Buns and coffee at the hotel. Taxi to the airport at 9 a.m. to recover the luggage and car. Split up. Merv and I to get the car, Carole and Lee went for the luggage. Still no help at Budget, so went plan B. Reserved a station wagon with Viata when we arrived on Saturday. Sorry, no station wagon, but other cars available. Ended up renting a Renault 19. New and nice. Met Carole and Lee. No luggage. So sorry. Nobody could help at all, KLM was closed and Lost and Still Lost Dept. was still lost. Struck out for the hotel. Merv gave me the honors. No street signs, drive like hell! Finally navigated to downtown and were able to find our way back to the hotel. Walked to a KLM office by our hotel and no help there with the lost luggage. Back to the hotel and called Amsterdam. Located bags and were assured they would arrive by TAP at 8:15 tonight. We'll see.

Started downtown at 12:30 p.m. and had lunch in a street café on the Rossio (square in the center of downtown). From there to a bank on Rua Augusta, where a half hour wait was in order as the clerks had to have a smoke or two. What's the hurry? Down to the harbor through the Arc that overlooks the Praca do Comercio Square. Decided to walk up the Castelo de Sao Jorge, overlooking Lisboa. Up through the streets of the Alfama and stopped at the Miradouro de Santa Luzia balcony. Beautiful view. On to the church Santo Antonio, built on the site of where Saint Anthony was born. Enormous church, 60' high inside. Took two wrong turns, but perseverance paid off and we finally found the castle.

      
      
      
      
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Spent a rewarding hour within the walls of the castle, with it's battlements, courtyards and armaments.

      
    
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Everybody beat, so into a taxi and back to the hotel. Probably walked 6-7 miles. Off to the airport at 7:15 p.m. Drove straight there without a hitch, much to everyone's surprise. Waited with bated breath for our luggage off the 8:15 flight, but to nobodies surprise, no luggage. Carole and Lee bee-lined it to the KLM counter and caught a disgruntled clerk right at closing time. She phoned Lost and Still Lost Dept. and insisted our bags were there. Back down to Lost and Still Lost and by no small miracle, managed to convince them to look again. Eureka! Lost and Still Lost became Lost and Found. Turns out our baggage came in at 2:30 on KLM. Hurrah!

  
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With our luggage secure in the trunk, we proceeded to get ourselves supremely lost. Worked our way back downtown and eventually home. Went for supper down at O Cardo's at 10:30. Excellent swordfish, cod and chicken, with a bottle of red wine, to celebrate the reunion with our worldly possessions. Home to bed at 12:30 a.m.