Yesterday, Sunday, was our last morning aboard the MS My Story. We docked back at Passau around breakfast time and had fun saying our farewells to the many new friends we’d made amongst the the group from the Upper Cape Ski Club, who were travelling from Cape Cod in Massachusetts. 
It seemed like the appropriate thing to do to don my New York Yankees T-Shirt amongst so many Boston Red Sox supporters and it attracted the appropriate response from Mark, who we had just spent lots of time cycling and hanging out with on the trip. Apparently, according to Mark, the Yankees have some sort of vacuum cleaning capacity.
It was then on to the railway station at Passau, the Passau Hauptbahnhof, for our train trip toward Munich, where we alighted at Freising for a seamless connection with an airport bus which took us to Munchen Airport.
We enjoyed the fast, free wifi at the airport and caught up on clearing some emails and getting some great food.
It was then aboard a Vueling, (pronounced ‘welling’), flight to Lisbon via Barcelona in Spain. Now, if you are my height I would strongly recommend that if you are ever on one of these flights that you upgrade to a seat with more legroom. My knees were forced against the seat in front and not a pleasant experience at all. Luckily it wasn’t a long flight and we arrived at Barcelona with an hour to wait: just time to reacquaint ourselves with crusty baguettes and Iberian jamon. All was going well until we discovered that the gate for our onward flight had been changed without us hearing any announcements. We needed to cover around 750 metres inside the terminal with carry on gear and the knowledge that the flight was making its final calls.
Made it!
Another cramped flight before our descent into Lisbon and the realisation that, unlike Spain, the proximity to the Atlantic means that much of the land around Lisbon is fertile and green.
A cab takes us to our next AirBnB apartment which is fabulous. Very spacious and, after a fold out bed on the cruise, the luxury of a beautiful big comfy bed was great.
We walked to the end of our street where a new market development stands. The Time Out markets are a vibrant oasis of fun and food on a very cold night. Hundreds of young Portugese people enjoy food at long tables which they have bought from one of the many pop-up kitchens around the building hosting food from top line restaurants and good wine and beer.
A large group is free-styling swing dance in the middle of the large space and the atmosphere is one of a newer, more internationally focused generation having great fun and providing an uplifting night out.
The view across the rooftops from our apartment
So, we wake on a cold grey morning with an opportunity to catch up on some washing and get out and explore what looks like being a fabulous city. We get a sense that Portugal may well be flying under the radar a bit and we look forward to some getting a better picture in the next couple of days before heading to Spain.
A foray out in the morning to find a supermarket turns into an epic winding walk through narrow streets and lanes with many attempts to get directions from friendly locals being even more confusing. Eventually, the market is found and the next challenge is to find fresh milk. It turns out that there is no fresh milk to be had in a market like this. Luckily they have plenty of cans of pilsener and a nice bottle of Rose to go with the washing detergent and croissants. It’s good to have a bit of catch up and breathing space.
Vacuum capacity…. Ha