April Wrap-up - Last days in Portugal

Saturday 1st April -  We had arrived in the town of Batalha the previous afternoon, as we were attending a wedding on Saturday.

In the morning, we met with my cousin and his wife, (who live in Leiria, 15min away from Batalha), at a Cafe just across from the Monastery.

You can read about this beautiful monument and town in my previous post - 

https://sami-colourfulworld.blogspot.com/2023/04/march-wrap-up-portugal-sintra-and.html

Then it was time to go home, eat a light lunch, get dressed up and drive to the wedding venue - at the lovely Quinta dos Castanheiros in Leiria, where the wedding was taking place at 3pm.

We have known the bride's family for 53 years! I met her mother when she was about 6 or 7 years old. The bride's great-grandparents looked after my little sister when we moved to South Africa, they were like our grandparents. How time flies!!

Pre-wedding photo - Brother in law, sister, me and my parents

Just Married sign at the wedding venue

It was a beautiful wedding, everything was picture perfect, the food was great...                        

The DJ played a variety of music - Portuguese, English, German and Indian to cater for the nationalities present at the wedding. The bridal couple live and met in Germany and they had a lot of German guests present.

Waving our serviettes to welcome the bride and groom - dancing and you can see my 90 year old Dad also danced and the bride and groom listening to speeches.

Then it was time to go outside and toast the couple who walked through a double line of guests holding sparklers onto a little cabana above a pond, where they cut the cake while the fireworks exploded.  

When we returned indoors the hall behind the dining hall where we sat for dinner was all set up with buffet tables full of meats, seafood, soup, and the desserts that had been there for self-service during dinner.

I couldn't really fit much more in, so just took a bowl of hot soup (it was cold outside) and a couple of prawns and potato crisps.

After more dancing it was time to go home and we left the venue it was almost 1am! Luckily we were just 15 minutes away.

The bridal couple with our family

Sunday 2nd - Sadly the family had to forego lunch with the bridal couple and their families as I had a flight to Frankfurt that afternoon, so we packed, checked-out of the Airbnb and drove to Lisbon.  

My return flight to Australia wasn't too well planned, as I had to stay overnight in Frankfurt as my flight to Singapore was at 12,30pm on the 3rd of April, but I couldn't get a flight from Lisbon arriving at least 2 hours earlier, hence I had to fly the day before.

After a 3-hour flight I arrived in Frankfurt airport at 9pm, picked my bags and caught a taxi to the Moxy Frankfurt Airport Hotel where I had booked a room. 

A quirky and modern hotel, I couldn't figure out where the reception desk was when I arrived, as the area was dimly lit and it looked like a bar to me.... well it was, part bar, part reception, (odd) but the small bedroom was comfortable, and the shower had the best pressure ever!  

The signs in the hotel were great!

Monday 3rd - After a simple buffet breakfast I checked out and got a taxi just outside the hotel to take me to the airport about 10 minutes away.

Check-in was quick, but going through Passport and luggage control is always a slow process at Frankfurt airport... specially when the person in front of you gets stopped and all his stuff gets taken out of his hand luggage, and 2 policemen with guns show up!  Scary!!  

But it all turned out to be ok, and finally my bags came through and I could move on.

On my 12-hour Air Singapore flight from Frankfurt to Singapore, I was lucky to have a free chair in between my window seat and the person sitting in the aisle seat, so I put the seat arms up and had more space to relax, so even managed a few hours sleep.

I watched three great movies from 2022: 

The Whale - with an unrecognizable Brandan Fraser who plays a morbidly obese, reclusive teacher who is trying to restore his relationship with his daughter after a divorce.

A man called Otto - I love Tom Hanks movies, and this one didn't disappoint! Here he plays a grumpy old man who had lost his wife recently and who is planning to commit suicide after his retirement. He meets the new neighbours across the street and things slowly start to change...

The Fabelmans - with the lovely Michelle Williams, this is a semi-autobiographical story based on Steven Spielberg's adolescence and first years as a filmmaker, exploring how the power of films can help him see the truth about his dysfunctional family.

Have you seen any of these?

 

And you can read about the rest of the month in my next post next week :)

For other signs from around the world please check Tom's blog via this link.