More Mini Vacation

On Sunday Apr 12 we took a back-road drive about a half hour to the city of Braga, to the southwest of here.  We followed a route we'd never taken before, and it was a beautiful slice of the Portuguese countryside.  We browsed a pottery outlet and had lunch in a big, boisterous restaurant next door called Pó d'Arroz (entry shown at left), which served tasty basic food to a throng of locals (and us).  The name literally translates to "rice flour", and we can't find any cultural significance for that, so I guess the restaurant is just named after rice flour.  Their favorite ingredient?

Back in Ponte de Lima there was a big line at the grocery store, and we took our place at the end.  A minute later a store security guard came up to us and motioned to follow him.  Oh no, were we suspected shoplifters?  No, he took us to a self-check register and checked us out, item by item.  What a nice thing to do!  We also found that you don't put your self-checked-out items directly in a bag, you put them arranged on a shelf next to the register.  There may be cameras above to keep an eye on the self-check items.  Anyway, it was a very nice gesture from the guard; we jumped the line with his help and were soon on our way.

Pat's shoulder ultrasound a few weeks ago has led to a series of daily appointments at a local, modern physiotherapist.  She has gotten TENS treatments, other electro-stimulation, massage and motion stretching, and they are successfully improving her range of motion without pain.  The first week of hour-long visits have been beneficial, and we hope for more like that along with some home exercises.  The co-pay for her 15 visits is € 12 ($14) each.

On Wednesday Apr 15 we took the afternoon off for a trip to the town of Ponte da Barca and some lunch there, pork loin at the Emigrante restaurant.  Ponte da Barca is a nice little town about a half hour due east of us, also on the Lima river like Ponte de Lima.  It has a lot of the same character as Ponte de Lima.  On the way back we followed some signs to a viewpoint, capped with huge rounded boulders.

The restaurant (stock photo)

Mmm, lunch

On the way to the viewpoint

Where the road ended

And the view from there

And the following day we took another trip to Ponte da Barca, to take some more photos and have some more lunch.  This time we found the Roman style bridge (built in the 14th century), the "Ponte" part of "Ponte da Barca".  "Barca" in Portuguese means "boat", so the town is named "bridge of the boat".  Why do you need a boat if you have a bridge?  Apparently they named the town after the boat that used to ferry across the river before the bridge was built.  There's a little rowboat monument in town.  Here is a video of the Lima river and the Ponte da Barca bridge:

Mmm, lunch	Statues and a hospital on the town square
Ponte da Barca street scene	The famous bridge

Here is a surprise about Portuguese income tax: you don't know how much you owe or will be refunded when you submit your tax form, unlike the US form 1040 where the total is shown.  Here, the Fiscal Authority computes your tax from your form and lets you know.  Our form was just submitted, but we won't know what we owe or will be refunded until as late as July 31.  There is apparently no way to reliably estimate the amount from the form.  With the 1040 you can juggle things around to affect your tax before you submit it, but not here.  Maybe that's a good thing: they want you to just report your income and expenses without trying to jigger the books, and they just give you a fair figure computed the same way for everyone.  At least we hope it's something like that.

On Friday Apr 17 we checked out of our Airbnb mid-morning and drove around some more while the painters finished up and cleaned up.  We visited a local attraction, Mesa dos Quatros Abades ("Table of the Four Abbots"), located just a few kilometers from home.  The sign says it is "A place where four parishes converged, where the abbots would gather to discuss their problems".  It looks like a nice picnic area now, with a dark little shed holding summer chairs and tables.  We had tried to visit the site some time ago but the road looked impassible.  When we arrived at the head of the road this time, there were three workers just finishing up their lunch.  Gerrit asked about the Mesa, had a little conversation with a worker, and they hopped in their truck to escort us.  Their truck was much larger than our little car, but they made it down the narrow cobbled "impassible" road just fine.  We waved thanks as they drove on, hung out at the Mesa a little while, and then followed the truck's route through narrow and winding roads back to the highway.  We're learning how to navigate the narrowest passages with confidence.

Storage shed and tiles at Mesa dos Quatros Abades	Admiring the view from MdQA
"Bem vindo" means "welcome", and here's the welcoming committee	The countryside as we left MdQA
A charming little chapel on the way home	A soothing rest stop on a small river

Back home, the paint looked just beautiful and the painters had done an excellent job of finishing.  There had been little flaws and patched holes before painting which we can't even find now; they're patched perfectly.  The colors are very nice, similar to the original light pastels but with a "silk" finish rather than matte.  Marks clean off very easily.  (Don't ask how we know this.)  We spent the next few days cleaning and restoring, and we'll send some photos when it's presentable.  We have already unwrapped Pat's china hutch, the biggest and most fragile item we shipped from Seattle, and it's in beautiful shape, not a mar on it and all the glass pristine.  It's really nice to see that symbol of Amish craftsmanship from the US standing proudly here.

And immediately after the painters left the furniture store messaged to say our beds and nightstands are ready!  They will be delivered and assembled on Thursday Apr 23.  Maybe we'll wait on photos till that is complete.

As if this post didn't have enough photos, here are a couple more which fell through the cracks and should have made it into our last post.  There is a beautiful country scene with an old house and grazing sheep from our Apr 7 drive, and a nice view of the tiles and wisteria at the Ponte de Lima garden we visited on Apr 11.

(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 phrases to play the audio.)

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