Our Last Day in Porto!

Ola from Porto!  

 

It’s our last day here.  Tomorrow we will pack up in the morning, rescue the car from its parking space, drive to our Airbnb, load up and head to Lisboa.  

 

R had work to do for Caltech last night, so not quite sure when he made it to bed.  Made for a quiet evening at any rate, after such a lovely, hot day.  Today was supposed to be another hot one, but some weather has moved in from the coast.  Woke this morning to a warm day but very overcast, which was just perfect for walking.  We went out about 9 down the street to Combi for croissants, coffee and hot chocolate.  From there we went to the parking garage to complete our parking arrangements.

 

As it turns out, the parking garage has a parking pass available for 72 hours.  That took us until this morning.  Then, we got a second pass, which is good for 3 days, but it’s €20 for the pass, and it’s €28 just for one day.  So, we will have been able to park the car for 5 days for a total of €40 – which, in downtown historic center Porto, is an excellent price.  

 

Okay, am I the only person who is confused by the signage?

Beautiful bridge built by Eiffel!

Two levels across the Douro

Monastery of Serra do Pilar

Lots of activity on the river this morning!

Me overlooking the Eiffel bridge

And then there were those steps

and more steps...

Finally got to the bottom!

Craft market

Our lovely restaurant on the river!

From the garage, we decided to head downhill towards the river and had a truly stunning walk.  There is an upper road as well as a lower road right along the edge of the river – and believe me, getting from one to the other is quite a challenge!  Lots and lots and lots of stairs – mostly with handrails, but some places not – and very, very uneven sidewalks.  People “of a certain age” really need to watch where they put their feet, as falls can happen in the one second you’re not paying attention.  We’ve been in the habit of pointing out curbs to each other for the past few years, but this was really critical.  A very difficult descent, but I am happy to report that we reached the river level safely.  There was a small crafts market which was fun to walk through, (and pick up a thing or two…) 

 

At this point, we were really in need of a sit down, and found Café do Cais, where we had stopped on our first visit to Porto.  We found a nice place for water and glasses of vinho verde wine (in fact, this was the place where I had my very first glass of fresh green wine!) and before we knew it, it was lunchtime, and the restaurant was starting to fill up.  We secured a lovely table under the canopy outside, and had a wonderful lunch!

 

R cooking his chorizo!

I ordered their appetizer portion of garlic shrimp, which was nothing short of amazing – I mean, seriously, garlic and shrimp?  How could that go wrong?!  I also got a caprese salad of fresh tomatoes, mozzarella and pesto; also some arugula, and a portion of French fries.  R had their fire-roasted chorizo (which he got to roast himself!) for a starter, and then their plate of tagliatelle with shrimp.  Also perfectly cooked and amazing!  For dessert, I had their chocolate cake and R had a glass of port.  We were both very, very happy!  The food here is so interesting and we are concocting recipes to try when we get home.  Shrimp and garlic in oil, the fire-roasted chorizo, maybe even cod fritters!

 

R's "dessert"

Liked mine better!

R's tagliatelle with shrimp

My garlic shrimp - yummy!

Caprese salad and other things!

The only difficulty about getting down to the river means that wherever you go, you’re walking up-hill!  Never as easy as going downhill, that’s for sure.  However, we were able to pop up on a major square, where we felt fairly certain that Uber could reach us.  And, it took a few minutes, but there he was, and in just a few more minutes, we were back at the flat, right around 2 pm.  

 

In for the night, I feel fairly certain, as we have had such a great meal, and really can’t do that three times per any day.  So, R down for a nap and I found the latest stage of the Giro d’Italia bike race on TV and did one small final load of wash.  Now just hoping it will actually dry by tomorrow!  R, who will do our big packing tomorrow night or Monday morning for the trip home always considers everything in the suitcase to be “dirty” and to be packed without regard to wrinkles or anything else, which drives me insane.  I’m figuring that if everything is actually CLEAN, I’ll have an easier time unpacking!  So we’ll see!

 

More tomorrow!

m

xxx