Today, well yesterday, was the start of a new trip! I will be traveling in Spain and Portugal for ten days in weather, hopefully, warmer than New England currently has.

The first day or so has been a bit of a mess. My flight left and arrived on time, early actually, but my travel companions, my folks, were not so lucky. Their original two-part flight was delayed with the prospects of future delays. This would have led to them arriving on Sunday in the afternoon. Basically missing the whole first day. After several conversations with the airline they were booked to a different flight that had them arriving at the Lisbon airport six and a half hours after their original time. Which meant that instead of the original three and a half hours to kill from the time I got to Lisbon I now had around ten hours to kill.

To make the best of the day, I grabbed a light breakfast. One of Lisbon’s famous custard tarts and waited for the museums to open.

I chose the Lisbon City History Museum as it was relatively close and was not a museum we were planning on hitting later in the trip. I now know why it was on the list. The museum was undergoing renovations and the main part that I was allowed to see was mostly etchings of an earthquake that hit the city in the 1700’s. The two buildings in the adjoining gardens housed some strange modern art photo exhibits that were not very interesting.

What did catch my eye were the gardens themselves and their guests. The gardens are home to a fair number of peacocks! The resident birds showed no fear and walked right up to me. Them and the odd ceramic art the gardens were the most exciting things.

I did get back to the airport a little after noon. Had some lunch and waited until 5:30 PM when my folks finally made it out of baggage claim. Without their bags! It took them almost forty five minutes to figure out where they might be and if the airline would transport them to our first hotel, four hours away.

After fun with the rental agency, we began the long trek to our first stop in Spain, Seville. We drove through some fantastic countryside. I mean I assume we did as the sun had set and all we could see of it was the outline of any trees close to the road. But I am sure the scenery passing us by was just delightful…..