Trip to Portugal September 2006
From New York it is 5:45 to fly to Lisbon; about 7:30 returning west. Not one person on the overnight flight in business class looked for the video entertainment. They just want to sleep. TAP Portugal has lay-flat seats and decent food and service, but nothing particularly great about their airline. It’s amazing to me that all the airlines run business class as a commodity and do nothing to distinguish themselves really. In Lisbon arrivals, with a US passport save time by going into the EEC lane. Taxis are cheap here; was 12 Euro to get to town and cross the city to my hotel, the Lapa Palace, in the embassy district. You need a taxi to go into town but it is cheap at 4 Euro and 15 minutes and the other 5 star hotels in the city such as the Ritz/4 Seasons are not exactly within walking distance of anything either. The Lapa Palace is part of the Orient Hotel group and has lots of charm, as a boutique hotel in the city. Rooms have gadgets such as a TV on a table that disappears into the coffee table if you don’t want to see the TV. No BBC World but free internet 24/7 in the business center. They give you little custard pies upon arrival with vanilla sugar and cinnamon. Decorating in this hotel is exquisite with lovely gardens that is a real oasis from the city. Room 704 is a beautiful junior suite which also has an alcove suitable for a working executive and a terrace with a great view of the city and river; there is a nice deluxe room on the 6th floor with a great bathroom view and funky window to boot; the garden view suites were airy and spacious but are more traditional hotel rooms. I preferred the main building with its more thematic rooms and historical charm and offers such suites as the Royal Suite in the Louis the XIV style and the Tower Suite on the 7th floor with its own tower overlooking the city and lots of Portugese style. Hotel also has a spa, good Italian restaurant and very helpful concierges. El Cortes Igles is the major department store chain here; you can find a freezer in the basement-level supermarket with kosher foods, mainly frozen meats from France. Dined with fellow members of the tribe who noticed that I didn’t want seafood or meat with my dinner entree. They were British who lived in Israel; said that people there are really angry at the government for raising expectations during the Lebanon war as to what they thought could be accomplished; all systems failed and there was huge inconsistencies in running the war. One more Jewish note — the piano man in the lobby bar was playing Israeli tunes insisting they were Italian. He didn’t believe me till I sat down and played the song for him. For those of you who are wondering ….Ani Chozer Habaytah….Unless the truth is that the Israeli composer stole the song from the Italians….
If you should find yourself having forgotten your underwear, don’t have the concierge send you to a shopping center in a foreign country. The department store would have worked better. Instead I got sent to mull around a shopping center at boutique stores charging 15 euro a pair. Later, a 3 hour tour of Lisbon featuring an interesting monastery and tower along the river, a statue of explorers with an elevator to the top, a big fort overlooking the center of the city, and some nice shopping streets. Lunch at the pool at Lapa Palace is a power meet for diplomats and business people. Large empty plots of land in the middle of the city attest to market dysfunctions considering that real estate prices in Lisbon are among Europe’s highest. Visited the Ritz/4 Seasons which looked very Four Seasons with a touch of Portugal (meaning a lamp in the room that looked like it was from Portugal). One of the downtown streets has a lift that goes over the street and a bridge that lets out by the ruins of an old church. Dinner at the home of the wife of the deceased chief rabbi; she makes home-cooked dinners to support herself and she lives right in the center of town. Real good food for 30 Euro a head. For reservation, call her son Yizchak Assor at 351.9172.30508.
1st impressions of Lisbon are not great; looks like Malta or Cyprus with poor infrastructure and dirty streets. This country took EEC funds and made expos and corruptly used it; unlike Spain that has lots of polish. The US and Chinese embassies here are hugely staffed; this is a country with more importance than appears on the surface. Lots of African country oil contracts are administered through here and those countries were once Portugal-owned colonies. Despite an earthquake 150 years ago and a rebuilt city, it is still disorienting with lots of hills, one-ways and roundabouts. The city is smaller when you walk it though.
Day-trip to environs within 50 miles of Lisbon. The National Palace near Sintra has a horse show which you can miss except maybe the last few minutes are interesting. Castles are restored well here; the insides of the rooms are packed with stuff, perhaps too much to the point that it looks like a garage sale. The town of Sintra didn’t seem important; see the Pena Castle above the city; it looks a bit like Walt Disney kind of stuff. It started to rain and I was now in the clouds. Then to the most westernmost point of Europe to see some cliffs and the sea. Here at 38 degrees latitude, it is equal to New York City. Lunch at one of the fish restaurants along the sea. Drove through Cascais fishing and tourist village along the way back to Lisbon. The whole tour was 6 hours. Then visited the cloisters by the monastery that I missed the previous day and the National Art Museum. Dinner at Los Docas, an evening spot along the river under a big bridge that was built by the same company as the Golden Gate in San Francisco. Visit to the Oceanarium; something you can skip. There is an aerial tram which opens at 11am but I missed that as I headed the 1:45 drive to Redondo (1 hour to reach Evora) and my next stop on this trip which was to El Convento de Sao Paulo, a convent from the 14th century that has been restored as a small hotel. I am doing the sightseeing and transfers with a Mercedes and driver; costs were 125 Euro for the 3 hour city tour; 195 Euro for the day trip and 265 Euro for the transfer to Redondo. In a taxi, it cost 120 Euro to return to Lisbon and 45 Euro each way from Redondo to Evora. Driver was very good; Miguel Amaral, cellular 351.91.827.8655.
Very quiet at the Convent. Maybe you hear a rooster once in an hour and the occasional sheep or chicken. A bit creepy at night, as it is dark all around and inside the convent. There were only about a dozen guests there and I was the only one in the breakfast room — excellent home made jams. It is now a 4 star hotel but no way a luxury place. They brought me some wine and cheese and the ants got to it while I went to dinner (but they went back home after I took it away). Maybe this year I will learn to eat hard cheese. The public rooms had the same kind of old German upright piano I have at home. Get the master suite; I paid 150 Euro a night with the travel agent’s discount and it is the only room with a terrace and a big expansive view of the landscape. This suite was designed centuries ago for visiting royalty; the residents never saw the views. The little rooms are otherwise a bit claustrophobic. Interesting place for a retreat. Walking trails around the several thousand acres of woodlands and ridges; nice roads. Only problem with the walking trails is that they are not so easy to walk even though the hotel brochure says they are. See lots of stars at night. Internet on dial up in an office accessible if you ask for it. Dinner on premises features what you expect at a reasonable price — salad, starter, fish and desert for 40 euro. Visited Evora which requires about 2 hours to walk around. Chapel of Bones is an interesting sight — chapel filled with bones. I saw something like this in Rome once. Nice views, roman ruins and temples, churches, and little streets with trinkets being sold. The city is a UNESCO world heritage site.
Lisbon airport is not too large but disorienting and needs an overhaul. If you are in business class on TAP, they have a kiosk at the check in where you can get newspapers and magazines for the flight. 1:20 flight to Madeira, an island about 650 miles southwest of Portugal which is part of Portugal. Sit on left at landing as the plane should make a U-turn just before its final descent. Taxi to Funchal, the main city, is about 25 minutes and 27 Euro flat rate. I was in the Reid’s Palace, the best hotel in town, which is also part of the Orient Express group of hotels. My room 872 is a staff favorite junior suite with 2 terraces on the corner and a view of both the city, the hotel gardens and the cliffs off to the right and a very nice large bathroom. The main building has lots of eclectic rooms and stairways leading in all directions to the various rooms. Finally, BBC World on my TV and even BBC 24! This is one of those old English grand dame hotels that still is what it was. Concierges keep tabs on you and will send something to your room if they know you want it, such as a bottle of fine wine that you couldn’t get in the boutique because it you got back to the hotel after it closed. Dinner in the dining room was excellent — highlight of my dinner was caramelized red onions with mango that tasted like red cabbage; they have a band with dancing on Saturday nights and traditional Portugese entertainment on Friday nights in the lounge. Lots of Brits here. There is a casino in town about 10 minutes walk away. In this hotel, soft drinks in the mini bar are free, as is 24 hour internet in the business center. They are opening a spa soon. During summer months, the French restaurant is outdoors on the terrace and seeing the lights come on over the city is a good show. The founder of this hotel Mr. Reid died before it was completely built.
Hand embroidery is the big thing here to buy; lots of cheap merchandise but there is some good stuff to be found. It can be pricey though and beware that there is no Sunday shopping. Bordal on Avenida Infante, a main street, had some nice things. Also on Avenida Zarco 2, a street running uphill directly from the main pier at the waterfront, is a very good store with the best merchandise, Madeira Sun, but be prepared to spend 500-1,000 Euro and up for a tablecloth. The walk to town from the hotel is about 15 minutes. Other hotels are on a line either closer or further away from town. There is a cable car that runs from the seafront up the mountain to some tropical gardens (Monte Palace); the 20 minute ride is breath-taking and scary but it’s a thriller. Another funicular will take you to the botanical gardens from Monte. These gardens are a steep walk uphill once you get to the bottom so I only saw a bit of it.
Took a 7 hour tour with car and guide Martinho Macedo, phone 919.792.171 or 967.598.471. Cost 110 Euro for the day tour. There are only 17 guides on the island. Lots to see on this 15×35 mile island. High point is at about 6,000 feet above the clouds; lots of different trees and vegetation and mini-climates. EEC money built lots of roads and tunnels. Stunning cliffs (2nd highest in the world is here) and valley vistas. Nature walks rounded out the tour. Visited the Madeira Story in the old part of Funchal town; you see a history of the area which lets you know that lots happened in Madeira that you didn’t know about. Dinner at the hotel’s Italian restaurant was disappointing; very saucy southern cooking. Other hotels near the hotel were the Crowne Plaza or the Porto Mare. I was very happy at Reid’s Palace though.
The return flight to Lisbon was on SATA airlines which was fine. You can fly to Madeira nonstop from Toronto and it would be about 5 hours from New York if there was a nonstop. You can fly from Boston to the Azore Islands (also part of Portugal) in about 4 hours on SATA then continue to Madeira. On the flight back to New York, filled with all sorts of people on the way to the UN’s annual general assembly meeting, airport security wanted to take away my bottle of wine due to the new regulations forbidding liquids on airplanes flying to the USA. He said, “bottle of wine, no.” I said, “but it’s good wine.” He said, “Oh…” I said “please get the supervisor.” I then showed the supervisor a note from the manager of the Reid’s Palace stating that the wine was a gift to me and wishing me a safe trip home. He said OK. And this is the difference between America and Europe — besides having respect for a good bottle of wine, there is also that element of common sense that is today missing from American policy, be it in Iraq or in the airport.
Click here to see photos of Portugal.
HALIFAX — August 2006
Please see notes from my July 2002 visit. This visit stayed in the Marriott Residence Inn which is perfectly fine in this city that lacks luxury properties. On weekend nights, get an interior room as rooms on the street can be noisy with students bar-hopping. The interior rooms are mostly taken by people staying there for lengthy periods or by disabled people who those rooms were designed for. For 100 you can have a private car take you to and from Peggy’s Cove, about an hour from Halifax. The ice cream, scones and jam there are just excellent, as is the restaurant at the top of the hill by the lighthouse. There is a guy by the lighthouse taking pictures of everyone and putting them on post cards; it’s a great business for him. The Harbor Hopper tour is still a good way to see the town of Halifax in an hour. Dinner at the Five Fishermen restaurants is still excellent. The Maritime Museum is free on Tuesday evenings. Pier 21 is still worthwhile even if all you care to see is the audio visual presentation. There is an excellent gelato place along the seafront in a condominium complex a few blocks away from the maritime museum toward the center of town. Skip Black’s ice cream behind the museum. Cruise ships make this town very busy. Salty’s restaurant was not bad but nothing great. We did not some nice shopping in the town’s main shopping street. Be sure and visit the public gardens; they are very nice. A good driver and guide is Lenn Rector at 902.471.6691.
GREENBRIER HOTEL — September 2006
Please see notes from September 2005 visit. This time we returned with our baby and flew directly to Lewisburg, West Virginia which is a 20 minute shuttle from the hotel and just over an hour’s flying time from New York. We were the only passengers on the way back and the only passengers in the airport at that time but that didn’t stop the airport security agents from spending a quarter of an hour searching us. The hotel is still a great place to take your holiday and the food continues to be excellent. We had the same room as the previous year and enjoyed the same activities we liked before — afternoon tea parties and classical music concert, nightly dancing in the lounge, horse carriage ride, golf buggy ride, cooking demonstrations, miniature golf, hotel photographer, ballroom dancing lessons, architectural tours of the property, bowling and spa. This year there was a tour offered of the nuclear bunker that existed in the hotel for 30 years up until a decade ago when the secret was revealed to the Washington Post. There is not that much to see beyond a long tunnel and various rooms that were meant to house the Congress in case of nuclear war. It is all sort of spartan and primitive really. You can see some pictures if you go to the greenbrier.com website. The hotel is making some changes and we’re not sure we like them; they have had a meal plan which they are switching to a la carte and we think it will make people feel nickel and dimed and scrimp their pennies much more than they used to. We’ll just have to see. We went along with my mother in law and she said she had a good time. The property is rather large and there are shuttle buses; if you don’t like walking, stay in the main building instead of a cottage, the latter of which is better if you have kids. Babysitting was a bargain at $8 an hour and perfectly competent. The hotel has cribs, playpens and bottle warmers; best to know up front when making reservations what the options are and to plan accordingly. You can also make your voice heard to make things right — we didn’t like the duvets and had them switch us to sheets and blankets. They told us there were no reservations available in the dining room when we wanted them and I got the concierge to get them to fit us in at more convenient times — there were plenty of empties anyway. They want young couples to go to this hotel that has an aging clientele — they do work hard to accommodate you as best they can.
Click here to see photos of Elizabeth at the Greenbrier — really funny.
Click here to see photos of the nuclear bunker at the Greenbrier.
