Portuguese Airports

We bid farewell to Elliot and my Mom in the Orlando Airport. Mom took Elliot back to McLean while we spent the next very long time flying ourselves to Spain!

Elliot was great on the plane for my mom, which was a huge relief. We video called them several times over the next 10 days, and it was funny watching the progression. The first few calls, Elliot had zero interest in talking to his mom and dad. He was way too busy playing with all the different toys or jumping on various beds and couches. He was more interested in talking to us a few days later. He told us all about how Grumpa keeps giving him donuts and strawberries, and how much fun he was having with my brother Clint (aka Cwinto-beans). Near the end of the trip, the very first thing he would say to us was "I WANT TO GO GO HOME!" When we said bye at the end of the call, he said "I WANT TO GO BYE BYE TOO!" 10 days was a long time to be away from him, and I don't know if I would want to be apart for quite that long again. 

Our flight path on the way there was

 Orlando - Newark - Porto, Portugal - Lisbon, Portugal - Madrid, Spain

Our return flights were

Madrid, Spain - Lisbon, Portugal - Boston - DC

We were flying internationally on TAP, which is a Portuguese airline. We ended up spending 10 hours in Portuguese airports, but the time blocks were too small to allow us to leave and look around. This results in us having a very strange impression of the country based on the extremely strange shops we found in the airport. 

Why would you ever buy raw fish in an airport?

Are you supposed to smuggle knives through security to chop up these watermelons for sale?

Portugal is VERY proud of their gourmet fish industry 

The fish passion came to a head in this circus themed shop that sold only fish products.
That entire wall is lined with packages of  sardines. 

QUEEN OF SARDINES

Portugal as seen from above. 

One airport had these scenic backdrops so that we can pretend that we actually explored Portugal.
The slightly desperate tourism advertisements on the plane say that it is really great there!

Miracle of Miracles! Aaron found 2 Euro on the ground at the food court. We didn't have any Euro yet, so we excitedly used it to help by lunch (even though our credit card worked with not too bad international fees). 

The flight was pretty pleasant. Mostly because Elliot wasn't there! We were both able to sleep enough that the jet lag wasn't too bad. The meal on the long oversea flight was good, and we watched Beauty and the Beast and Hidden Figures (although they didn't let us turn off the Portuguese subtitles).