River of Gold Viking River Cruise
Day 1: Friday, November 08, 2024 - Travel from The Hague, Netherlands, to Lisbon, Portugal
The day's statistics:
- Weather: upper 50s
- Steps: 9,173 Linda; 12,519 Steve
- Miles traveled (approximately): 692
On the last day of our trips - VRC or one of our road trips -
I chronical the entire first day. As such, I'm not exactly sure where to begin this day, so I will go through
the entire day, though some of text does indeed overlap with the last day of the
Holland and Belgium cruise.
While this is the first day of this cruise, River of Gold, this is not the first day of our vacation.
Upon landing, retreiving our baggage, and finding our Viking contact, the ROG cruise begins. Upon landing, retreiving our
luggage, and finding our Viking contact, we begin our River of Gold cruise.
We could have used Viking Air and paid for a pair of international tickets at $999 each, and Viking would have taken care
of arranging the flight from The Hague to Portugal. Instead, we chose to spend ~$300 and take care of the flight ourselves,
saving nearly $1,700 in the process.
We wanted to do the two cruises anyway - plus we had certificates we bought on our cruise last year - so why not book them
back-to-back and save that much money?
Most passengers came from the airport from their home, we came from the airport in another country - and not as a layover -
at the end of another Viking River cruise.
A few passengers partake in a Viking Extension(s), as this is. This cruise begins on the water in Lisbon, but these first
two nights are part of the extension.
Part of our home checklist before leaving on vacation includes turning the clocks back or ahead if needed - so I turned the
clocks back before we left so they would all be accurate when we returned.
The list also includes adjusting the camera time - but I said to myself that the clocks don't turn back for almost two weeks, so
I will wait. What I SHOULD have done was turn the clock back six time zones because I probably wouldn't use the camera until we
were somewhere in Europe. And even if I did, there wouldn't have been too many pictures taken where it would have mattered.
Instead, I took over 2,600 pictures WITH THE WRONG TIMESTAMP. Gah!
I have since updated the checklist to address Time Zones because it will be months before this becomes an issue again and I just
may not remember by then.
Also, since I had to adjust the camera for the turn-back-the-clocks anyway, I also added the time zone adjustment too.
We had breakfast in the hotel in The Hague.
There was a rather interesting wall light that also created in funky mirror effect.
We had to pass through the bar on the way back to our room.
After breakfast, we returned to our room for a bit because we still had a little time to kill as our hotel departure
wasn't until 10:15.
Quite a few workers take their bike to work.
We were at the airport at 10:50.
Our bags were checked and we headed to the gate, C6.
We had some time to kill, so we wandered around the airport a little, primarily because we promised to get someone
a windmill magnet like the one we got last time. There wasn't the same style but we did find a similar model. We
also some other souveniers.
We arrived at the gate, and got comfortable.
Eventually there was a board update that our flight was delayed 15 minutes.
The delay was extended to 35 minutes AND the gate was changed from C6 to C3.
Then the gate was changed to C12.
I was once again asked to take a fashion photo.
Eventaully, at 2:00 local time we were called to board.
In ten minutes we were seated.
It took another 20 minutes before we started moving.
Another 20 minutes later we sat at the end of the runway awaiting takeoff - which was just two minutes later.
But we saw this plane while we were taxiing.
The plane took off and went straight into fog / low clouds.
We saw some interesting sights from high up, as well as a crescent moon above the clouds.
During the flight we looked at the menu, and saw an unusual drink available.
At 4:55 PM, we started our descent into Lisbon. The third person in our aisle happened to be a pilot that was flying home.
We talked to him about the descent, and he admitted that it was a rather long descent. We tried to use the restroom right
when they announced we were descending, but we were asked to return to our seats. Had they announced - like our last
flight - that descent was starting soon, we could have taken care of it. It wasn't an issue, but it was more to the point.
Good thing there were no additional delays.
After landing, we made our way to baggage claim. We made a quick pause in the restroom.
On the wall outside the restroom was this monitor that displayed how crowded the restrooms were. For some reason...
We retreived our bags and headed out to find our Viking representative.
Bruna greeted us, and asked us to wait a couple minutes as we were waiting for a couple other passengers that were on a
different flight. After they arrived, the half-dozen of us made our way to the shuttle and Phillip drive us to the hotel.
Just outside the airport was a welcome sign.
We were used to calling the city "Lisbon", but the sign clearly shows a different spelling. The natives call the city
"Lisboa", and the 's' is pronounced similarly to the 'g' in "leige", but with an 'i' in front, and not an 'e'. So "leige"
is pronounced "lee-g", not "li-g" like "Lisboa".
Also right outside the airport was traffic.
Our drive continued and we came across another roundabout sculpture and the University of Lisbon.
After our short drive we were at the Corinthia Hotel.
We were greeted by our hotel host, Hugo - though his name is pronounced "oogle".
Because we were on a later flight - and had a delay, we missed out on the orientation walk.
As it was late enough, we were able to check-in and go to our room.
It was time for something to eat.
We weren't too active today, so we didn't really want a big heavy restaurant dinner. We did our frequent thing
and visited the market. There happen to be a Lidl in the train station building across the street and down the
block a little.
I try to get some supermarket prices - along with the golden arches menus - to gage the cost of living in various
cities we visit. Here, a half dozen eggs are €1.49 - or, essentiall, €3 per dozen.
We bought the usual fare: salad, bread, cheese, cookies (the large ones, instead of chocolate), and wine.
It wasn't that late, but we weren't familiar with the area, so we didn't go for a walk. We played pinochle, relaxed, did the luggage thing, washed up, and went to bed.
While this ends the Holland and Belgium cruise, our vacation continues with the
River of Gold cruise.