Wednesday in Porto

We were asleep before 8 PM and woke up feeling really good at 11:30 PM!!!Oops, not great for changing our body clock over!!…so we each either listened to podcasts or read for a few hours and eventually got more shut eye, getting up about 7:30. 

Our internet is screwed up and the apartment rep tried to fix it but no go. A tech is coming out tomorrow. 

We walked to the Center of town and got a walking tour at 1030. Super interesting! It is a rainy, misty day and while there was supposed to be 30 of us there are only ten. The tour guide has given us some really good ideas for things to see,do,and eat. A great tour and we tipped well. 

The train station entry room. A must see! Hard to tell in this photo though but it is spectacular.

One stop we made was at a McDonalds; voted the most beautiful in the world. It is in an old historical building and cannot be changed. The only McDonalds with chandeliers!

After our tour we went to a very traditional Portuguese restaurant recommended by our tour guide

We ordered octopus (Caro) and cod in tomato and onion sauce for me. Of course we had to have Portuguese wine as well.  A FABULOUS meal!!!

We had 3 PM entry tickets to the Lell book store. This was made famous in the Harry Potter movies. It cost 10 euro each and is a timed entry. Hundreds of  people go into this store everyday with entry tickets organized for every 15 minutes. 

We snapped some photos etc. It really is a beautiful store but FULL and after we fought the crowds we were back out the door in ten minutes. 

Another of our things to do was the gardens at the Cristal Palace. They were OK I guess but we didn’t stay long as we were still recovering from jet lag and wanted to get back home. 

Another longish walk and we caught the metro back to our area ( super easy). 

Upon our return home we took off our shoes, relaxed a bit and then had strong naps for an hour. 

For the evening we walked around this vibrant area enjoying the buildings and purchasing items to snack on. In fact we had tasty local pastries ( a “must” do in Portugal).

Over 20,000 steps today!

The flight and arrival at Porto

Our plane tonight was an Arbus A330-300.

So lots of carry-on baggage room!

We had interior seats but at least we had the aisle to get in and out easy

The couple to our left had a very young squawking baby and before we left the attendant moved us up one row to give the young family more room and as luck would have it we got an extra seat in the row of four to put some of our “stuff”

The flight was smooth and we  landed at 0845 local time (0145 at home) but couldn’t get off the plane for about 15 minutes as our gate wasn’t available 

Entry into the Eurozone was easy and shortly afterward we were on the metro to the old part of town where our Airbnb is. 

The area near our place is wonderful but as I write this I really just want to get into our place. We are anxiously waiting for our host to call us (Normal check in time is 3 PM and right now it is 12:30 and our host will let us in as soon as the place has been cleaned). Update.We were in by about 1 PM

When we got off the metro at “our” station earlier this is the first thing we saw.  Oh boy, this is a nice area.

On our way to Portugal

Vanessa took us to the airport at 0900. 

It took 30 minutes to get our boarding passes and through security. This time it was Caro’s turn to have her baggage checked. 

The fight was good. Montreal airport is nuts this evening. Initially we couldn’t find a lounge to use our lounge passes at but eventually we got to the Aspire lounge where you order things from a QR code. We had lots of trouble getting connected however the people here helped us. In the future we will stick to buffet style lounges. This lounge doesn’t serve hard liquor, however it has wine and beer and very tasty mocktails. Not worth the $60 each walk access IMHO

They only allow you into the lounge with three hours until your flight departs which means you can only stay about 2 hours and 15 minutes

Going Home

 

This morning we spent a few hours in the room relaxing. 

At 1020 we went to the lobby to wait for the SuperShuttle van which we had booked last night. It turns out we had a cab pick us up (a Kuwaiti born; Indian raised man who eventually earned an Australian MBA was our driver). 

Auckland airport was extremely efficient with passport control just machines and security which was the latest and greatest with machines that all we had to do was put “all” our stuff (wallet, keys, and CPAP machine etc) into our backpack and having that go through for the check. So fast. 

We ate a meal in the airport which turned out to be a mistake as Air Canada fed us almost immediately. 

We left on time at 1407 hours

The flight was 12 hours long and we arrived 40 ish minutes early. We actually had to wait in line for Canada Customs to open at 0600. Easy peasy getting back into the country and no extra security check like we have had to in the past.

The Edmonton flight left on time and I slept most of the way (Caro only a bit). 

Vanessa,Beckett and Nora May picked us up. “Thank you”

Grinding the Pedestals

 Hi-light day in Auckland

We slept great last night and this morning we ate some of the food we had left over from last night. 

We walked to the ocean front as I wanted to see the 11AM America’s Cup tour leave. We spotted a fellow that had been on our Rotorua day trip and he gave a great suggestion for an activity in the afternoon so we changed our 2PM tour to 11AM and 10 minutes later we were getting instructions etc for our trip an an America’s Cup boat (2003 version).   

Everyone got a chance to do various activities relating to sailing the boat. The first job was called “grinding the pedestal”; a process where 8 of us rotated something similar to bicycle pedals ( two per pedestal)I was one of the first group and we raised the main sail. It was extremely tiring!!

A short while later the crew asked for  a volunteer to drive the boat.  I jumped in there immediately and so now I can say I have  piloted an America’s Cup boat!

Caro and I had further turns “grinding the pedestal throughout the approximately two hour trip. 

The opportunity came to help 

bring the spinnaker sail down and put into the forward hold. I helped there as well!

After our return and a lunch break we got ferry tickets to an island called Waikehe. We sat on the top floor and enjoyed the scenery. We also saw the boat tour that we were originally supposed to be on returning from their adventure. 

The ferry ride took about 40 minutes and upon arrival we walked a longish kilometre along a sidewalk uphill towards a town.  The walk was very scenic with wonderful vegetation/trees and birds chirping. 

We didn’t have all that much to spend on the island. We were thirsty so we grabbed local pops for something to drink and walked around the streets of the beautiful little town called Oneroa. Before walking back down to the ferry dock we had a wonderful ice cream. Yummy!

The trip back under today’s blue skies was just as wonderful as the trip out. We were back essentially 3 hours after we left. 

The America’s Cup boat out on the 2 PM tour (that we were originally booked on.

We walked back to the hotel, dropped off our recent purchases etc and went to the pub we had visited last night. This time we were much wiser in our food choice!

Auckland

Our final supper on the ship was at the buffet and afterwards we packed. Caro wanted to see the main show but I didn’t, so she went by herself. 

We both actually had a good nights sleep and were at our final breakfast about 0700. 

We left our room shortly after 0800 and within a maximum of 20 minutes we were cleared through customs into New Zealand ( we had filled in the customs form using the app).  

We walked to the hotel (uphill quite a bit-puff puff) and left our bags in storage until we officially checked in later in the day. 

We had heard that the Auckland War museum was great so we walked a couple of kilometres over to it. We weren’t there for the war info but instead for all the Māori and South Pacific items. 

A huge bonus for us was the natural history section which had replicas of some of the extinct (or still with us ) animals from the area. 

It also had a section that was about volcanos.  In this area was a house set up to experience a realistic volcano eruption as if you were inside the house. So interesting. 

After that we walked back downtown in time for our 1400 hrs walking tour.  The fellow was very experienced but honestly , too much Māori creation

With the tour over we spent a little time shopping before walking back to the hotel and checking in. 

We really over ordered our supper

24,000 steps and almost 15 kilometres; time to take a break in the room!

Rotorua

 Last full day on board 

Once we were back on board we played three games of rummy under cover at the pool side. 

After that we were at the hot tub where we had a good time chatting with other people. 

A short nap later and we headed out for supper in the main dining room. We both had steak tonight. It was very good.

Two more games of rummy followed by a fantastic stage show finished our night. 

In the morning we walked around Tauranga for an hour enjoying the beaches and townsite. One of the beaches we saw ( Maunganui ) is rated in the top 25 beaches in the world. 

We picked up our 6 1/2 hour Rotorua tour at 1000 hours. We drove through beautiful countryside forests and valleys to a thermally active  old volcano lake (Rotorua).We saw lots of thermal vents, smelled the sulphur in the air and at one point we were able to dip our feet in a pool of hot water which felt very nice. 

We next went to a Moari village where  lunch was served, followed by a short drive to a Redwood forest to do the world’s longest living tree walk. At the beginning of the 1900’s the NZ government planted huge areas of various types of trees to see which type of tree was best for lumber ( it was not Redwoods and the decision was made to keep all these trees , and now there is a beautiful forest)

A final stop to get a close up of kiwi fruit on the vine orchard and then back to town.