira Brava.

With all four of our grown kids and their families coming to Hawaii in December for Christmas we’ve been busy booking their flights over the past 45 days with only one ticket remaining to be booked for son in Las Vegas, Nevada, based on his upcoming work schedule. Thus far, we’ve booked three of the families with children.

Already, we’ve been notified that two of the three family’s bookings have been changed by the airlines. The first notification arrived over a month ago, but everything was rescheduled for the same dates, similar times, and layovers. That process was seamless.

The sun began to set, offering brilliant light reflecting on the sea.

Yesterday, we received an email notice that another son’s family of four’s round trip flights had been changed by the airline. However, in this case, we were responsible for calling and staying on the line while all four round trip flights were rescheduled, two flights each way including seat assignments.

This has not been as easy as one may think for a few reasons; one, the hold time was as much as two hours; two, we had to use Skype to call. If we’d had a SIM card or cellphone service, the cost for the calls from outside the US would have been outrageous when we wouldn’t have been able to use the US-only toll-free number. 

Few swimmers at the ocean side public pool when the air was cool.

Using Skype we are able to call any US toll-free numbers by selecting our point of calling is in the US. However, we’re unable to receive a return call unless we’re willing to pay US $60, EU $43.74, a year for a Skype phone number.  

In our sometimes complicated lives situations pop up requiring payments that only add to our monthly expenses. Staying frugal in these areas prevents us from having excess fixed monthly expenses which so easily add up.

The road along the beach in Ribeira Brava, the closest more populated area near where we live in Campanario.

One may ask, “Why don’t you have cellphone service?” We did the math long ago. How about monthly fees plus the cost of international calls adding to over US $4000, EU $2915.88 a year? In over 90% of situations, we encounter Skype does the trick. This isolated case is not worthy of changing our minds.

On occasion, the problem with using Skype is the difficulty of being put on hold for any length of time which may result in a disconnect. Last night, this happened three times, each after spending no less than 30 minutes explaining the entire situation over and over again.

A pretty church in Ribeira Brava.

Realizing that we were calling the US during peak daytime hours which occurred during our evening, we finally gave up hours later, heading to bed frustrated.  If we waited until morning to try again, it would be the middle of the night in the US making the wait time and a disconnect on Skype less likely to occur with reduced traffic.

My night was fitful while feeling anxious to get up and handle this situation. These types of scenarios fall under my “to do” list. Let’s face it, we’ve assigned tasks to those of us who best handles a particularly stressful situation without swearing. That’s me. I only swear when playing Gin. 

A casual restaurant across the street from the restaurant.  We’ll try this spot too.

Tom, on the other hand, does better than I, when paying for products and services when out and about including car rentals, fuel purchases, shopping, and tourist expenses. How much easier life is when one plays to their distinct skills?

Back to the story. 

Last night, when we were frequently disconnected we knew part of the dilemma revolved around the fact that we didn’t have a return phone number for the reps at Expedia.com to call us back in the event of a disconnect, adding to the stress of this situation. 

Old houses at the top of a hill.

With a phone in the house for local calls only and unaware of the number there was nothing we could do last night. I sent Gina an email requesting the house phone’s number if we again ran into disconnection problems in the morning enabling us to receive a callback. 

First thing this morning, we had the phone number in a response email from Gina and again, we attempted to call. After 45 minutes on Skype with one rep from Expedia.com with no disconnection, after all, the tickets were re-booked and we received an email confirmation including satisfactory seat assignments.

The modern roads and shopping areas are a delight to see although driving around these areas is tricky with many one way roads.

Today, we’ll forward to the new ticket confirmation to our son without him ever having to become involved or worry about this laborious process. This was a frustrating situation, to say the least.

The sidewalk along the beach in Ribeira Brava, near Monday night’s restaurant.

Today is laundry and pizza day. I’ve already baked the two large pans of grated cheese-mixed-with-egg crusts with the Portuguese sausage now in the oven. We haven’t had our homemade gluten-free, low carb, grain-free, sugar-free pizza since we lived in South Africa three months ago. 

Two tunnels entering the mountains. It’s amazing how many tunnels there are on the island. Each time we go out, even if nearby, we go through a few.

Tonight is pizza and movie night, an enjoyable event in our household. 

Happy day and evening to all!
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Photo from one year ago today, May 21, 2013:

At this time, the Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world with 161 floors plus 46 (previously we posted an additional 39 maintenance levels but new information has changed this number). With the upcoming completion of the currently under construction Kingdom Tower at 3,281 feet, 1 kilometer, the Burj Khalifa will pale in comparison at a mere 2,716 feet, or 827 meters. In the upcoming days, we’ll be posting amazing photos that Tom took when he rode the elevator to the observation tower of the Bur Khalifa at 125 stories. For the story of our date of arrival in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, one year ago today, please click here.

Tom and Samir wheeling our bags to the Marrakech Airport.

Flying is for the birds.  They flap their wings and take off.  But, for us two legged wingless human types, perhaps its just not meant to be easy.

I should speak in defense of airplanes themselves.  Generally, the flying in them is tolerable although a tight squeeze.  It’s the airport procedures, configuration and systems that are sorely lacking in providing us humans with a seamless means of transportation. The Marrakech International Airport is now #1 on our list of the most intolerable transit point in all of our travels to date.  It’s almost impossible to describe.

Mind you, we knew flying was going to be our least desirable mode of transportation in our worldwide travels, preferring to cruise from location to location. At the moment, we rethinking our future plans to revert back to our original intent of using ships as our primary mode of transportation. The challenges include the financial aspect with the increased cost of cruising and the obvious geographical issues.

The 30 hours of travel time from South Africa to Morocco was less stressful than the traveling the supposed six hours of travel time from Marrakech to Madeira which should have been an easy undertaking. 

After a tearful goodbye to Madame Zahra and Oumaima, the walk in the Medina to Mohamed’s awaiting SUV out on the street was better than expected.  A deep cloud cover rolled in allowing us to avoid the scorching heat of the sun.  The drive to the airport was uneventful. 

Upon arrival at the airport, Samir dashed off to get a free cart while Tom loaded the carry on bags onto our wheeling cart.  We headed inside the airport to the TAP check in desk.  That’s when the “fun” began.  The bags.  The overweight bags.  The too many bags.

TAP’s website raved about their liberal baggage policy.  We thought based on our research that there was a two bag allowance for coach.  Both of us verified this.  Alas, not the case. Only one bag is allowed per person.  Now, if they operated as do many other airlines, they’d charge US $25 or $50 for each additional bags.  That blow wouldn’t have hurt much.  But, the MAD 1800, US $220.24, to be paid in cash only threw us for a loop. 
 
Of course, this wasn’t nearly as much as the US $1300 (approximately) we’d paid in Venice, Italy when we had more bags.  In essence, we should be grateful.  Then again, is one more grateful when one gets slugged in the face once instead of three times?  Hardly.

I would more than willingly palmed a US $100 bill into the agent’s hand had he been alone at the desk.  Alas, his cohort sitting inches away, with whom he was constantly conferring with in regard to our dilemma, made it impossible. 

All the fluff and diplomacy wasn’t getting us out of this one.  Although, I must add, he didn’t charge extra for my overweight large bag after I did somewhat of a diplomatic dance.


View of the outskirts of Marrakech.

With had no choice but to go to a special desk to pay the penalty we were told the amount and that only cash is accepted. I could see the stress on Tom’s face.  Suddenly, both of us had to run to the toilette with a bout of intestinal distress.  Gee…why weren’t we more prepared for this?  Why, after all of our travels do we not have a laissez faire attitude of experience and sophistication?  Apparently, we do not.

Returning to the original agent, we showed him the receipt, picked up our boarding passes and headed to the gate.  He told us the airport had only “one gate” for all outbound flights.  OK. We proceeded in the direction he pointed.  Where was the “one gate?”  Checking at an information desk, we received the same “one gate” answer. 

Deciding to sit down and recover from the stress, unsure of where “one gate” was located, we plopped into chairs, each of us taking turns running to the toilette.  Two chatting non-stop toilette attendants blocked the doorway in an attempt to acquire a tip each of the four times I visited the toilette, including once to dump the iced tea from our mugs.  No tip was paid.

We proceeded toward the “one gate” but first had to go through security. Of course, we’d already dumped the iced tea in our mugs but the bottled water we’d just purchased for our parched mouths had to be tossed.   

Then, they didn’t like the small bottles of shampoo and conditioner still in the duffel bag that we hadn’t check after all, due to the cost.  OK, all of this was normal so far.  They didn’t like the tiny bottle of insect repellent.  Tossed that. They didn’t like the metal designer label on the outside of my laptop bag.  Couldn’t toss that. They squawked about all of our power cords.  

Our hearts pounded with both of us easily remembering that our power cords were confiscated in Dubai and taken from our possession on a few cruises. I walked through the scanner without a beep when a female security guard literally grabbed and frisked me, even grabbing me by my Victoria’s Secret bra. 


View of a peninsula on along the coast of Portugal.

Finally, we were on our way to the “one gate.”  Entering a huge area, we quickly observed that their “one gate” theory was a fallacy.  There were no less than eight gates, each of which had two lines.  Their interpretation of “one gate” was that not one of the gates was named or numbered.  Only a small sign indicated an upcoming destination which was impossible to read unless
standing directly in front of it.

As a result, we had to maneuver through crowded lines to find the sign marked Lisbonne (Lisbon). Tom suggested we sit in chair rather than stand in the long line.  I agreed.  To lighten the electrically charged air around us, I asked Tom how many dirhams we had left. Once we’d leave Morocco, they’d be useless to us.  When he handed me the remaining 90 dirhams, chewing gum came to mind.  Surely 90 dirhams, US $11.01 would buy one or two packs of gum.

Nope, five stores later I was still in the gum-free zone.  Finally,  entering a fancy chocolate shop I purchased exactly 12 caramels for the 90 dirhams.  Tom was needing a treat.  A wide smile washed across his face when I handed him the tiny bag.  Oh, would that food soothes us in times of trouble?  I was so badly needing soothing that I could have sucked on my sock for comfort.  Alas, I did not.

As we waited in the long line, it finally began to move outdoors and we noticed passengers were being doled out from the line to walk the tarmac to an awaiting plane.  It wasn’t marked TAP airline.  It was something else.  Of course, thoughts flashed through our minds of boarding the wrong plane.  Grabbing a agent’s attention, I asked three times, “Is this the plane for flight 263 to Lisbon?”  Each time I was reassured that it was.

A short time later we board the incorrectly marked plane via the steep outdoor stairway.  Why do all these airports have the telescopic tubes which they don’t use?  We’ve noticed this at most airports outside the US.


Casablanca, Morocco as shown below Spain is not far from Portugal.

Our load was quite heavy and bulky.  I was carrying the pill bag and my oversized handbag both extremely heavy, stuffed with numerous peripheral items.  Tom had to carry the wheeling cart which he had to break down to board, two laptop bags and the duffel bag, all heavy.

Once onboard, we curiously looked for our seats.  I was 5C, Tom 5A.  They were two seats, next to each other, me on the window, him on the aisle.  What happened to 5B?  It didn’t exist.  Go figure.

The flight was short, only 90 minutes and it too, was uneventful.  We were served Subway type sandwiched and juice.  Having not eaten anything other than a handful of cashews I cared not.  I gave Tom my sandwich.  He nibbled on each one, finishing neither.  I’d have something to eat later in Lisbonne.

Arriving in Lisbonne, all paths led to immigration.  There was no less than 200 passengers in line with one immigration officer in a booth.  We had 60 minutes remaining to make our 8:40 pm flight to Madeira.  It looked hopeless.  After 20 minutes another immigration officer entered a booth and a third managed the line.  For some goofy reason we were grabbed from the line to start the new line for the opening of the second booth.

The next challenge…would we be able to get a 90 day visa for Portugal?  If not, we could easily go to an immigration office on the island after 30 days.  Luckily, as we’ve experienced in most countries so far, except Belize, we are easily given the 90 day stamp.  We’ve been told that getting a 90 day visa is somehow easier to obtain for US citizens.  Why?  We don’t know.


Lisboa as noted on this map is Lisbon.  We’re heading to Funchal on the island of Madeira, a 90 plus minute flight from Lisbon.

Visas in hand, we made our way through the beautiful modern airport where I saw one US store after another, even the above mentioned Victoria’s Secret.  With no time or desire to shop, we made our way to the food court so I could eat something. First, we checked the electronic flight and departure board.

Our flight to Madeira was listed as departing three hours late! No gate was specified. Oh, oh. Here we go!  Finding a trendy restaurant we decided to get comfortable, go online using the free 30 minutes offered by Boingo.  I ordered a delicious grilled chicken salad with little concern of getting sick from the lettuce.  I hadn’t had lettuce in 2.5 months. 

Surprisingly, the time flew by and at 10:00 pm, we headed to the “numbered” gate.  Yeah for numbers! The flight on a newer Airbus was comfortable.  Tom ate two more of the same sandwiches as on the first flight.  We arrived in Madeira at 1:00 am, waited for our luggage and headed to the Alamo counter for our car, arriving to a slow moving line around 1:15 am.

Tomorrow, we’ll share our first wonderful experience in Portugal, at the Alamo counter inside the Madeira airport.  More will follow with many new photos.

Today, after only three hours of sleep for me and four for Tom, we’re both pooped.  We’ve yet to unpack or grocery shop. But, we don’t want to miss out on cooking our first meal in two and a half months, here on the beautiful island of Madeira.
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Photo from one year ago today, May 16, 2013:

The Treasury of the Lost City of Petra discovered in the 1800’s.  Here’s our link for details of our day in Petra.