We had been on the go for the last 22 days, so today
we decided to take it easy; this decision was influenced by the weather
forecast and sure enough, we woke up to a rainy morning. My turn to go and get
the bread; wasn’t kept waiting to be served, unlike Ursi on the previous day.
Let’s not go there again for her sake. We did jack all in the morning; mostly
on our computers, making bookings of flights, accommodation, creating routes
for our cycling tour etc.
Around mid-day the rain had stopped, the cloud
cover was lifting and we could see patches of blue sky as we made our way to
the old town using a completely different route. Stopped at a local (not
touristic) café for our morning lubrication fix after which we were energised to
tackle the rest of the day with a smile on our face. First up, came across this
amazing store that sold loose confectionery, nuts etc just like the way it used
to be when I was young (pre-supermarkets and shopping malls).
Next up, was the
Porto market, which is scheduled to close for 2 years for renovation on
Saturday. Close it should, as it’s badly in need of repair. A small percentage
of the stalls were operating, selling fruit & veg, meat & fish, plants
and clothing. On leaving the market, we accidentally came across a pedestrian
only street full of boutiques shops. One such shop being the Ecoo shop, which
we duly entered to see if we could snare a bargain or two. Not much luck, as
they didn’t have the right size for Ursi and had nothing that floated my boat.
However, we came across a lovely Dutch couple in the shop and got talking with
them as you do, sharing each other’s travel experiences. Moving on, I came across
an Indian in a gift shop and couldn’t help my self to ask him where I could get
an Indian chai. Directed me, he did, to a kebab place, staffed by Bangladeshis’
who made me a mean chai, it was so good, I had 2 cups. The 2
nd one,
I had to return as it was luke warm; I do mine extra extra hot. Next up, we
made our way to one of the many bridges across the river Douro to Gaia.
On the
way back to the Porto side of the Douro, a tourist haunt scores of people were
having lunch alfresco; as did we, except ours was the sandwiched bread rolls
made by Ursi sitting in the sun whilst listening to a busker belting out
popular tunes, which resonated with us. Tipped him, we did as did a lot of
other folks; he was good, we wondered how much he had paid to get the tattoos
done.
Then we made our way to the famous bookstore in Porto, which had a mile
long queue in spite of an entry fee of 5 Euros. Must tell my mate, Nashy to
charge people a small fee to enter his Booktopia warehouses. We don’t’ do queues,
so decided to give it a miss. Took our bat and ball and went back to our
apartment for another chill down time before heading back out for dinner to the
same restaurant as yesterday. We had a shared salad, chips and Iberian pork
washed down with the usual lubricants; yummy. Porto is one of our favourite destinations.
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