Last Friday we went shopping at the big Continente supermarket nearby to take advantage of a coupon we had there (plus we just like it there). They have a good selection of frozen fish, produce, wine, and most everything. We are testing various 10 year old tawny port wines (for research purposes only you understand), and picked up some Graham's this time. We (mostly Pat) planned a trip to the city of Vila Real for the following day, and Gerrit spent some time reading our new car's 653-page owner's manual.
The following day Gerrit had to cancel the planned trip to Vila Real. He'd had a miserable night of insomnia and wasn't up to a full day trip. We did take a short afternoon drive to Póvoa de Varzim, a beach town about an hour north of us up the coast. Here are some photos of a Romanesque aqueduct circa 1700 and a beach scene.
On the way home we did a double-take at two long rows of cars parked ON the freeway on- and off-ramps all the way up to the freeway. What in the world? Then we saw the sports stadium right nearby. I guess those futebol fans will park anywhere for their team.
Here in urban Portugal there is a good integration between banks and services. The default bill payment method is by direct withdrawal from your bank account, rather than separate billing and payment. Debit ("multibanco") cards are ubiquitous and used for most shopping payments, and there is a seamless integration between your multibanco account and both the metro transit system and a toll payment system called Via Verde. Pat set us up with Via Verde, so highway tolls will be paid automatically via a transponder in the car (like the Good to Go system in King County). It can also be used to pay for parking or for charging electric vehicles. Parking meters all seem to use coins, but some also have Via Verde connections which use your phone's location to report the exact meter you are standing in front of in order for Via Verde to dispense the dashboard ticket for you. Pretty slick!
On Sunday Gerrit woke refreshed so we decided to head to Vila Real. This is for some research on areas we might like to pursue for a home, and also just for fun. Vila Real is a one- or two-hour drive due east from here, and is a medium sized city in our preferred climatic region. We liked it, but probably not enough to look for a home in the area. Here are some photos taken there:
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Old town square
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Storefronts
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Ornate wrought iron gate
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At Jardim da Carreira
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Igreja de São Pedro
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View from Miradouro da Vila Velha
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We did see a number of beautiful sites there. But we skipped the main attraction of the
Palácio de Mateus. This is a beautiful Italianate mansion, garden, and grounds, built in the first half of the 17th century, but we just didn't feel up to the hike around the place. It also seemed like a bit too commercial a venture.
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| Here is a sweet sign we saw at the drop-off point for a school |
We had lunch at Sabores Do Brasil, a Brazilian "rodízio" restaurant. We didn't know what that was when we entered; we thought it might be a cooking style. Gerrit tried to order a single lunch to split, our usual method, but the waitress said no, you can't do that. OK, we decided to order two of the "mini" versions.
Well, the reason you can't split an order is that "rodízio" means that the waiters with spits full of meat fly around the restaurant, serving the patrons direct from the skewers, which came straight from the fire. It's kind of a big communal grilled meal. Waitresses come around regularly with huge bowls of rice, beans, and shredded greens (kale? collard?). You're done when you tell them all to stop, so its an all-you-can-eat affair. It was quite a delicious (and filling) surprise.
On the return trip we saw and smelled three different wildfires in the area. Today, Monday, there was a bit of smoke in the air in the morning before we left but now, within two hours, it is so thick the apartments a half block away look like they're swimming in murk. The air is full of stinging smoke and haze. It looks like wildfires up the Douro river are sending their smoke down the river valley to Porto and Gaia.
This morning we headed south to Espinho for the famous Monday market, before the smoke started building. There was a lot of traffic on the way, and Gerrit was grumbling that this market thing seemed to be like Kim Kardashian, famous for being famous. Well, that was wrong! This market is indeed a unique and amazing attraction, covering acres and offering thousands of goods for sale. About a third of it at the north end is fresh vegetables, meats, and fish, and the rest is clothing, shoes, household goods, farm implements, fabrics, houseplants, cages of live birds, and on and on.
We got a lucky parking spot on the street a little north of the food portion of the market, wandered most of the market, and shopped for some fresh groceries just before leaving. When we got back home we had a delicious lunch of dark bread and ham sandwiches, a tomato and cucumber salad, and melon, all fresh from the market.
(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.)
The following day Gerrit had to cancel the planned trip to Vila Real. He'd had a miserable night of insomnia and wasn't up to a full day trip. We did take a short afternoon drive to 
