At Last, We're Here!

We left San Francisco last week and arrived in Lisbon March 12. Since then our lives have been consumed with unpacking, learning how to use European appliances, and, in particular, adjusting our cats, Rose and Jack, to their new home.
We left Napa with the cats March 11 and they were to fly on Lufthansa; we would retrieve them shortly after we arrived on United. On the way to SFO, our pet relocator Elaine called to tell us Lufthansa had just gone on strike, so she miraculously got them on a KLM flight and changed all the customs paperwork, but it turned their trip into a 60 hour ordeal. After clearing customs, they were delivered to our apartment at 3 am last Saturday. Long story short, they adjusted within a few hours and are now completely at home!

We are so impressed with Lisbon so far and our neighborhood couldn't be more central to restaurants, shopping, and lively local venues.

Yesterday was Kevin's birthday so we took a tour to Sintra nearby and we're astounded at the beauty of this mountain retreat with magnificent palaces and castles dating back 1000 years. And that evening, we celebrated with a visit to Ramiro, a world famous restaurant (Anthony Bourdain did a show here) which serves only shellfish...clams, giant shrimp,lobsters, crabs and scallops. Absolutely wonderful!

We will update folks via this site on a fairly regular basis over the next month so anyone who's interested in our adaptation to Portugal can tune in.

In the meantime, we look forward to hearing from our friends and relatives, and wish everyone sanity in these troubled times.Read more