We're off to Portugal and Spain!

Once a year we try to take a “big” vacation. This year it’s Portugal and Spain!


We got up early the day of the trip - Dave had to make the rounds at the office and drop the car off. We both wanted to be at the very unpredictable LAX early to check luggage, get through security and have a bite of lunch. Lo and behold we are on the airside of the terminal in an hour! A miracle at International. Next stop – find food and drink. We start the journey to our gate knowing that there would be plenty of options, afterall, domestic terminals are full of restaurants airside and knowing how long some of the International flight layovers can be, we were sure there would be options. WRONG!!!! There was only one “snack bar” – and I use that term loosely. But, it was that or a bag of Chex Mix in my purse. So, $50 later (seriously) we had consumed one halfway decent ham sandwich, one bad chef salad and a glass of wine each. I kid you not! We were raped! But we had something in our stomach. Next stop – it’s time to fly. I booked us on Lufthansa because the price was right and we could fly directly to Frankfurt, then on to Lisbon, avoiding changing planes at JFK or Newark. I found out after I booked the tickets that the fare class was not upgradeable due to the low cost. No big deal – we’ve flown coach to Europe before. So we boarded, passed through Business class, me looking longingly at the big seats that would fold back into recliners for the night’s rest. We got to our seats and big surprise – the seats and leg room were so minimal that even I was thinking “oh shit, 10 hours….”. I thought Dave was going to cry but he’s a real trooper. That is until we took off and the rather large woman in front of Dave suddenly reclined her seat all the way back, almost breaking his knee caps! He yelled so loud that I everyone around thought he was having some kind of attack. He tried to gently push her seat up with his legs but she wouldn’t budge. Finally she relented slightly. Next came dinner – or should I say the economy version of what they called dinner. It made the snack bar look like a 5 star restaurant. The only redeeming feature of dinner was the 2 free glasses of cheap wine. Now, time for some sleep. However, I couldn’t get comfortable and a baby was screaming its head off! So, I watched a couple of movies, did some crosswords and prayed that I would pass out from sheer exhaustion!