Success! We successfully completed the loop in our “second” step of Portuguese Residency. We had interviews with SEF-the agency governing immigration and presented all the required documents (of course all the same that we submitted the first time around back in the states). I got to practice some of my newly acquired Portuguese as my agent spoke very little, if any, English. But we knew what they would need and had it all in order. We had appointments on two different days and took the train and bus in heavy rain. We will receive our actual residency cards by mail in several weeks, but in the meantime we have a 6-werk holiday planned. Let’s just hope Portugal lets us back in the country with only a paper receipt that shows we completed the “process.”
We took the super High Speed train from Faro (next town to us) into Lisbon to the airport .. what a beautiful and new train.
Maximum speed was 221 KPH
We had an afternoon to explore and discovered the Oceanário de Lisboa-a fantastic aquarium that is rated one of the best in Europe.
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| This is a picture of an Ocean Sun Fish-there was one in the Oceanário. What an strange fish that can weigh up to 2 tons and swims on its side! |
We spent two weeks visiting our sons Bert & Bill and their families The grandsons thought it was really fun to have a big “un-birthday” party celebrating all birthdays since we won’t be around for the actual days.
The little boys really like their authentic Portuguese futbol jerseys & the masks of famous Portuguese player Christiano Renaldo.
Three days into our trip Karen stepped off the edge of a sidewalk and took a hard face plant! Well, that resulted in a fractured hand and ankle.. to make matters worse, it’s on opposite sides! Not serious but requiring 4-6 weeks in a cast and boot!
We finished our week in Oregon by visiting the awesome OMSI science museum in Portland. The special exhibit was about Leonardo da Vinci. Using the diagrams and written details in his notebooks, today’s scientists have built working models of many of his inventions. He was unbelievably brilliant and prolific in a wide array of science, aeronautics, art and music. No pictures were allowed but here a couple from websites.
Next leg of our trip is flying to Miami and hoping on a 16 day transatlantic Princess cruise ending in England We’ll then spend 2 weeks in Ireland before heading home to Portugal
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