Day 13, May 18, 2024, Last Day Porto to Park Airport Hotel

Checkout was 11 so we went out for breakfast, our first time. We checked out at 10:30 and took an Uber to the airport hotel. A bargain at 12€ which was what we would have paid for the metro with  a lot more hassle. 

Check in at the airport hotel was 1pm so we hung around the lobby until our room was ready. Our plan was to have an early bite and early to bed since we have to be up by 4am to have breakfast and take the 5 minute shuttle to the airport. We went for a walk to scout out the area for any restaurants and got caught in a downpour. Back to our room to dry off. 

The weather cleared a bit so off we went to find a place to eat. It was 4:30. The first restaurant didn’t open till 6. The second didn’t open till 7. We stumbled across a place where we could hear voices. In we went. It was a local watering hole filled with men watching soccer. They welcomed us in and pointed out a guy who could help us if we had any questions. No dinner until 7, but they had small bites including a few baccala cod bites, breaded pork, and bifana. Two bifana and a half litre of house white wine was the order of the day. What a nice way to end our Portuguese vacation. To finish, I had an espresso and Jill another glass of white wine. We relaxed as we watched the soccer game. The men were very welcoming and gave us nods and smiles as they came and went. Jill was the only woman in this tiny place other than the one who served us. It was a little less than 9€ for this fabulous meal and experience. 

I write this blog for my darling sister and our friends. It also is for us. We forget as we get older so we can go back and reminisce. “…each picture reminds me the fun didn’t stop…”.

Cheers!

Day 12, Gaia, Portugal May 17, 2024

Dinner last night was at our apartment. We had shallots, green olives and penne pasta. Jill suggested we construct a meal from what we had and what we could pickup at the local grocery store, wrinkled tomatoes, chicken tenders and a bag of assorted greens which we made into a delicious meal. The kitchen in our apartment is not well fitted out. Just a dull paring knife and crappy chipped nonstick pans, which I wouldn’t use, and some old stainless steel pots. We made do. It was better than camping. I was happy that someone had left pirri pirri sauce, a welcome bit of heat to my concoction. It was a success and delicious. 

We had a good sleep in and hit the road a little after ten. As we stepped out of the entrance of our apartment it started raining steadily. We had our semi-protective rain gear on so off we went. We took the same trail along the river. Every time we walk the cobblestone roads I imagine how labour intensive it must have been. Surely and sadly as a result of slave labour from their colonial days.

At our turnaround, the rain got heavier for several minutes and then stopped. We dried off quickly by the time we got back to the Ponte Luis bridge. We were craving a bifana so we headed to where we knew we could get the best. We crossed the bridge using the high pedestrian path then followed the river to Azul e Branco. It had stopped raining but the outdoor seating was wet so we sat inside. Today the bifana was a little more spicy but still delicious. The portion was especially large. We couldn’t help raving about how good it was between mouthfuls. It started raining heavily so I ordered a triple espresso and a pastel de nata. It was so satisfying after the bifana. The rain stopped and we paid our bill, three beers, two bifana, espresso and pastel de nata came to 11.80 €. A bargain. Back home this would have cost us at least three times as much. This was not a tourist location which explains why the cost was so low.

Interesting to note that all the wine we have purchased has come with a cork. No screw tops here. Also, we have not had a corked wine, a flaw which comes from a bad cork. Why? Portugal is the number one country in the world for cork production and they apparently, know how to prepare corks to avoid this flaw. 

We took the high trail back to the bridge and took the stairs down to the river level to walk through the market which was bustling with tourists eating and shopping. We took a road up to a small park where there was a statue of Prince Henry the Navigator, 1394-1460. He was responsible for Portugal’s influence in the Great Age of Exploration. It was then back down to the lower pedestrian bridge to Gaia. We still had to navigate our way up stairs and steep streets to get to the top of Gaia where we are staying. At this point we had been walking for almost four hours and were getting weary. We had to reach deep down to get ourselves back to the top with frequent stops to muster up our strength. 

Dinner tonight is a combo of leftovers and a tomato spaghetti. Tomorrow we move to the airport hotel for one more night in Porto. It’s been a wonderful time. I feel like I’ve lost three to four pounds and have become more fit. Bonus!

Day 11, Gaia, Portugal May 16, 2024

We were up at 7 this morning and decided to walk East along the Douro River trail that we had seen last week while exploring Porto. Before we headed down, we stopped at Jardim do Morro, a popular lookout park in Gaia where people gather most nights to view the sunset. We walked  as far as we could, taking lots of pictures along the way. 

We took the lower path back past the Ponte Luis bridge to see the numerous port houses on the Gaia waterfront, then took a steep street back up to our apartment. We didn’t realize it at the time, but we had been walking for over three hours. We feel in good shape and full of energy. 

We took a few coffees up to our apartment to plan our destination for lunch. Grilled sardines were the goal, for me not for Jill. Thanks to Google, we found the restaurant recommended on TripAdvisor. Unfortunately they didn’t have sardines this day so we left and found another restaurant close by that did. It was packed with customers. The sardines were delicious. Jill had smoked Portuguese bird (chicken) sausage which she loved. We were in an area packed with tourists near Sao Bento train station. We manoeuvred our way back through the hoards to relax for a bit and regroup. Rain was in the forecast and I was down one pastel de nata. What to do.