TripSailor.com® Sailing Blogs

I am currently entertaining visitors in Portugal – my mother and her friend have arrived for a few weeks and are staying at a local hotel, which has a discount for us hard up sailors and their families!

The Portuguese have excelled themselves with their helpfullness and hospitality. The first night that my mother arrived she needed to see a doctor – being a diabetic she had forgotten her needles for her insulin. The Portuguese taxi driver picked my mother and her friend up from the train station (the train was an hour late and he waited patiently with me, in fact he bought me a coffe whilst we waited!) he then took my mother to a state hospital and translated for her so that she could see a doctor and get a prescription, the taxi driver then took us to a late night pharmacy so that my mother could get the needles for her to take her insulin. All in all the taxi driver was with us for 3 and a half hours – he only charged us what the original journey would have cost if it had been a straight run from the train station to the hotel. If he had charged us what it should have cost 247 euros – it would have wiped out my mums spending money. I cannot praise him enough – but I have often been pleasantly surprised by the Portuguese and how friendly and helpful they are. I am very disappointed when I go to England for a visit and find the services people to be very rude and unhelpful, especially to foreign tourists.

I will remember to treat people how I would like to be treated – if we all did that then this world might be a better place!!

Captain Sassy