Restaurants
We had real difficulties adjusting to the lifestyle of the locals in both Portugal and Spain. Throughout our trip we had to accept the fact that restaurants would generally only open at 20:30 hours. While it was still possible to eat earlier in Lisbon, it became more and more difficult as we progressed. Even in the bigger cities in northern Spain, there was no way for us to have dinner at 18:00 or even 19:00 hours. During those times, people would still be out shopping or sit in lovely street-side cafes and enjoy tapas. Not wanting to accept this simple fact of life in the area, we often set out to look for a restaurant at around 18:00, only to have us walking for a good 2 hours before settling in some restaurant, even before the chef arrived.
Generally, we found prices to vary quite a bit. In Lisbon, one could have a good main course for between 11 and 15 Euros, while further north and in Spain things were more expensive. Considering the latest prices back in SA, it was probably very similar. The same goes for the wine. Barring exceptions, we paid between 10 and 15 Euros for a decent bottle of red wine, much the same as in SA. Tapas in Spain were generally fairly low cost and often we would pay in the order of 2 Euros for a good coffee and a small bread roll him ham and cheese. Once we paid 2 Euros for 2 glasses of decent red wine.
There is no restaurant variety in Portugal or Spain. Almost no "foreign" restaurants a all. There are a few italian restaurants, but even they are truly rare. We saw no Greek, Balkan, Turkish, Chinese, Japanese or any other foreign restaurant in any of the cities we visited, bearing in mind that we always visited the relevant "restaurant mile" of each town. While the local food is certainly very good, things can become boring after a while. This is pretty much in line with what we found in southern Spain and Mallorca, even though the occasional foreign restaurant may be found there.
Internet
Generally, Internet cnnectivity is very good, certainly better than in Germany, Austria or Switzerland. The majority of all hotels offer free WiFi connectivity and probably half of the restaurants and cafes in Portugal and Spain do. It is quite easy to find a cafe somewhere and sit down to engage in some heavy email or web browsing activity. That said, we have found various hotels who make life more difficult for their guests than what it should be.
To understand this, one needs to look at the various ways internet connectivity is offered. And one needs to understand that there are significant differences in how WiFi services are offered. In the simplest case, the hotel or restaurant will provide an unprotected network with no password. In this case, one simply connects to the visible network and all is good. We have found this form of connectivity in smaller hotels and various cafes and restaurants in Portugal. One step up in terms of complexity is a password protected network. The password is obtained from the host and is usually a simple to remember sequence like "1a2b3c4d5e" (we actually used this once). Such password is of course shared between all guests and probably does not change very often. From our perspective, this was the most preferred option as it provided some link security yet was easy to use. Better still, the same password could be used for multiple devices and those devices would automatically reconnect after having been out of range. Even though neither Vero nor I carried our laptops on this trip, we both had our iPhones and iPads which meant that we always had four devices which required connection.
The next step up in connection complexity typically comes as a result of the establishment in question deciding to outsource their WiFi provisioning. In practical terms this means that one connects to an "open" WiFi network, i.e. no password is required to join the network. Once connected to the network, a web browser opens and one is taken to a special provider web site where a user name and password needs to be entered to gain internet access. This clearly is the least desirable form of internet connection because it provides zero network security yet complicates life for the user. The following example demonstrates how bad things can become:
We had checked into a 4-star hotel which offered free WiFi on all rooms. Upon check-in, we were provided with a complicated username / password sequence. Anybody who has ever entered such complicated passwords which include upper/lower case numbers, letters and symbols on an iPhone knows what I am talking about. The chance of making an entry error are great and you can start all over again. When I finally succeeded, getting my iPhone connected, I tried my iPad, only to be told that the username was already in use and could not be used again. So, back to the hotel lobby again to ask for 3 more (!) usernames and passwords. I was provided with three more pieces of paper containing the important access details. Back at the room, we found that the 3 new access details were valid for 24 hours only, even though we were booked for 2 nights with an option for more, and the first slip had the correct duration. Still, we proceeded to use those access details just to get going. Soon we found other issues. A period of network inactivity of only 10 minutes would cause your device to be disconnected, requiring re-entry of the full credentials. Worse still, the service was a pure web service only and did not allow port numbers other than for Web browsing. This rendered my iPad mail client useless, as it relies on other port numbers to talk to the mail server. It also prevented the use of Skype, FaceTime, SIPGate or other communication services because they too use other port numbers. In addition, I would not be able to carry out any urgent work on our US based servers in case of an emergency. The situation amounted to a completely crippled internet connection and was reason for us to leave the hotel after only one night.
The bottom line is that free WiFi availability is no guarantee that one has a good internet connection. Paying for such connectivity is not really an option either, as such paid solutions pretty much fall into the same inconvenience category as described above. Besides, the prices asked for by some hotels are beyond comment. I certainly have no intention of paying 8.30 Euros per hour (!) for a connection. If one had to make a general observation than it is that the smaller hotels (less than 20 rooms) are likely to deploy an easier and more user friendly option while the bigger hotels in the cities rely on outsourced service providers with the associated inconveniences and service difficulties.
