We continue to experiment with regional fish, and we found that perch is really good. We had some frozen fillets from the local supermarket, and it's a firm and flavorful white freshwater fish which is now on our regular menu.
Our last post saw us with newly validated retirement visas in hand, so we have been following up on the next steps. First we need to set up our obligatory meeting with AIMA (the immigration agency) to confirm the visas and give us long term resident status, but that is proving to be difficult. The agency is new, and procedures for setting up the meeting vary wildly all over the internet. The least helpful of all is the AIMA website itself, which is somewhat disconcerting.
This led us to Expats Portugal, a group and forum of, as you might expect, English-speaking expats in Portugal, which was recommended by Gerrit's friend Daniel. They have a lot of experience with things like this, and we had a consultation with one of their experts yesterday (Monday) afternoon. That should lead to us at least getting on the AIMA calendar, but it may be months before we actually have our meetings.
Gerrit has been shopping for cars, too. Our rental has been great, but we need to get our own now. He is looking at the "super mini" hybrid category, similar to the Toyota Yaris we have been renting which is being discontinued.
Meanwhile, Pat has been making sure we don't spend all our time working. She set up a nice Douro river tour and port wine tasting for Sunday. We decided to walk and use the metro, so about 9:30 we set off for the metro stop three blocks away. We mostly remembered how to recharge our reusable tickets there, and within minutes we were on our way north. We got off at the São Bento station, just on the Porto (north) side of the Douro river, and followed Google maps a couple blocks to the "meeting point" the tour had directed us to.
Only it was not a meeting point at all. It was a tourist office which wrote out vouchers for the tickets we had already purchased, and informed us that the start of the tour was on the other (Gaia) side of the Douro river! We needed to walk yet a couple more blocks and catch a river taxi to get there. Well, this was a surprise, but what could we do? We did get some more exposure to the beautiful riverside neighborhoods of Porto anyway.
Then the river taxi was quick and easy. The young boat pilot was slumped over his wheel when we arrived, but he reared blearily up with bloodshot eyes and we took off in short order, we being the only passengers. It must have been a late night for our poor pilot, but he still did a fine job piloting (fortunately for us).
It went smoothly at our boat tour start and we soon embarked in the
Além Douro (Beyond Douro), an old transport boat which had been reconditioned for tours. The day was overcast but warm.
We spent about an hour making a water circuit of the Douro river, around the six bridges which span the river in the Porto area. It was really beautiful and a great way to appreciate the old town river sections of Porto to the north and Gaia to the south.
Next it was time for lunch. The restaurants in the riverside neighborhood there in Gaia catered mainly to the throngs of tourists in the area, so we opted for some street food from a local stall. We had "piglet sandwiches" (apparently a regular menu item in Portugal) and
vinho verde (a light, fizzy so-called green wine native to Portugal) while watching the crowds. Gerrit had a great time ordering the meal, since it is a thrill when a local actually understands you. He even made a bit of small talk with the booth lady: "
está barulhento, pois não?" (it's noisy, isn't it?), referring to the din which a large contingent of motorcycles was making, and understood from her that it was a regular Sunday occurrence and she didn't much care for it either. He never thought it would be so much fun to exchange a couple phrases like a first-grader.
After some fresh fruit cups for dessert and a visit to the WC, we made our way to the port house a half block away for some tasting. The house was a family-run operation, founded in 1846, called "
Quinta do Bom Dia". This lovely-sounding name translates to "the good morning farm", which is much less romantic. Apparently the parishioners in the small chapel on the farm used to say "good morning" to each other a lot, so that's what they called the farm. Oh brother. We think they need a good marketing department.
We had a young and enthusiastic employee take our small group through the cask room there, explaining everything in passably good English. He carried little wooden stools from point to point for Pat and me, a really heartwarming gesture. We learned about ruby, tawny, and white port, and Pat impressed the group by correctly identifying which was which in a display of five decanters.
Then came the tasting. A "fine white" and a "fine tawny", the low-end offerings, were included with the tour and they were delicious. The house sold ports up to 40 years old though, so we thought we'd try the 10-year tawny and 10-year white in addition. The white was very good, but the tawny was really remarkable. We bought a bottle. We could detect notes of wood, leather, cigar smoke, dried dark cherries, and other undefinables in there. It was kind of like being in a very old gentlemen's club, with a little bowl of cherries at your side. Wonderful! Our guide had said that when a bottle has been opened it should be finished within a week, so we'll do our best.
As we left the port house, a huge surreal bunny built from scrap metal greeted us on the corner. Was it real, or a port dream? We'll have to return to make sure.
To get home we rode a cable gondola from right near the port house to the top of the river valley, exiting right next to the metro stop we needed. Perfect! Gerrit again had a successful Portuguese exchange with the ticket vendor, and we enjoyed the spectacular view on the way up and at the top. The overcast had burned off by now and the weather was clear, warm, and breezy. A few minutes later we were on the metro heading home, and after a final three block trudge from the station we were actually in the apartment with our shoes off. Over 14,000 steps today!
We enjoyed glasses of port that evening with cheese and chocolate, burying our noses in the glasses, inhaling the vapors, and being transported to other worlds.
(As usual, you can click on any photo to enlarge it, scroll through them all, and click in the black area outside a photo when you're done.)
Only it was not a meeting point at all. It was a tourist office which wrote out vouchers for the tickets we had already purchased, and informed us that the start of the tour was on the other (
It went smoothly at our boat tour start and we soon embarked in the 
