WOke early today in Porot Portugal. Diane and Deb were put the door around 6AM.. 

 

 

 

what a wonderful short vacation.. !.. Got to hang out with this girl !!!

 

ran across this bridge yeterday in the fog with her .. it was magical. 

 

the rest of thw day.. soemwhat less magical.. Flew back to Muncih. WOrked a long day.. finished at 9 .. anbd wandered over to the gass station to buy soem dinner.. not as sad as it sounds.. this gas station has pretty good sushi !

now.. gotta catch up on sleep.. I think I’m still missing about 40 hours of sleep over the last month.. anyoen seen it ? 

nite all, nite sam

-me

 

Woke early-ish and went for a long-ish run with Diane .. the firat since my left big toe fell victom to ‘playa foot’ at burnign man. It was great seeign the city by foot.. we ran over a rail bridge over the river.. super spooky.. but souper beutiful…

 

we got back around 8. and got on the road by about 9.. our idea was to travel up the atlantic coast.. it was overcast.. but no (yet) raining.. First stop was Vila do Conde.. where we saw relics of an 18th century aqueduct that brought water to the city.

It was suprisingly intact. Deb used her instincts to find the thing.. then we drove along it for about a mile.. it was so cool to see. we put a samstone in some of the standing  pieces. 

next stop was Viana de Costelo on the coast. It started raining as we arrived.. .. it was a soggy but nice look around there . 

 

there was some sort of fancy car rally going on 

 

we walked down to the river lima just above the point where it hit the Atlantic.. .. it smelled like the sea.. .. and the drizzle made it ‘atmospheric’… and a bit miserable . 

 

this guys ‘discovered’ the rich cod fishing off the coast of Newfoundland in the 15th century.. just thinking of a 15th century ship from Portugal up there full of drying codfish made me less hungry for lunch .. 

there was a famous (to some I guess) hospital ship moored there.. it looked noble and helpful sitting there in the dock 

 

we walked through the old section of town and ran into neptune and his consort. 

 

 

after a somewhat futile search for the perfect codfish lunch we headed out.. 

one cool thing is that we ran into the signs of the trail of the Camino de Santiago. 

 

 

this meant wrong way 

we fled inland to try to escape the drizzle.. we headed to lindoso in the Peneda-Geres National Park /.. it was a completely accidental stop. but SO amazing.  There was an acietn catle surrounded by Espegueiros.. 17-18th century grain storage containers. They looked so weird !

 

 

here’s one ith actual grain !. the legs keep the rodent out . 

 

 

the view from the castle was amazing !

 

 

 

the view up the valley was really breathtaking !

\

 

everywhere there were bright flowers to cut the gloom 

 

 

we tried to find food.. but we were told that the closest food was in spain.. so we headed to spain for the second day in a row to eat .. i think it’s more beign abe ot communicate .. but I really love spain.. 

 

here’s the bridge with the border.   spain on the left, portugal on the right 

 

half of me here is in spain, the other in protugal.. not such a big deal since shingen.. 

\

we drove a few miles to Lobias Spain.. a beutiful town.. with cheese sandwiches !!!

 

 

the back towards portugal through the town of BuBaces..  with its free hot springs !

 

 

 

then up and over th e moutnain into portugal.. it was like the forst primeval.. wet and dark.. with ancitnt oaks.. I expected trolls and gnomes !!!.. 

 

i did not expect this really scared english driver with his/her camper goign 3 miles and hour in front of us.. grrrrr

 

down in Gerez we ofudn this amazing set of buildings.. we tooka  alook around trying to figure out what they were.. turns out an old moenstary makes a really nice  luxury hotel !

 

now comfortably back in Porto.. finsihing off a bottle of wine.. and anticipatign an early mornign departure..

 

gotta catch soem sleep !  so I’ll say boa noite again

 

note all, noter sam

-me

 

Long beautiful day in Portugal. Slept till 8:30.. near record for me. We headed to the car around 10 ..  got to see a little of Porto on the way. Headed to Braga to see the Bom Jesus Cathedral and grounds. Well worth the drive . 

 

these stairs were amazing.. small chapels and fountains at each level.. we walked down them first. 

 

each chapel had statues depicting part of christs last days.. here’s the kiss of judas

 

here’s the last supper 

 

then we turned aroudn and walked back up. THe statuary and fountains were even better to see as you moved upwards

 

there4 were fopuntains depicting the five senses.. here is hearing 

 

and (creepily) seeing 

 

tasting 

 

smelling 

 

and soemhow this is touching 

 

the three virtues 

 

we snuck in a samstone 

 

the view from the chathederal was stunning 

 

there were two weddings there whiule we were hiking !

 

we snuck inside to catch part of the second wedding.. what a beautiful building =x

 

then a quick stop for lunch 

 

cheese and olive paste.. yum !

 

then back on our way north. We stopped in villa verde to see a small church with a beutiful grave yard

 

what a view from that place !

 

next stop was Monção .. a small town on the border with spain .. this is a large private vinyard that makes the regions prized Vino Verde. 

 

i coulnd’t resist 🙂

 

the town itself was very beutiful .. and not very touristy at all.. 

 

 

we stopped at the tourist office.. . Luckily the woman there spoke spanish.. so i was able to get good advice on things to see,  where to eat and where to drink. Her freind up stairs spoke english and gave us a very nice wine tasting of the Vion Verde.. it was really delicious. 

 

 

 

on the advice of maggie.. we drove in to spain to eat.. 

she had given us the name of a small place.. the people and the food were really wonderful.. and it was nice to beback

 someplace  I could communicate. 

 

here’s ourt wonderful wait=person cutting down grapes for us to eat with dinner. 

 

dinnr was fabulour.. scalllops 

 

octopis 

 

and an amazing fish platter..  i wont be hungry for a week !

 

\\coffee liquor for dessert 

 

there was a very nice barkign dog nearby.the cook gave me soem meat to give him.. His name was Ambegue.. or soemthing like that.. what a sweet guy ! 

 

then back to portugal for the drive back to porto 

 

we got home around 10.. o it wsa too early to go to sleep.. so we walked down town in search of music. We did;’t fdind any we liked.. but we had a nice drink on the river. Heres’ lookign over at all the Port makers. 

 

on the way back we foudn a marker for the San Juan Capistella trail.. so we left a samstone 

 

we passed a building that used to be a synagouge.. I learned that all the jews were forced out of here in the 2nd world war.. 

gives me such a strange feeling . 

 

by then it was midginght.. time to walk home. soem cool buildings along the way !

 

OK..almost 2am.. time to sleep..

 

more tomorrow

 

nite all, nite sam

-me

 

Greetings from Porto Portugal. my first time in this beautiful country .. I took the afternoon off and caught a flight from Munich to meet Diane and Deb here.Its so nice to see them.. i’ve been missing home so much.. meeting them here brings a little home closer.
We have a great Airbnb near the old city, We just came back from a beautiful walk / dinner in the old section.. really cool buildings, people and food.

 

speaking of food.. check out the whole wall of sardines in the grocery down the street !

]

!and salted cod everywhere @

here’s our building 

 

and here’s a glass of port like the other several I’ve just had.. (yum !) 

theres an open air market jsut down the road,. it’ll open tomorrow. we’ll checvk it out 

soem really interestign architecture

 

 

 

 

 

we stopped for octopus and mashed potatoes.. and great rose wine.. i remember we used to make fun of people who drank rose..this was great !

 

\

we stopped by a very cool ‘essense’ store.. great pastes of all sorts of things\

 

 

 

 

 

 

and thats where my battery gave out..

more from here tomorrow..

boa noite !

nite all, note sam
-me