TODAY’S TOURING
This is where things went wrong. When we got up in the morning, we realized there was no hot water in the bathroom. I did my best to troubleshoot the cause.
– Isolated the issue to low water pressure. The water pressure in the bathroom was to low the on-demand water heater to turn on and heat the water. We texted and VRBO messaged the apartment owner, but got no response. Finally, we called VRBO support in the USA using the T-Mobile Wi-Fi calling mode (no charge to call the USA). Soon after, the owner contacted us and came to the apartment. After seeing the issue, the owner agreed he could not fix the problem for our stay. He refunded the remaining five (5) nights of our reservation.
– Isolated the issue to low water pressure. The water pressure in the bathroom was to low the on-demand water heater to turn on and heat the water. We texted and VRBO messaged the apartment owner, but got no response. Finally, we called VRBO support in the USA using the T-Mobile Wi-Fi calling mode (no charge to call the USA). Soon after, the owner contacted us and came to the apartment. After seeing the issue, the owner agreed he could not fix the problem for our stay. He refunded the remaining five (5) nights of our reservation.
The problem now was to find new accommodations. By this time of the day, we could not make any vacation rental reservations started that night. We fell back to Plan B – a local boutique hotel nearby (Hotel Santa Justa). When we began our walk to the hotel, the weather changed from no rain, to mist, to light rain, to downpour. We were soaked when we got to the hotel. As soon as we entered the small lobby, we were handed bath towels to dry off. We had to wait 30 minutes for our room. It was 13:30, and we hadn’t eaten breakfast. While we waited we had Cappuccinos and dessert. We got a comfortable, large room and appreciated the afternoon rest in the room.
We eat at a nearby restaurant, Taberna do Lis, and wondered about the Baixa area. Desert was fresh, hot pastéis de nata from Fábrica da Nataa. The nearby square had a food court set up and we checked out all the booths.
REFERENCES
Pastel de nata (pastéis de nata) (wikipedia)
Pastel de nata, also known as Portuguese custard tart, is a Portuguese egg tart pastry dusted with cinnamon. Outside Portugal, they are particularly popular in other parts of Western Europe, Asia and former Portuguese colonies, such as Brazil and Macau.
