7/22 Porto to Lisbon to Philadelphia to Kansas City

Summing Up

07/22/2019 - 07/22/2019 79 °F
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In Porto, the alarm sounds at 3:45. We disembark Viking Helgrim and take a 20 minute, 30 Euro taxi ride at 4:45am to make the 7:00am TAP flight to Lisbon.

From there, we took the 7.5 hours long 12:15pm 767-300 American flight 259 to Philadelphia. B4 snoozed a bit but I stayed awake. We had a nearly 5.5 hour layover in Philadelphia, childhood home to B4, my Philly girl. So, at the airport, after we clear immigration and customs, we meet cousins Joy and David who live nearby. We haven't seen them for a year or more. The conversation was far reaching and fun at the Airport Marriott bar where we enjoyed a cheesesteak.

Finally, we headed to Kansas City on AA4358, aboard an Embraer ERJ-175. It's an almost three hour flight arriving MCI at 10:42pm. Both of us, exhausted, slept the entire way. Our total travel time for the day is just under 23 hours. B4 is under the weather, having been hit with sinus/throat issues on our final day in Portugal. She's a trooper, never calling in sick for anything, anywhere.

Would we return to Portugal? Absolutely. Which is better, Lisbon or Porto? It's a tie. Would we take another river cruise? Absolutely. Would we skip Salamanca for a day of solitude aboard Helgrim? Probably would. A day aboard a ship on the water--river or ocean--is, for us, sublime.