John Edward Cooper’s Notes

Day 1
…
On arrival at Lisbon airport, you should retrieve your cases and leave the baggage reclaim hall following the ‘Saida/Exit’ signs. Go through into the Arrivals Hall AND TURN RIGHT, walking down the ramp to the Tourist Information Office, where your Tour Manager will meet you. Bear in mind that they may be travelling on the same flight, and so could be the last to arrive.
Please note that in order to operate this tour successfully, all clients may not necessarily be travelling on the same flight. This will not affect the overall content of your holiday.
The coach will then take you to the hotel where we will stay for three nights on a bed-and-breakfast basis: The Hotel Lisboa Plaza, Travessa do Salitre 7/Avenida da Liberdade, Lisbon 1269-066, Tel. no. from the U.K. is 00 351 213 218 200. The transfer time is approximately 40 mins to the hotel.
We would like to point out that airlines these days rarely provide an in-flight meal and, as some flights are due to arrive quite late, we suggest you may prefer to eat before your flight.

Janet told me she was awake ca.3.30am. She’d set the alarm clock for 3.45am. Checked e-mail accounts (03:54). Showered after Janet vacated the bathroom. Did a little bit of diary writing, etc., before shutting down, ca.5.05am, and packing, the Samsung computer in the rucksack. When I checked my mobile phone, I saw that there was a missed call from G— B— from 19:05 yesterday. Checked voice-mail; it was to say he’d be there at 5.30am — as indeed he was, in his minibus. Our route was over the picturesque Woodhead Pass: A180, M180, M18, M1, A616, A628 (we saw a dry reservoir bed before we entered Crowden — a result of the very hot, dry summer), A57, M67, M60, M56. There was rain, occasionally heavy, en route. We arrived at Manchester Airport, Terminal 1, ca.7.45am. There was already a queue, not a long one, at the TAP Air Portugal baggage check-in desks.



Janet had worn some all-leather shoes, in the hope that she’d be able to keep them on; but she was asked to take them off — some sort of random act on their part, because I didn’t have to take my trainers off. My rucksack got pulled over for inspection, though, in the security scan. We were airside, ca.8.25am. Looked in the W. H. Smith shop and spent my 2017 birthday gift-card from Anne and John on an ESV Bible and a street plan of Lisbon: £19.98; the card was for £20, so I threw it in a litter bin afterwards.





I managed not to lose my temper in the duty-free “maze” that hinders one’s way, and diverts one from direct access, to the boarding gates. I bought a tiny (longish but very narrow) bacon, chicken and tomato baguette, and a weak americano coffee from the Upper Crust stall. Janet couldn’t get 7 Up Free, so had to resort to cola: Pepsi Diet. She’d brought two large bananas from home to eat. As soon as the gate number for our flight came up on the screen we went there. The boarding pass said, “Gate closes 30min before departure”; but boarding didn’t start till then (10.15am — scheduled departure, 10:45). We boarded, ca.10.20am. There was taxiing, waiting, taxiing… from 10.50am. Take-off was at 11.05am. Light refreshments, in the form of a seeded small baguette with ham and cheese and a little bottle of what appeared to be puréed apple, were brought along on a trolley, followed by another trolley with drinks. I had red wine. Janet gave me her food too. Hers had a bottle of peach purée. She had a drink, though: Coke Zero. We landed at 13:28. Going through the automatic passport control “traps” was trouble-free; and we arrived at the baggage reclaim carousel at 13:50. Luggage from a flight from Cologne was just beginning to be delivered to it; and the sign said that ours would begin at 13:59. I kept to my position there, though: an action which was justified, because our suitcases appeared before the “expected at 13:59” disappeared. We met “Paul”, our tour manager, and he ticked our names off a list on a clipboard. One or two of our people were there; some had held back because of the “13:59” sign. I said “Bom dia!” to him, adding, “That’s the only Portuguese I know.” He replied “Bom dia!” — but added that in the afternoon, one would say “Boa tarde!” I remembered “Bom dia!”, and how it was pronounced with a somewhat slurred “d” (the same as Google Translate’s pronunciation), from a Brazilian soap-opera that was on Channel 4 decades ago; but his “d” sounded the same as our “d”. When we were all gathered, he led us out to the coach. As well as our luggage, two wheelchairs were stowed in the lower part of the coach. The two men, from separate male-female couples, were able to get about slowly with the aid of a walking stick. We boarded the coach ca.2.30 and arrived at the hotel “Lisboa Plaza” ca.2.55pm. On the way, Paul told us that the start-time for our trip to Sintra tomorrow would be 9.00am. He mentioned something about stopping off at the Gulbenkian Museum. I also scribbled “Restauradores”, a public square near the hotel; “Rossio Square”, ditto; “Principe Real”, “Botanical Gardens”, “Rua Augusta Arch” and “funicular to the Bohemian Quarter”. These related to suggestions about how to spend our free time. He mentioned that there was a supermarket a short way from the hotel just off the main Avenida da Liberdade; and that not far from the hotel there was a restaurant, “Restaurante A Gina”, serving typical Portuguese food. I didn’t note how many of us there were just then, but some people had arrived earlier from Edinburgh Airport, making the total number on subsequent trips 50.



Janet and I had a room on the first floor; so apart from initially taking cases up in the lift, we used the stairs thereafter. The key to open the door was a real key — a Yale-style latchkey — though attached to it by a key-ring was a plastic card to insert into a slot to switch on the electricity supply in the room. There was also a small tag attached with the Wi-Fi code written on it. In the room we opened the cases, and Janet sorted out stuff while I set up the computer. Logging on to the Wi-Fi was very straightforward, because the code was input at the start of the process into a pop-up dialog box, not later in the browser. Checked my Gmail inbox (15:47).…



Ca.4pm we ventured out, initially turning left then bearing left into a large square (“Parque Mayer”) with evidence of demolition here and there. It was hot and sunny. We were following signs to “Restaurante A Gina”. There were two theatres, one of which looked recently refurbished, and a third theatre next to the latter, which was in a very dilapidated state, just a shell. There were trees looming over a high retaining wall in one corner, some of which looked exotic. There was a banana plant among them. (I didn’t realise that this was at the north-east corner of the Botanical Garden of Lisbon University.) Around on a far side we found the restaurant we were looking for. We looked at a menu, and decided that we’d have dinner there. They started serving dinner at 7pm, a bit later than we’d have preferred. Emerging from the square, we found ourselves in the nearby Avenida da Liberdade, just by a Great War memorial. (Portugal was neutral in World War II.) Nearby, among the trees of the avenue, was a circular structure,[i] and just before it, tables and chairs under a large canvas awning. It was the bar of the nearby “Ribadouro marisqueria/cervejaria”, we later realised. When we walked along Avenida da Liberdade, both today and subsequently, we observed that there were several “almost identical” establishments throughout the length of the avenue. Another noticeable feature, as we walked along the avenue, was an abundance of policemen: it seemed almost that there was one on every street corner! At the Ribadouro bar, Janet had two Pepsi Max and I 0.4ℓ beer. Leaving there, we crossed the avenue and turned left, walking a few blocks, then turning right and finding along there the aforementioned supermarket: MiniPreço. All the sidewalks in Lisbon (and indeed, in all the towns of Portugal that we visited), were made of mosaics of 3" or 4"-long stone chips. In some areas, such as on the wooded areas of Avenida da Liberdade, they were formed into patterns and images, with white and grey stones. Most of the stones had been worn smooth and were quite slippery. (We first encountered slippery-smooth pavements among the ruins of Ephesus.) Janet had changed into sandals and found the walking treacherous. I was wearing rubber-soled trainers so was able to lend support. At MiniPreço, after we’d marvelled at the range and variety of foods on sale (e.g. fairly large, whole cheeses), Janet selected eight cans of Pepsi Max @ €0.85 each. She also bought a bunch of black grapes for €0.90. I couldn’t resist buying a 375ml bottle of that erstwhile British “staple” of the 1970s, Mateus Rosé, @ €2.39. (In the mini-bar in the hotel room, it was €6.40 for a miniscule 220ml bottle!) Don’t think I’ve had any of that since the 1970s! It was Steve Willingham[ii] who introduced me to it; and I in turn introduced Janet to it. She didn’t drink much when I first met her, and one glass had a most unexpected effect. It was “the first wine I ever had,” she wrote, “and [John] got me pissed on a glass of that at The Thornton Lodge the first time I went to Thornton. I was legless (really!) and slid off the chair and had to be taken ‘home’ in a taxi. We never did find out what ‘the Colonel’s Peaches’ were [i.e. the dessert]!” If the time on the till receipt is reliable, “17:06”, it was ten or fifteen minutes after that when we got back to our hotel room. Janet updated her holiday journal. Because I packed my shaver yesterday evening and so didn’t shave this morning, I did so now. I decided to start the Mateus Rosé. I finished it not long afterwards too! Oops! Did … a bit of diary update using the computer I’d brought with me, the Samsung, but I was hindered by the fact that, as I typed, the text would keep jumping to a different and unexpected line. I use an external keyboard with the computer at home, and don’t get that problem. … We set out, ca.6.45pm.

[i] Cf. the photo taken tomorrow, 17:36:42, which shows that the structure was in fact hexagonal, not circular.
[ii] At the time of writing, Steve Willingham only appears in John Edward Cooper's Notes in Sandra Gorst: October 1971.

Sunday 16 September 2018 — 18:51:48
Parque Mayer (the former “Broadway district” of Lisbon), looking east: (left:) Teatro Maria Vitória; (right of centre:) the derelict Teatro Variedades; (right:) the refurbished Cineteatro Capitólio


Sunday 16 September 2018 — 18:52:18
South-west corner of Parque Mayer


Sunday 16 September 2018 — 18:53:38
Detail of the graffiti art on the south-west corner of Parque Mayer


Sunday 16 September 2018 — 18:54:40
Detail of the graffiti art on the south-west corner of Parque Mayer


Sunday 16 September 2018 — 18:55:34
Restaurante A Gina on the south side of Parque Mayer

Thinking the evening might become cool, we sat inside, not in the outside terrace, at Restaurante A Gina. (It was still warm when we left, though.) We were presented with a basket of bread slices and a board with a line of sliced chouriço, one of slices of an orange-rinded yellowish cheese with a robust flavour, and one of presunto. The cheese within the rind was somewhat soft, though falling well short of runny. It tasted agreeably strong. We asked the man (waiters tended to be men in these establishments) what it was, and he told us, “Queijo de Nisa”.


Sunday 16 September 2018 — 19:01:26
In Restaurante A Gina

I had a half-bottle of Douro wine. It was the cheapest on the menu, but I found it full-bodied and very agreeable. Janet had Coke Zero.


Sunday 16 September 2018 — 19:23:02
In Restaurante A Gina

I had “black pork” (not itself black, but from the Black Iberian Pig), with potatoes and rice (a common combination there, we found), and pickled cauliflower and carrot pieces (again, common there). Janet had sea bream, which she found bony and therefore fiddly to eat.


Sunday 16 September 2018 — 20:05:14
In Restaurante A Gina

I finished with an americano coffee. “After we paid the bill,” Janet recalls, “we were offered a glass of port each.” In a situation like this, Janet, who doesn’t drink, would normally accept it and let me have it; but in this case, (she adds,) “I declined mine. … I thought [John] had had quite enough to drink by then: he was a bit ‘popped’.”


Sunday 16 September 2018 — 20:34:56
Leaving Restaurante A Gina


Sunday 16 September 2018 — 20:36:36
(Foreground:) Cineteatro Capitólio; (background): Teatro Maria Vitória


Sunday 16 September 2018 — 20:38:40
Leaving Parque Mayer


Sunday 16 September 2018 — 20:39:36
“Shop front” for Teatro Maria Vitória


Sunday 16 September 2018 — 20:40:26
Hotel Lisboa Plaza

Before we went up to our room, I took a photo of the itinerary that Paul had posted on a notice board standing just before the reception desk.


Sunday 16 September 2018 — 20:41:20
Itinerary posted in the hotel lobby

Transferred 15 photos from the camera to the WD Elements HDD (20:52–20:53)…. Viewed them with Windows Photo Viewer and rotated one that needed it (20:56). Janet showered. It was her least favourite set-up: a shower within a bathtub, which one has to step over precariously to enter and to leave, with a clingy curtain. I continued with some diary write-up,… [etc.]. Janet was in bed just before 10pm, and I went to bed not long afterwards.

[Monday 17 September 2018]