On Friday Gerrit made a traditional Portuguese dish for dinner, Porco Alentejana: pork chunks and clams in a white wine, spice, and garlic sauce over fried cubed potatoes. He had found a straightforward recipe a couple days earlier, we did some shopping for the couple ingredients we didn't have, and soon dinner was on the table. It was delicious, and a great everyday addition to our menu. We sat in our lovely Portuguese apartment, enjoying our Portuguese food and drinking our Portuguese wine, feeling very native. We're even saying little Portuguese phrases to each other now and then.
We have been doing some house hunting online, as we mentioned earlier. We found three places which looked pretty interesting, and Pat found their exact location by comparing Google Maps with the aerial views and general locations shown in the ads. On Saturday the weather was clear and bright after the recent rains so we headed to the Braga / Barcelos area to see them in person (from the outside anyway). The ad photos were generally good, you can get a good feel for a place from them, but sometimes other things show up when you visit in person. Like the major power lines near one place, and the construction chaos going on all around another. The third actually looked better than its pictures though. The setting was very nice, secluded and natural, on a large lot near a small river with no nearby neighbors. We'll be looking at that one a little closer.
We had another wonderful lunch on the road at a little café near Lanhas. Our waiter was cheerful and quick, the crowd was boisterous, and lunch was excellent. We were surprised to see that the plate of the day was Porco Alentejana, just what we'd made the previous night! That was fine though, it was fun to compare them. We split one meal (which was huge), had two glasses of wine, espresso, and carioca de limão for €8. We know, we promised not to gloat over prices, but this is just ridiculous.
On the way back we passed through a surprisingly beautiful little village called Vila Verde. We had to pass down the main tree-lined street a couple times to soak it all in. Here are some pictures of village churches and trees, including a wedding party outside the main cathedral:
(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.)
