We have an 8:30 am international flight from Porto to Madrid to Chicago. Applying the guidance to arrive three hours before an international flight, we ask our AirbnB host to arrange a driver and pick-up for the airport at 5:15 am.

The driver texts me at 5 am that he's arrived.  By 5:05 am we have our bags loaded in the elevator.  William asks what to do with the apartment keys and I tell him to leave the keys by the TV, as we have done in other places. William firmly closes the apartment door and then we both think about the one time that the door leading out of the building to the street was locked and William used the key to exit.  Sure enough, the solid green door to the street is dead-locked.  We have no way out!

I try to reach the host by calling, texting, and using WhatsApp.  No luck.  I call the driver and explain our situation.  The driver and William try to break the door to the street, jimmy the lock, etc., no luck.  William tries to break the lock to the apartment no luck.

I walk through the building calling the telephone numbers listed on the doors to the businesses in the building.  One woman answers, but doesn't speak English and hangs up on me.  In between I repeatedly try our AirBnB host.

The driver calls the police for us, who contact the fire department.  They will take a little while, but will come.  Occasionally through the door we hear the driver talking on his phone. He calls the owner's cell phone 6-8 times.  Finally the wife of the owner sees the repeated calls and the owner calls back.  The owner jumps in his car and drives the 30 km to the apartment.  The Police arrive and our driver explains things are now under control.   The driver races up a few minutes later, and opens the door to the green door to the street - we're freed!  The driver rushes our bags into the trunk of his car and we're off to the airport.

On the drive we learn of the link between the driver and the owner and why he had the telephone number.   It turns out the driver happened to do business with the owner of the apartment, selling him the paint for the apartment.  The driver thanks us several times for allowing extra time to make our flight.  We thank him for helping us.  He keeps saying he is just happy he could help us.  This is the spirit of the people we met throughout Portugal, helpful and friendly.

We arrive at the airport at 6:20 am.  We leave the driver's fee on his console as he requests, tipping generously.  Once again he thanks us and says he is just so happy he could help.  (Later he sends me a text saying we left way too much money and that he is happy he could help).  We walk into the airport and find that the Iberia check-in counter doesn't open for another 10 minutes.  Wow, with all that has happened this morning we have managed to arrive early!

The rest of our day is anti-climatic.  We use Priority Pass to get into the lounge in the Porto airport.   We have a long distance between our connecting flights in Madrid,  but arrive as they are in the middle of boarding the "B" group.  As we are in the "A" group we scoot to the front of the line then settle into our Economy Plus seats.  The nine hour flight feels like goes by fast - helped by watching four or five movies/shows.

When we arrive in Chicago's International Terminal a little after 2pm we once again have a long walk, this time to Passport Control and to pick up our bags.   In the limo ride back to our home I check the walking app on my phone.  We have walked 2.3 miles today, yet spent most of our time sitting.

​It feels good finishing out our 11 week trip that encompassed four countries and wonderful times with family, old friends and new acquaintances.   Costa Rica was a blast relaxing and having fun with family in natural setting. Columbia is a country of great natural beauty and interesting cities making efforts to become world-class.  We are happy we could share at least a portion of the experience with friends.  Portugal and Spain have their European charms and are counties where we could see spending much more time living in and enjoying.

We check out of the Zentral Apartment Hotel a little before 11 am and ask them to store our backpacks.  They are happy to do so, but stress that they would like us to pick them up again before 3 pm.  No issues.

We walk to the Museo Bellas Artes and are surprised to find a queue.   It appears that they are allowing only allowing a certain number of people in at a time.  After a number leave they allow approximately that same number to enter.  We wait about 35 minutes until we reach the front of the queue and pay the 1.50€ admission each as international visitors.

Once inside we realize that the queue is due to a special exhibit - Murillo's 4th Century.  It includes 55 paintings of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, the Sevillian Baroque painter.   His father was a barber and a surgeon (that says something of the times).  The majority of his work is of religious themes, but he also painted the common people of Seville as well as portraits of the wealthy and famous.

We start our adventures Wednesday by walking to Metropol Parasol, much of the walk along Calle San Eloy, a pedestrian street lined with shops and restaurants.  After we reach Calle Martin Villa we spot an old world sweets and bakery shop.  In their window they have chocolate Easter bunnies and eggs as well Spanish Semana Santa (Holy Week) figures with their distinctive cloaks and capirotes (hoods).  The Holy Week processions of men in these cloaks and hoods are a huge part of Seville's culture, so we decide to buy one of the figures for our travel momento shelves.  We'll just have to explain to our visitors this is a Spanish good guy, not a U.S. KKK bad guy.

Top of our list of things to do in Seville is to visit the Real Alcazár Sevilla.  It is a huge royal palace whichmincludes architecture from the Arabic period, late Middle Ages Mudéjar, Renaissance, Baroque, the 19th century.   A portion of the upper floors is still the residence for the Spanish royal family when they are in Seville. We spend two and one-half hours exploring this treasure.  We walk from one section of the palace to the next finding delightful rooms and courtyards around every turn.  The gardens are expansive and very well maintained, but we choose to only visit perhaps 20%.

The Uber driver picks us up early so that we can catch our 7:20 am bus and start our Seville experience.  The bus heads east through Algarve to spots we have not yet visited.  We make stops at Faro, Faro Airport, Olhão, Travia, and Vila Real de Santo António.  Along the way we see a mixture of orange, lemon, and olive groves.

At the eastern edge of Algarve we take the bridge over the Guadiana river to arrive in Spain, stopping first in Ayamonte, a sister-city across the river from Vila Real de Santo António.  Large scale orchards of oranges dot the landscape.  Soon they give way to huge fincas of olives. After two additional stops we arrive in Seville a little before 1 pm (with the 1 hour time change), a four and one-half hour trip.

We walk 10 minutes to our apartment hotel, Zentra Plaza Armas.  It's a newer two bedroom duplex apartment for $90 a night. Nice!