We met up with Maxine at the United Club near our departure gate. This was Laura's first meeting with Maxine. We had a drink and reviewed the upcoming trip. Our flight out of Houston departed at 2:35 pm on Friday, May 4. Maxine flew Business Class and we took Economy on a 737-900. The flight was just over three hours in duration and overall, uneventful. We arrived in Newark (EWR) a little late, about 8:00 pm, but our next flight did not start boarding until 8:55 pm. We met with Maxine's friend, Joan, who had flown in from Florida.
The big surprise was what we encountered when we got to our departure gate in EWR. Apparently, we were unknowingly participating in United's inaugural non-stop service from EWR to OPO (Porto, Portugal). They had balloons, wine and Portuguese cuisine for the passengers of the flight, not that they ever checked our boarding passes. Prior to boarding, they had a ribbon cutting ceremony. As a memento of the occasion, all the passengers were presented a passport wallet (holder) made of genuine imitation leather.
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| Food Line in EWR |
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| Flight Crew |
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| Some United Wheel making a speech |
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| Stretching the Ribbon |
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| Cutting the Ribbon (lot's of scissors) |
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| Laura and Maxine |
As we flew out, Laura, who had the window seat (remember that fact), got some photos of New York after dark.
The six hour flight to OPO was on a Boeing 757. Maxine traveled Business while the other three of us traveled Economy. The flight was completely full. It took off at 10:00 pm and touched down at 9:00 am on Saturday morning in Porto. It was a miserable flight and no one, other than Maxine, got much sleep. I finally gave up any attempt to sleep around 6:00 am when SOMEONE (sitting in the window seat of my row) opened the window shade to let the morning sun into the otherwise dark cabin. Maxine's Business Class seat reclined to a complete horizontal position, providing her with the potential for a comfortable sleep. They fed us a chicken meal around midnight and a somewhat inedible breakfast of yogurt and croissant around 7:30 am (Laura got the last croissant and I got the same dinner roll I declined during the previous meal).
Celebration of the inarguable flight began anew upon our arrival in Porto. As we taxied toward the terminal, they had fire trucks flanking the taxi-way spraying blue colored water over the plane as it passed by.
We cleared Customs and got a cab to the Sheraton. We got checked into our rooms and, after a brief rest, decided to explore Porto. We took a cab to the old section of town down by the Douro River. We walked along the river and took in the sights. Then had lunch and walked some more. Finally, around 3:00 pm, we decided to call it quits and hailed a cab to take us back to the hotel.
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| Tafdup University Student Band - Today was graduation day |
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| Fish enjoying the sewer discharge into the river |
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| Joan and Maxine |
Finally getting back to our hotel around 4:00 pm, the ladies agreed we should go out to eat in the evening. They discussed the best places with the hotel concierge and had him make a reservation for 7:00 pm. It was agreed we would meet back in the hotel lobby at 6:30 pm. This gave us about two hours to rest and get cleaned up. It provided me with the time to realize I was not anxious to go out again.
