First Day In Portugal: Tourists and tourists and tourists oh my!!!!!!

We woke up Thursday morning in Porto Portugal. We leave Tuesday late at night for the last leg of our trip, Iceland. We are in Porto because it is cooler than the oven that is much of Europe and Spain, and it is one of the departure areas for a return to the states. Porto to Iceland to Seattle is a little cheaper than Porto to Seattle. Also we have received several good reviews of Porto. In Porto, and previously in Oviedo, I learned a bit more about the intricacies of finding lodging on AirBnB or Booking.com. It is an art to find all I am looking for in an apartment. The last two apartments have good kitchens, but both lack so many standard kitchen accessories as to make the good kitchens a challenge to use. So may details to look for and to often ask details before booking.

We walked across the street the morning after arrival, literally straight across the street to a coffee shop Thursday morning. Sheila’s coffee had a weird sweetness, but my hot chocolate was the rich thick eat it with a spoon that the French had promised with their chocolate chaud. Never found it in France. As usual, our initial objective was to find a tourism office and get a city map with suggestions. Also as usual, my phone and I were not on the same wave length. After much muddling about we found it. We knew we were close as we became surrounded by tourists and buses. Many of the tourists were wandering around with their noses in maps from the tourism office.

The tourism office is in the center of the historical center of Porto. We had heard much about over tourism and a backlash to it. Now we understand. We did not see a backlash but the crowds were overwhelming to both of us, physically and mentally. In spite of being in the midst of incredible and history we were compelled to hightail it back towards our apartment. The other eye-opening feature we observed was that Porto was not as clean and maintained as the other cities we have visited on out European tour.

Our next move, also fairly ritualistic, was to seek out a grocery store so that we could mostly eat home cooked meals. That did not go smoothly either. Once again my phone and I were not in sync. We finally stumbled upon a small store. After that we went to the Bolhao Market, a combo farmer’s market and tourist trap. Again, overrun with tourists all we wanted was to leave.

Porto, unlike most of the cities we have visited is not littered with markets for fruits veggies, meats and cheeses; though there are a fair amount of cafes , restaurants and bars. Aimless wandering filled up a lot of our day. We decided to eat out rather than attempt to force the meal at home issue. Three blocks from home was a bustling restaurant  with a large patio. You order inside have a seat and your food and drink arrives soon after.

Most people were eating sandwiches, we ordered a couple of we don’t know what’s that were filled with chicken and pork. Quite tasty! Also we had a plate with two kinds of sliced roasted pork and fries. Unlike France dark beer is not hard to find. We had an excellent double stout. I have been drinking way more beer than usual and my belly is showing a little roundness, my nasal passages are a bit congested, and that means no more beer!

Today, Friday, we went to a different coffee shop, one half block further from the apartment. Better coffee, hot chocolate not as thick, but great ambience had us sitting, talking to strangers for more than an hour.. Someone tried to convince us that things were going to be cheaper in Porto than anywhere else we have been. So far not true.

After coffee we had three objectives; Find a pillow that would allow Sheila to have a good night’s rest, find a better grocery store, and find a laundromat. Once again Google maps and I were out of sync and once we got to the pillow store after more than 30 minutes i realized we were 15 minutes from our apartment. But, we bought a wonderful pillow. We tried out two more grocery stores, the second is close and by for the best we had seen. I found a laundromat, but not a laundry service, tomorrow!

We did have a home cooked dinner of roasted potatoes, onions and left over meats from last night; and a green salad with other goodies. We bought some wines that were 70% off, why, I do not know as they are excellent wines, for 3 euros.

Before we leave Porto we are looking forward to visiting a couple Port houses, and that basically means 250 year old wineries that specialize in Port wines. We also are planning a train trip to the Douro, which is the center of Portugal’s wine region. First though I have to find an AirBnB in Reykjavik, get some clothes washed, and then it’s play time.

Here’s a few pictures of the newest apartment, no stairs.