Portugal

I arrived in Portugal after a completely uneventful air trip TOL-CVG-CDG-LIS. Actually, my transatlantic leg was better than most; I sat next to an American expat who was working for Michelin. We had a fascinating conversation about working overseas, the differences between French and American companies, and various misadventures he had while adjusting to French bureaucracy. Speaking of which: when I got to CDG, I found that, as usual, Air France managed to add a delay to my schedule, but I was in such a good mood from my post-arrival shower at their lounge in Terminal 2C that I didn’t mind too much. (Note to self: remember that CDG isn’t air-conditioned and dress appropriately).

Along the way to the terminal, I found a small chapel that had a guestbook wherein visitors were encouraged to write messages or prayers. I wrote my testimony in French, which was kind of neat. Of course, it’s entirely possible that my rusty grammar will turn people off, but I was pleased that my habit of reading French-language church publications had enriched my vocabulary so much.

I got to Lisbon a few minutes late and headed to the arrival area to meet Devin, whose flight had arrived around the same time. I’d wanted to buy a prepaid SIM for Arlene’s old phone (which is now my outside-the-US phone), but there were none for sale at CDG. Fortunately, Vodafone had a kiosk right in the Lisbon arrival area, so we bought SIMs and took a taxi to our hotel. I can’t say that the taxi driver was the least friendly driver I’ve ever had, but he’d certainly rank in the top ten.

Despite his demeanor, though, we made it to the Vila Galé Opera hotel just fine. The hotel sits right near a large convention hall and next to the Bridge of 25 April (the linked photo was apparently taken from our hotel’s front yard, or very close to it; the picture below was taken from a pedestrian bridge near the conference center). It was a nice enough place; as you might expect, there were lots of subtle and not-so-subtle differences from typical US hotels, including the fact that you have to stick your room key in a slot near the front door to turn on the room’s electricity. All in all, not a bad place to stay.

We had a pleasant dinner at a restaurant right across from the hotel; there were actually a row of them in an area called Las Docas (“the docks”). The restaurant where we ate had a great menu that listed, among other delicacies, barnacles and spider crab skull. Though it was hard to resist (I mean, who doesn’t love skull?) I had a steak, which turned out to be quite good. The service was fairly poor; I found this to be true of all the restaurants and other public venues (notably, the airport). People just didn’t seem to care.

The staff at the conference center was exceptionally helpful; they got the telephone and network connectivity set up flawlessly. As a result, the 1200+ attendees got what they came for: an in-depth look at the new features in Exchange 2007, Office 2007, and Windows Vista. My presentation on Exchange Unified Messaging was a real hoot; I was driving the UM demo of Outlook Voice Access from my MacBook Pro and a telephone that had been patched into the room’s sound system. The audience loved it when I told OVA to clear my calendar because I was going to the beach, and the demonstration of Live Communications Server’s telephone control features went very well too. (As a bonus, I got to meet Exchange MVP Rui J.M. Silva and an Outlook MVP whose name I’ve regrettably forgotten.)

In the afternoon, after Devin and I got done, we went sightseeing / souvenir hunting. We walked several kilometres into town, where I spotted a cow (see below) from this year’s Cow Parade and a very cool statue of Prince Henry the Navigator (note the elephants around the statue’s base). We didn’t find any souvenirs, sorry to say. However, we both noticed that the people on the streets looked somewhere between downtrodden and angry, in all but a few cases. Maybe it was just the area where we were.

I went back to the docks and had a great dinner of chouriço (sausage, baked in a dish with two cheeses on top) and lasagna at a restaurant called “Cosmos”. Then I went back to the hotel, worked for a while, slept all too briefly, and took my next flight LIS-AMS on TAP Air Portugal. Good news: they have in-flight entertainment. Bad news: it was “Big Momma’s House”. Worst news: they play the movie audio over the cabin PA, in English, with onscreen Portugese subtitles. Man, I had those headphones on in nothing flat.

Even though I had a 90-minute layover in AMS, I almost didn’t make my flight; I had to find a Delta gate to check in, and that took some doing. I was almost the last pax aboard my flight back to CVG, but after that, I had a smooth trip back home except that my new airplane laptop adapter doesn’t have enough juice to drive the MacBook Pro while it’s charging. Jim McBee told me his had the same problem, but I dismissed it as a one-off. Oops. Time for a new one, I guess.

Actually, it’s time to get ready for going to Oslo tomorrow.