Borges Residencial

I am lying in bed in my room in Lisbon. The location is magnificent. The hotel has seen better days but it is clean and quiet. I got the voltage thing figured out. I don’t think the hotel has wireless but the shopping center [hidden in a beautiful old building] at the bottom of the block had a sign that said free Wi-Fi, if I translated it correctly; I’ll try to post later today. I arrived at the Hotel at 9:30 this morning. The taxi was way expensive, 27 Euros for a 10 minute drive. 5 Euros of that was a “luggage” surcharge. There were two guys at the desk who did not seem particularly interested in helping me. I was told that check-in was 12:30 and come back then. They did store my luggage. I found their demeanor just short of rude. After walking around for a few hours and getting caught in the rain [AGAIN] I returned to check in. He asked for my passport, copied it, returned it to me, showed me how to work my key-card, and that was it. A dozen words max. I’ll chalk it up to a bad day and see what happens.
Lisbon is dazzling, even in the rain. There were policemen on every corner as there was a marathon through the city. Most of the shops were closed [because it was Sunday?] but this is a shopper’s neighborhood. The street that The Borges is on, Rua Garrett is pedestrians only. Several other streets in the area are the same. There is a magnificently wide promenade from the river to the Rossio that is paved not unlike the sidewalks in Rio. And the coffee is strong!