Day 36 Saturday 21 September

Rain was forecast, and rain it did.  We spent a bit of time trying to work out what would be the best use of our time against the itinerary and decided to perhaps shop a little and try and do a bit of a walk around in-between showers.  Unfortunately we had posted back our Mack’s as there wasn’t any rain forecast, but we still had the one umbrella so set out to make do with that. We checked with reception if they had any for guests to use as all of the other hotels had, but no they did not offer that service.  I figure that’s the difference between 3* and 4* and above…

We headed down the main shopping street which also runs off our square but the rain was pretty clever at getting under it, so we bought another one for €5.  There are tourists galore here – a bit of an unpleasant change from Southern Italy! 

We clocked a few steps up today, passing quaint little shops (one of the oldest in Porto) which sells appetising tins of fish, cheeses, meat products and wine for the locals lunch.  In one shop they had bottles of wine from the 1930’s – priced at around €900 – complete with dust!

The weather really wasn’t conducive to wandering and even with two umbrella’s we got a little damp so we stopped off for lunch at a upmarket brewery restaurant close to home. 

We ordered a selection of tapas which was nice enough except the special Portuguese sausage ended up being tripe sausage. Neither Vern or I eat tripe; the smell of which smell makes us both gag.  Never mind thinking about eating it.  We also tried the special green cabbage soup, which is actually a kale and potato soup, and a Baccala (salted dehydrated north sea large cod fish and then rehydrated) salad. Both the soup and salad were nice, although San Sebastián does better Bacalao.

After lunch we headed home for a rest, to catch up on washing and did a bit of research on how we re-schedule our time here.  We had planned some possible day trips – up the Duoro valley to wineries and also Guimarães and Braga but are now thinking we may drop them in view of staying in Porto and making the most of it, as it looks quite interesting.  We will schedule the next two days for Porto and see what the third will bring after that.

A quick mention that I gave a bad feedback on hotels.com on the check in (based on area and cramped room) for the hotel (they send you a quick how was it after check in). The hotel had responded asking us to resolve it directly with them.  I responded back via email that it would be nice as we were here for 6 nights. When we got back from our walk they offered to move us to another room. This was great – even though it meant packing up and packing down.  Our new room is on the other side of the hotel and we have gone from 2nd floor to 5th floor. It has a balcony and city view, is double the size and the bathroom is now workable!  There are little things still not perfect like the bidet has little pressure (:-0), but we are delighted to have this space, including a twin bed option which now gives us a super king size bed pushed together. The beds are nice and comfortable too – not Northern Europe still – but improving steadily.

(View from new room taken next morning in the sunshine)

Last night we we enjoyed our meal and the atmosphere so much at the local place, we went back again.  This time just sharing a sandwich so we could make it to dessert, and the other variation was Vern trying the black version of the Super Bock which was one of the best black beers we have ever had. It had a caramel head and a smooth hint of sweetness which made it very drinkable.  The only other dark one we have had this good was in Austria – quite different from a more bitter typical stout.

 

I needed help with the dessert menu even though there was English on it. It was not too descriptive and I could see that some things got lost in translation, such as a dessert that was ‘bacon something! The waiter took me over to the dessert cabinet and handed me over to an english speaking staff who took me through the options.  

Eggs are really big here, so is sugar; so for desserts or bakeries it’s either of those two options often with a very sweet custard.  I chose a vermicelli pasta dessert with custard (highly recommended by the waiter, and made in house). It was quite nice but probably sweeter than we are used to.  Still a lovely homely end, to a cosy and satisfying meal. Sometimes it is the simple pleasures that give the most memorable and enjoyable moments.