It's always a shame to leave a beautiful place, especially when it was 23 degrees and clear sunshine, and you're heading somewhere that is 10 degrees and raining sideways. But our time in Madeira was up, so off we went to Christiano Ronaldo airport to board our TAP (Air Portugal) flight to Lisbon, where we said goodbye to Jacob and Jenna as they are staying in Lisbon for a few days before joining us in London. I didn't actually mind TAP - they were relatively efficient at getting us on board and to our destination with a minimum of chaos, and the flight attendants were great. I still wish all airlines would at least provide free water, but it seems this is not the case anymore, at least in Europe. I could see the first-class folks getting served their nice dinners on china and being offered a choice of several different wines, but I was happy enough with my cup of tea and pringles, for which I paid 8 euros.
I did have more choices available to me, including this beauty on the cover of the TAP menu.
I get the cheese and bread part, but I'm just not sure about the green mud. Is it pesto? I can't understand how this made it past the editors. Surely there's a better image out there. Also, why is it falling all over the place? Turbulence? We did suffer a spot of turbulence on one of our flights, and of course, I had just made it to the bathroom when the seatbelt light came on and the captain ordered everyone back to their seats. I thought I better pull up my pants first but the turbulence had other ideas and I was thrown all around the tiny bathroom for what felt like a long time, while I struggled to get hold of my pants without falling back into the blue hole of suction death, and then unhooking them from the cupboard door which had flown open, spilling rolls of toilet paper on the floor and then not slipping/standing on the toilet paper rolls while I tried to gather my belongings. I finally opened the door just as the plane took one more lurch, chucking me back onto the toilet like I was the last player in a madcap game of musical chairs, then pitching me forward again and propelling me out the door and into the aisle like I was being chased by the guy with the chainsaw at the end of a haunted house. I apologized to the flight attendants for startling them, kicked a roll of TP back into the bathroom, and slammed the door shut before stumbling back down to my seat where of course, the turbulence stopped at once.
Anyway, after a stopover in Lisbon, another flight to London, a train, ride on the underground, and a walk through the driving rain, we found our very lovely AirBnB in Queen's Park. We had big plans to head back out for some dinner but the gale outside and a long day of travel intervened and instead we had toast, peanut butter, and jam, and called it a night.
The next day, we walked what felt like about 62 miles, starting in Notting Hill.
I had been hoping Hugh Grant would be mumbling in the corner of the book shop but he wasn't. Just like he wasn't in the arrivals hall at Heathrow either. So disappointing. I'm still holding out hope that I'll see him punting across a pond somewhere.
It was a clear night, the stars were sparkling, and London was really looking her festive best.
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