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Published: June 12th 2017
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Geo: 38.7072, -9.13552
Our huge rooms had heavy shutters and drapes over each window, so when I did wake up, I had no idea of the time, or even if we were late. We had acquiesced earlier that we would essentially lose most of this coming day, due to travel and timing of our flights. It was only 30-40 minutes from Palmela to the airport back in Lisbon, but with our flight leaving at 1:10pm, that left no real time to do anything productive in the morning. We met for a late breakfast and aimed to leave for the airport at 10:15am. After breakfast, I took K on a short walk around the Pousada, as she had not had a chance to see any of the towers, churches, or ramparts the night before. She noted that there was a pottery shop, but it did not open until 10:00am. After loading up our bags, I checked out of the hotel while K and Anna walked back up to the shop, getting there as they opened. I was worried about time, especially as we had to return the van before a certain time, to avoid a penalty. Barbara was delayed in checking out by
an overly friendly and chatty receptionist, so by the time she arrived and K and Anna returned, we were already behind schedule.
We crossed back across the Vasco da Gama bridge, which was the highlight of the otherwise unspectacular drive. I had to fill up the van with diesel before returning, and we soon realized that it can be surprisingly hard to locate diesel. I pulled into two different filling stations to find no diesel. As we approached the airport, time was tight. We did, luckily, find a BP right at the airport, which had diesel but where we had trouble getting our credit cards to work. We finally got that all taken care of and pulled into the rental car return area, which was overflowing with people. We all quickly unloaded our bags and set them onto multiple trollies while an agent checked the van for damage and handed me a receipt. I grabbed it and turned to go. Hesitating for a moment, I grabbed my reading glasses and looked at the receipt, only to see that it was 400 Euros HIGHER than what it should have been. I asked everyone to wait while I stepped into a little
office to find out what had happened. Turns out, we are allowed a one-hour grace period to return the van, without incurring additional charges. The car had been checked in THREE MINUTES after that grace period, which resulted in the rate deferring to a weekly rental -- thereby explaining the huge price difference. Before I could even begin the try explaining why we were late -- not being able to find diesel, chatty hotel workers, etc. -- she smiled and told me not to worry about it. It took a good 10 minutes, but she was finally able to reverse everything. I am just glad that I happened to think to check the receipt before getting into the airport.
Time in the airport was short, as we all looked around the shops. By the time we all got into the lounge, we had less than 10 minutes before we were called to the gate.
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