It was time to leave Madrid and head back to Portugal. We
left early in the morning of May 6th, as we had several hours drive
ahead of us. At lunchtime, we stopped in the small town of Ciudad Rodrigo near
the border which is the last stop at which we could buy petrol in Spain, where
it is much cheaper, than in Portugal and we were after some lunch. Well, we got
the petrol.... and then encountered this religious procession celebrating
Spanish Mother’s Day, we think, which is why they were carrying statues and
banners of Mary
Lots of mums in the procession
We liked the look of this place but, when we saw the menu,
we realised
that they only served drinks and teas - yes Rooibos has reached
Spain
and we found this place on the main square, so tried to get
a table
Service was very slow and then we noticed that people were
only drinking
and eating small plates of tapas, so we had a beer
This was the tapas (bites) menu we were served and I am
afraid that, although we are adventurous eaters, this turned us right off. We
wanted a proper lunch, so we paid for the beer and fled. We walked through many
of the streets but failed to find a restaurant that was opening or serving
food. Not our lucky day, so we drove on
Another wonderful hilltop castle on the outskirts of Ciudad
Rodrigo
We saw a sign pointing to a hotel and, thinking they might
do lunch, we drove down the pretty road, only to find it was Residents Only.
Worth the trip to see these blue cornflowers, red poppies and white daisies on
the side of the road
It is poppy season
Goodbye Ciudad Rodrigo, we are leaving you, hungry
What a pretty scene along the way
Just before the border, we found a restaurant with many cars
but, when we entered,
the manageress shouted at us very rudely and aggressively
to leave immediately unless
we had a booking. Which of course we didn’t.
"You are Very unfriendly to tourists here!"
Lynne shouted back, "We are leaving you to eat in Portugal!" That, unfortunately,
meant
stopping off in desperation at a BP petrol station more than two hours later.
And
the food was dreadful; they even messed up a cheese toastie and the empanada
John had was stuffed with tasteless goo. Some days just don’t work out in your
favour
It was very clean!
Finally, at about 4, we arrived back in Porto, to stay in our
third AirBnB there, this time
right by the sea, which we had been missing (We booked three different places
specifically so we could see different aspects of Porto). If you live by the sea,
it is like an essential part of your life and
when we travel inland, we feel its absence.
It was Sunday afternoon and the scene was so familiar. Everyone was out walking
on the promenade of Lavadores in Vila
Nova de Gaia
The sun was out, it was warm; you could smell the Atlantic
sea salt and ozone and hear the
waves. So we got a table, sat down and had
something to drink - a beer for John and a gin
and tonic for Lynne while we
waited for our landlord to say our accommodation was ready
Another Cape export! Vygies,
members of the Carpobrotus branch of the Mesembryanthemaceae. Apparently
our Sour Fig plants are causing all sorts of problems in Europe
A tiled house across the road from our accommodation
The view of the estuary of the Douro into the Atlantic from
our AirBnB balcony
A comfortable and calm bedroom and a nice spacious flat. Our
landlord, Gergely Suto, is a Hungarian who has lived in Portugal for many years. He is a professional musician who plays the clarinet in the Orquestra Sinfónica do
Porto and was a mine of information about the area and where to shop and eat. He
told us of a local restaurant where we could eat fresh fish and seafood very
cheaply
Once we were settled in, we headed for the restaurant called
Café Vapor, which he had mentioned and found him there, also waiting for a
table and he invited us to join him. It is on the riverside in the Fishermens’
village on the sea side of the Ponte d'Arrábida bridge and only about six minutes
from the apartment
Loads of character, no booking and lots of chaos. We had to
stand and wait for a table for what seemed like hours (actually a bit less than
an hour), but it was worth it. The waitresses are more concerned about getting
the food out to customers than about who should be getting seated first,
but
that is how the cookie crumbles here
They were not sure who this order of a prawn skewer was for.
It found its owner eventually.
We think they need a manager to sort out the
chaos
A bottle of Vinho Verde to begin with
Light, crisp, medium pétillant and just what the Doctor
ordered.
(Actually, what the musician ordered...)
Sunset at our table on the roadside
The grill was covered in everything it was possible to find on the
menu
Should have had those prawns, a big regret, instead had the
squid on the right
They were a bit expensive
The squid tasted amazing with the fire smoke and was tender,
BUT they do not clean the squid at all, so it was a case of avoiding half of it
Supervising
Here comes more food
First, a plate of tapas. From top left: baby prawns, so sweet; you can eat them whole or just pluck off the heads - it takes too long to take off the shells; small empanadas, a very, very good octopus salad, huge fresh
mussels in garlic and olive oil
Those squid, fresh from the fire, dressed with olive oil,
lemon and onion
Huge fresh sardines for the boys, Lynne does not enjoy all
the bones
We had another bottle of wine and enjoyed the late evening
air. The bill was ridiculously cheap, we split it three ways, as requested by
our landlord, and it came to €39 for everything, so €26 for us. Head there if
you are going to Porto, but do be prepared to wait for a table, for service and
for the food. As we said, it’s worth it
A great end to a very long day. Porto by night
The next day we wanted to go back into the centre of Porto,
take a look at the town market, return to the Allianca Bar for their beer and Duck rice
and to visit some of the Port Houses. But the best laid plans...... We took the
No.11 Bus after a false start; the computer told us to take another number,
which went nowhere near the city centre. The bus drivers do not speak any
English, so it was a bit stressful but, eventually, an elderly couple saw that we
had been waiting at the stop outside our flat for an hour and gave us the best
information. It was a lovely trip into town too, you go through some very
interesting areas, past the Port Houses and over the Luis I Bridge
We had to walk a long way up hill to get to the food market,
only to find that it
was closed for renovations. On the way, we had walked through Rua
das Flores
and discovered that the Allianca Bar was closed, so no Estrella
Galicia beer and
no duck rice (this photo was taken earlier, when it was open).
We needed another plan. We found and then went into the
Tourist Information office and this was where we learned that the market was
closed. We asked the lady where she recommended that we should go for lunch, as
we wanted to eat more traditional Portuguese food. She directed us to two
restaurants at the top of town that we just could not locate
But eventually, after lots of walking up hill following the
Tram lines to Rua de Santa Catharina, we
found ourselves in the area of the famous Francesinha (transl. The Little French woman) - the Portuguese version of a French Crocque Monsieur, apparently a must to have while in Porto. Its
supposed to be steak, ham, and a Linguiça sausage wrapped in two slices of bread
and then covered in melted cheese and a secret beer, tomato and chilli sauce. And
it can have a fried egg on top of it. Cholesterol heaven or hell according to
your health. Apparently the locals ration themselves to only two a month. But
where to go, which was better? Exhaustion chose Casa Ribeira for us and the
sight of these two lovely beers was inspiring
A portrait of the Photographer, looking weary
The menu, in English, had lots to choose
And then we spotted what our neighbours had ordered. They
were a friendly couple about our age from Germany, so conversation was not
difficult. They had also done a trip very similar to ours. We had to ask what
this was, assuming it was a folded Tramezzino. But no, it was a rather
disguised Francesinha wrapped in Pizza dough. We decided to order it, but there
were two sizes on the menu. This they informed us that they had the small one! Thank
heavens we knew, it was enormous
It came with chips and was indeed topped with cheese and the
beer sauce. You can see the large steak, the ham and the sausage inside.
Absolutely, wickedly good. But not to be repeated in pizza dough, which mostly
got left on the plate. We have to try the one in bread another time
Back down the hill was a good way to walk off lunch and we
were heading
for the Port houses on the other side of the river
Still lots of construction going on over there, it will be
superb
when they finish the roads and the access is restored
Halfway across the Ponte Luis I, you can see the tour boats
We had intended to take a trip on one of these, but time was running short
Porto from the South bank of the Douro
And a view through the bridge
Tours cost from about €15 to 18 for half an hour to 40 minutes;
you go up and down the river briefly and visit one or two port houses
We decided that we had such a good experience at Sandeman in
Jerez with the sherry tasting that
we would try their Port tasting. That was
until we found out the price of the tour, which ends with a tasting of just two
ports, the Red and the Non Vintage, was going to cost us €45 each. Think of the
magnificent meal we could have for €90?! (at that time nearly R1350)
So we settled for a table at the bar outside and ordered a
glass of each of those ports to share
The doorway into Sandeman’s. The River Douro’s flood levels,
as recorded at that point,
are painted at the left side of the door
The date at the top left, just below the lintel, is the highest ever recorded.
It couldn't have made for a wonderful Christmas
Tasting portions arrived; they are not generous and they
cost €7 (R105). The red was like raspberry cool drink and the non vintage was
intensely sweet without any character whatsoever. Had we paid the €90 we would
have been furious. Sorry Sandeman, you have to do better if you want people to
drink more port, show them something worth drinking.
There was very loud beat and hip hop music playing and the atmosphere
was slightly frenetic
The best thing was the views of the river and the boats and
this beautiful city
Our flight home the next day was not till the early evening
and the car had to be back by 10am.
One last trip to our favourite shop before
then. They tell us we don’t have a big enough customer base for them to open in
South Africa. We think they are so wrong, we think most of the rest of
Africa
will head our way to buy the very good quality and well-designed things that IKEA
sells. Each time we go to Europe, we bring things home to aid our lives. This
time it was tiny LED spotlights on movable stalks for over the bed, so we don’t
need bedside lamps. More space for books!
We returned the car and caught the courtesy bus to the
Airport, where we had a rather long wait reading our books. Lynne had bought us
Pasteis de Nata (2 for €1 and Pölser (Swedish sausages on rolls with crisp
onions and mustard) for lunch at IKEA. Their restaurants must be the very best
value anywhere. Previous meals we have had there are the Swedish meatballs,
Duck rice, huge Eisbeins, and amazing Dime chocolate cake)
Time to board the Air Angola plane for home, with a 2 hour stop
off to change planes in steamy Luanda; It is a really reasonable way to get to
Europe and much quicker than going via Istanbul
or the dreaded Dubai. From
Portugal, you can take Easy Jet or Ryan Air to anywhere in Europe
for very
little money
We arrived back, quite exhausted, to Cape Town at about 13h30
and John had a great inspired suggestion - that we go and have some lunch at
the Spur, as we had nothing waiting for us at
home and we would be too tired to
go to the supermarket or cook
A Hamburger each with avo, cheese, bacon and onion rings, chips and a beer cost us R300. Almost
the same as a Menu del Dia in
Iberia! Uber home to bed, recovery and unpacking. And a thousand
emails each to
deal with. Happy days. What a great trip it has been, barring a few detours
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