On Wednesday Dec 18 Pat had a doctor appointment at the Porto clinic we've been going to, to get a 24-hour blood pressure monitor strapped on and activated. It's becoming quite routine now to take Uber over and back and maybe to have lunch there in Porto. We did that, with Uber there and back costing about the same as taking the metro one way. Lunch was at a really cool little restaurant, Café Faial, just a short walk from the clinic. We split an order of
pica pau, a traditional Portuguese dish of sausage and small bits of beef in a spicy
francesinha sauce with melted cheese and toasted bread medallions. The restaurant was in an old fashioned style, part Art Deco and part old Porto, with a beautiful wood and glass entry door and wrought iron gate.
Thursday was another medical day, the follow-up to yesterday so Pat's blood pressure gadget could be removed. She slept pretty well with it on the previous night, surprisingly, but she was relieved to get it off. We also both had our flu shots.
The day was beautiful and bright after some clouds and rain the past couple days, and we strolled up to another nearby grill for lunch, Churrasqueira Lameiras. This time we sat at the counter and had the basic menu, which was great: chicken for Pat and pork for Gerrit, with beers for both. The place was packed, which is a good sign. It also had accolades from Tripadvisor on the wall, and some time later we saw it featured in a Food Tour of Porto video, so we really stumbled into something good. There was a large bubbling cauldron of stew and several rotisseries turning over coals in the front window, filling the street with their BBQ aroma. There was an old guy working there we noticed, hobbling a little slowly but busy, happy, and patient, and obviously very familiar with how things worked. Maybe the founder? It was really nice to see how the young folks worked around him.
As we got up to leave, Gerrit with jacket and cane in hand, people were coming in and leaving through the narrow passageway next to the counter. It was a traffic jam for a moment, then people waved us through with a smile. One of the guys entering the café offered to help Gerrit on with his jacket. What a sweet place Portugal is.
We Ubered home in our usual fashion, and Gerrit took the car in for a wash and himself in for a haircut. He tried to ask for it a little long on the sides but got another buzz. Sigh.
Friday was a recovery day from our flu shots, at least for Gerrit. He usually has a bad reaction, slight fever, achiness, and so forth. We did hike down to the local grocery store for some supplies though.
Then late in the afternoon we had two big pieces of news: Gerrit's new glasses are ready at the optometrist, and a price had been settled on for our new house! We are so excited, and will be posting more pictures and information once the sale is a little more formalized.
Now the fun begins. We need to transfer our down payment to a European escrow. We have a real estate lawyer lined up, and we need to engage him to make sure all the property is legally correct and documents are in place. We need to start the ball rolling with the international shippers to get our remaining Seattle stuff shipped here. They move door to door, so they will pick up at our storage unit in Seattle and deliver to the new house. We need to sell some securities and get the remainder of the purchase amount transferred to escrow. There will be fees and taxes to be paid too.
On Saturday we picked up Gerrit's new glasses, and we happened to arrive at the appointment just as the store was finishing up a Christmas photo shoot for its Instagram page. They insisted that we pose for their shoot, so look for us on an Instagram near you. Again the staff was warm and friendly, and our contact gave us his personal phone number and insisted we call if we have any questions about Portugal or anything at all. Hugs and
beijinhos (little kisses) were passed all around. Pretty nice treatment at the optometrist!
Gerrit's glasses look good and they're great for distance, but he is finding them difficult to use for computer work. Just an area about the size of a ping pong ball is in focus at a time, so he is moving his head around constantly and the rest of the field is out of focus. Hmm, he'll try to get used to that but his old readers work much better.
On Sunday (today) we decided to return to Ponte de Lima, our soon-to-be-we-hope home town. It's such a beautiful town, and we want to get familiar with it and with the shops and resources there. We spent the afternoon walking around the old part of town. We've been there before, but we saw more of it this time including some famous structures and homes of famous native sons.
For lunch we stopped at a nice little café for chicken salads and vinho verde. Ponte de Lima is right in the heart of vinho verde country, and their specialty is the Loureiro grape, one variety which goes into the wine (usually a blend of about five different grapes from the region). We thought we could tell that our glasses were actually purebred Loureiro, since we've been experimenting with the different varieties and have become quite the vinho verde connoisseurs.
We saw a statue dedicated to Countess Teresa de Leão who chartered the town in 1125, or almost 900 years ago. Unbelievable! It is the oldest town in Portugal. Next year, March 4 to be precise, there should be a big 900th birthday party. We hope to be able to participate in that.
It's hard to believe that if all goes well we'll soon be living 10 minutes away from this gorgeous historical town.
Christmas is coming right up, and we may not be able to post anything here before then. If not, we hope all you friends and family have a wonderful holiday! Feliz Natal e Boas Festas, as they say here! We have been invited to some Portuguese friends' house for Christmas Eve, so we will be well taken care of. We hope you will be too.
(As usual, you can click on any photo to enlarge it, scroll through them all, and click outside a photo when you're done. Also, you can click on the bold underlined Portuguese phrases to play the audio.)
