Granada - Madrid - Lisbon

Today we have moved from Spain to Portugal. Our only previous time in Portugal was a fabulus week in Porto many years ago. 

Ah, but the dramas of today! Back in September 2017 we booked flights from Granada to Madrid and allowing over five hours between flights, on to Lisbon. Some time later Iberia changed the time of the first flight, reducing our gap by over half an hour. When I came to check in on line on Monday I discovered that TAP had cancelled our booking and put us on a much earlier flight, giving us only one and a half hours between touch down of one flight and take off of the next. The check-in girl at Granada told us it wasn't  possible to make the connection. We believed her as we had to collect luggage and change terminals in Madrid.

Our Granada plane was late leaving but arrived on time and we had been allowed to move forward for a quick exit. We ran to the luggage carousel only to wait for ages for our luggage, then to find our way out and locate the bus to take us to terminal two. Back at Granada Kel had Messaged our son to get a phone number for the airline. $57 later he had made our situation known and negotiated a deal for the next day if we missed the connection. Once on the airport transit bus he rang again to update our progress. Time was running out rapidly. At terminal 2 we ran like crazy, Kel knocking over old ladies, babies and people with trolley loads of luggage. Finally we arrived at the check in desk, only to find that luggage drop off had closed. The assistant suggested we try taking our cases on the plane, then I remembered that we didn't  have boarding cards. Our cases had to be x-rayed, along with the usual slow kerfuffle involved with security at airports. We only had a couple of minutes before the boarding gate closed when we arrived. Full credit to the staff who were kind and friendly, they knew our plight and agreed to accept our luggage. Once tagged we had to take our cases on to the plane where we were met by three men who took care of the luggage. Hot, sweaty, exhausted (bleeding in Kel's case!) we collapsed into our seats. Would you believe it, the plane was an hour late leaving due to a technical fault??!!