Starting Out

So a slightly edgy start as we hadn't got properly sorted. Adam the house sitter was due at 10am and we were still sorting stuff. We got away by about 11 am (via Mandy's to collect a waterproof and leave some Dreamies for Everest). Up to Manchester to park the car at Dad's and go for lunch.
We went to Worsley Old Hall which was really busy for a weekday lunchtime but the food was good (and Northern, Inc. Bury black pudding nibbles to start and Bakewell Tart to finish). Dad ran us to terminal 1 where we had a short queue but a long wait for bag drop.... No separate desk so in with all the general check in. Then on to the joy of security which was very thorough... We got the line with body scanners.. And Mandy still got hauled out for a patdown. Baggage checking was really keen almost bags ended up in the hand check queue which took ages (not helped when people couldn't recognise their own bags) mine got stopped because of the hat in the tube and Mandy's had a mint induced check!
Finally through to discover that the plane was running an hour late. We mooched, Mandy wrote cards, we mooched some more then we got a window seat and waited in the noise and chaos until the flight was finally called. We left around an hour late and the flight was fairly uneventful. We did watch with interest as a very glamorous Brazilian tried to get on the plane during business boarding and was stopped, then she tried during the first row call and was stopped... I don't think she was pleased (we saw her near the front later).
At Lisbon we found the metro and rode out to the Baixa area to the Lis'bon Hostel. In the dark we could seen grand architecture and steep roads also quite a lot of rather drunk people. A quirky hostel with a fabulous tiny lift and a nice guy on reception who SD us a couple of bottles of beer and lent me a charger cable.... And so to bed.Read more