1. Our hotel and "limo." Maria took us to old downtown Lisbon and then to our hotel.
2. Still in our "sleeping clothes" - we visit Pasteis de Belem.
3. Ross Todd - Maria - Nancy - and another "minister of education" having small yellow matter custard tarts.
We boarded our Lisbon bound plane in Newark at 8 PM last night. Lulu used one of her old tricks. She booked our seats - window and aisle - with a seat between us empty. It worked so we had three seats for the 7 hours flight. Better yet - our row had 110 volt electrical outlets - we were able to use our computers on the plane. That was good because Lulu had to prepare her powerpoint slides for the lecture.
After a short delay - we got out to the end of the runway - and the pilot had to take the plane back to the gate to remove an ill passenger. After a quick turnaround - we were up in sky over Manhattan zooming eastward toward Europe. The flight was uneventful and 7 hours later we buzzing downtown old Lisbon at sunrise. Portugal is 4 hours ahead of Tallahassee so as I write at 1 PM here - it is just turning 9 AM in Eastern Standard Time.
It took a long time to go through customs even though they did not touch our luggage. "bringing in a couple of keys - don't touch my bags if you please - Mr. Customs Man." But as soon as we got through the doors- I saw the sign for Dr. Everhart. Maria from the National Ministry of Education was waiting for us. My visions of a stretch limo vanished as we drove away in a Volkswagen Gold Diesel - but the next stop was more than worth it.
Instead of taking us to the hotel - Maria took us to old downtown Lisbon - to the world famous Pasteis de Belem. The Pasteis are more world famous than Philadelphia Cheesesteaks. The little yellow custard tarts have become a new Everhart favorite.
Even though we were jet-lagged and ready for a little nap - we wanted to be alert to cheer for the Noles against Georgia Tech. We will watch the game live with the slingbox on our computer at 7:30 PM over here.
So now we are free until Monday when Lulu has to give her presentation.
Maria told us that they have been using Lulu's textbook as a source for their model library evaluating program. When they were organizing this conference someone suggested they try to go right to the source and get the author. There is an old saying that you are not an expert until you are 100 miles from home.
How about 3500 miles?
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