Saturday, June 7, 2008

Train Strike in Portugal - Rock in Rio

The strike started on Friday with us due to depart for Lisbon. It is the engineers that are on strike, so most of the trains were still running. We caught the train from near our hotel to the main station with no problem. We were told that they would not know if the train from Coimbra to Lisbon would run until it left Porto in the north.

Finally the train came up on the departure board - then it showed a 10 min. delay. Was this the way to tell us it would not arrive?

We finally boarded the packed train and had a slower trip than anticipated to Lisbon. There was time for 2 cups of tea! We finally arrived half an hour late.

We had decided to travel on the day of the Rock in Rio concert. We did not even know that the Rio concert was being held in Lisbon! It is promoted as the world´s largest rock concert. Fortunately when we changed to the Metro, the Rio Rockers travelled in the opposite direction to us.

We are staying in Rossio in the centre of Lisbon, near 2 of the major squares. It is a beautiful spot. We spent the afternoon looking round the area, visiting the old cathedral and St Anthony´s church and travelling on the Metro and on their wonderful little trains. St Anthony is the patron saint of Lisbon.

2 comments:

Miss Di said...

They may be on strike but at least they turn up. Not like City Fail AKA Shitty Rail. Not that I'm bitter about trackwork, cancelled trains and a proposed 30% price hike.

theotherbear said...

She sounds a tad bitter, doesn't she. I'm with ya, sis.