Lisbon back to Northenden

We slept well on our first night in the capital. The air conditioner was great. The shower was one of the best we’ve ever used. So much so, we packed it up and took it home with us.

I think it’s fair to say, we ate too much breakfast. I certainly did, and had to have a nice long rest afterwards. The view from our window was of the street behind the hotel, and nothing wrong with that.

No, this isn’t where we stayed, but we did think about buying a luxury apartment here. This building ceratinly stands out, very vibrant.

After breakfast, we walked to pick up a bus, a Hop On Hop Off bus tour of Lisbon. We didn’t hop off and hop on again, we just stayed seated, for the whole trip around the city.

This park was named after King Edward VII who visited in 1903. The Portuguese monarchy was abolished in 1910. Pure coincidence, of course.

The English commentary on the bus was interesting but I’m still not sure it was a human voice, I strongly suspect it was computer generated, it was trying too hard to enunciate everything much more clearly than a real person would do.

The bridge over the river Tagus that we’d traversed by train was designed by the same folks who designed San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. I tried to get a decent picture from the moving bus: maybe this is where I should have hopped off for a moment.

After the two-hour bus tour, which would have been quicker if there hadn’t been so much other traffic, we went for a walk in the park looking for somewhere to eat lunch. We found a very nice place, where I was asked to take my hat off. So I did. I didn’t want to suffer the same fate as this poor creature.

I can’t tell you how relieved I was when Liesel declined my offer to buy a bottle of old port. She was right though, it was too early in the day to start knocking back the hard stuff.

Yes, we were indeed back in Eddie the 7th Park, with its views over the river. From here, it was a relatively short walk back to our hotel.

Oh wow, a lizard. It was quick, darting from one bush to another across the path, but I was quick too and just about captured it!

And what pretty flowers.

It was beautifully hot and sunny here in Lisbon, but one thing was missing. A swimming pool. We’d dipped our toes in two separate pools so far, and my mind drifted back to this refreshing swim in Caldas da Rainha just a few days ago.

I had to set the alarm for 3.00am. Got up, quick shower, packed, taxi to the airport, through security in no time. Our tickets said Easy Bdg Yes. Easy boarding. All that meant was, we could get to the place where we stood waiting for the bus a bit sooner, the bus that would take us miles across the airport to our plane. After which, it was a free-for-all to get off the bus and board the plane. Good old EasyJet.

The end of a holiday is always an anticlimax, but seeing a sunrise was the most exciting part of the flight.

We escaped from Manchester Airport quickly, a taxi took us home where we sighed. It took ten minutes to unpack and here we are, back to normal.

There is a splash of Autumnal colour in and around Northenden, as I saw on my first walk up to the coffee bar. Well, there was no milk in the house, that’s my excuse. Groceries were delivered later in the day.

Despite the rain, we went out for a walk every day. I realised, if I didn’t go out whenever it was raining this lightly, I’d possibly never see the outside world again!

Given the weather, it wasn’t surprising to see mushrooms growing on our patch of grass slash moss. What was surprising was seeing mushrooms growing in one of our car park spaces.

In the olden days, when you had a Covid jab, you had to sit and wait for fifteen minutes before they let you out. Just in case you felt bad or faint or something. Not now. We both had our latest booster, and the pharmacist didn’t even wait to see that there was no bleeding, never mind sit down and wait for a while. We were dismissed before the needle was discarded.

So we were, unexpectedly, early enough to catch up with and join the regular walkers over in Wythenshawe.

One of the real highlights of the week was seeing Miriam Margolyes on stage in Salford. Many people have recommended her new book, Oh Miriam, especially the audio version.

At The Lowry, she was in conversation with comedian Fern Brady, talking about the book, her life and as normal, she didn’t bother to censor her thoughts.

We were invited to babysit one night while Jenny and Liam went out to escape their children. I mean, to try and escape from an Escape Room while we looked after the children.

Pizza Express in Didsbury was the venue for our evening meal. They were magnificent, they ordered their meals very politely, and, best of all, they ate everything. And they were great company.

At home, we read them stories before bed, and William’s reading is coming along beautifully.

This week’s radio show is full of good advice. “Don’t do that!”  Songs that tell you what not to do. But one thing you should do is listen to it here on Mixcloud.