Well, it looks like we may finally be getting some blog fodder. Arriving at the bus station in Seville, we exchanged our online tickets for a " boarding pass". This was a well used piece of laminated paper with the number 16 printed on it with no further information. Except they must have run out of number 16 cards so we were given a number 6 with a 1 scrawled on it by the ticket guy Enquires at the information booth revealed that the bus to Faro would be leaving from bay 20 or maybe 21. So down we went and this bus had "free seating" that is, no allocated seats.
So using the well proven approach, Jean gets on board first to get the best seats in the bus, while I get our bags into baggage lockers under the bus. It's amazing how many people think that they are the only ones travelling, bags laying flat at the front so they take up maximum space. I wait until last, then our bags are at the front and first off.
Meanwhile back on the bus, the epitome of the English traveller ( large, ill dressed, glasses slipping down his nose) gets on and is checking out the seat numbers. He arrives at seat 16 and points out to a French couple sitting there that they appear to be in his seat. With clear evidence that the Napoleonic wars with Britain were not over, it needed the assistance of others to explain to the traveller that there was no reserved seating on this bus.
Then there was the Australian girl who was saving a seat for her friend who didn't arrive in time anyway, so for the next couple of hours, we were treated to the story of her travels through Asia, the " communist" government in Thailand, which was news to me, Australia's immigration polices and treatment of refugees, the limited nature of Italian food and how widely travelled she was. The Irish guy who happened to land in the seat next to her must have been thrilled. Thankfully, my noise cancelling headphones saved the day for me.
Arriving in Faro we found our hotel without any pain, dropped off the bags and set off for the old town (read more cobble stone streets, mostly uphill, narrow streets but thankfully very few people.
On the recommendation of the hotel, we went to a particular restaurant and had the most amazing meal. Imagine shellfish, muscles, pipis, cockles etc vegetables and herbs all cooked together in a cross between a wok with a tight fitting lid and a tangine. The flavours were fantastic.
Back to the hotel and up again to get the train to Lisbon and Porto.
With the tickets telling us the train was leaving from platform 1, and with no train in sight, we chanced it and tried the only other train in sight which was on platform 4. A bit of cross checking satisfied us that this was the right train and as I write this blog, we seem to be heading in the right direction.
The next challenge is for us to arrive in Lisbon on time and find the next train to Porto, all in 10 minutes.
Well, first off the train and down the escalators, when halfway down, we realise that our train is leaving from the same platform that we arrived on. So back up and now comfortably installed on yet another fast train, rocketing up to Porto at 200km/hr +.