We played the role of unapologetic, full-fledged "turists" yesterday in Porto, Portugal.
That included a lot of walking and gawking. It also involved eating lunch at an outdoor restaurant along the river where musicians entertained every five or so restaurants along the walkway.
We people watched. We went on a boat tour along the river where a portion of the city is built on hillsides. We visited with travelers from New Zealand and a nice lady from Canada.
We sampled our free glass of port wine, and we dined on Portuguese faire, including giant beef steaks and fish and tasty vegetable soup.
Bill and I both practiced the "old people's walk" with extremely careful steps as we went down what seemed like an endless a walkway from one portion of the city to another.
Oh yeah, we bought more souvenirs, and we had our first experience riding a "funicular," which is a small train/elevator combination which takes its load of people up a steep hillside on a track.
Our load of passengers received quite a jolt when the funicular suddenly stopped, throwing people on top of people. Never did figure out what the problem was, but the lift eventually made it to the top.
We also walked over two bridges of different heights along with hundreds of other "turists" from all over the world.
We have immersed ourselves so much in the culture of Spain and Portugal that we take note whenever we hear other English speakers.
Porto is a beautiful city near the ocean, and we barely scratched the surface in seeing and experiencing all it has to offer.
We feel so fortunate to have Annie as our tour guide. She has walked from Porto on the Portuguese Camino twice, once bringing along our grand-niece Iusitina.
So, she knows the area and provides and amazing personal view of her experiences here and of what the area has to offer.
Today we move on down the coast where we'll stay in an apartment tonight and do some more laundry in preparation for our visit to Lisbon tomorrow.
Meanwhile, we are still thinking and hearing about the damage and sadness back home. We learned overnight that a young man in his senior year at Lake Pend Oreille High School died when a tree fell on him during the storm.
So sad. Our hearts go out to his family and friends.
My sisters and other neighbors have visited our place since the storm and have sent photos of the damage around the Lovestead.
One interesting phenomenon was the old canoe that traveled cross country from the shed where it sat for 18 years a couple of hundred feet, stopping at a fence line.
Our thoughts are with everyone back home, still without electricity and trying to put pieces back together again as well as dealing with all the damage and clean-up from the storm.
Hope you enjoy this photo collection from another fun day in Portugal.
Happy Friday.
This church is right next to our hotel in Porto. Outside our window we can hear the city activity which goes well into the night.
This adorable little French boy sat next to me on the funicular.
Sometimes, the toilets are not exactly The Ritz, but when nature calls . . . a construction honey bucket will work.
These people saw Bill's shirt with a Tongariro logo on it and stopped to talk. They were from Wellington, New Zealand.
We enjoyed a nice visit.
A fountain and busy downtown area seen from our Legendary Hotel window.
We enjoyed visiting with our hotel manager Maria last evening. Nice lady.
No comments:
Post a Comment