We were excitedly looking forward to Friday because we were getting to welcome US friends to Porto.  Wayne and Kathie live down the street from us and they were planning to be in Spain during this time, so they popped over to spend a few days with us.

We started the day with breakfast at the cafe down the street.  We have been talking a lot to our waitress, Christina…..

 

She is the purveyor of espresso for Michael, tea for me and lots of lovely pastries….

After we ate, I took Michael to work and then waited to get the text that Wayne & Kathie were boarding their flight from Madrid.    I jumped into the car and headed for the Airport.  It is actually about half way between Vila do Conde and Porto and only takes about 20 to 25 minutes.  The drive was easy and between the GPS and the signs, I found my way easily to the nearest parking lot.   Before I parked, I drove around the lot to find the exit gate and then, as I was walking in, I found the place where I would pay for the parking…..easy, peasy!!!

While I waited for them, I wandered around the small terminal and found out where all of the amenities were located and also made sure that I could find my way back to the car.

They arrived within 15 minutes of their original ETA and it was fun to see them walk thru the door……

It had started to rain fairly heavily by this time so we carefully made our way back to the apartment.   We had a quick lunch of leftover salad, sliced ham and cheese and then a nap for the travelers was in order!!

I gave them some basic instructions about the apartment and the local area and then left to go meet Michael at CIBIO.  Tonight was the closing banquet for the Congenomics Symposium and I had been invited to attend!!!    We boarded a charter bus and enjoyed a 45 minute drive into Porto, across the River Bridge and up to the Taylor’s Port Wine Cellar. 

We were treated to a 15 minute tour about the making of the Port Wines…..

 

There were some interesting books on the shelves dating back to the 1800’s…..

I would loved to be able to look inside them!!!!

We started off with a tasting of two Ports….a White Port and a Ruby Port……

Both of these are fairly sweet and make a good aperitif

We then moved into the main dining area and enjoyed a Minestrone soup paired with a white wine and a Veal main course paired with a red wine.

Desert was Creme Brule, with a wafer cookie on top…..

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It was paired with a Tawny Port and was excellent.   We all had a good laugh at the wafer as it looked like a strip of bacon!!!

We all moved outside to enjoy the views from the terrace, although the photos turned out a bit blurred….

The return trip was enjoyable although we didn’t get home until about 1:00.

We only had one key to the apartment building and had left it for Wayne and Kathie with the plan that we would text Kathie and they would let us in.  The problem started when none of our texts would go thru so we were stuck outside!!

I momentarily thought about picking up a pebble and tossing it at the living room window, but then remembered that there were buttons at the front gate and you could use those to buzz up to an apartment.  The problem was that I had no idea which button was for our apartment!!   Since we were pretty sure that we were the only ones in the building, I pressed ALL of them and sure enough, Wayne heard and came down to let us in.    Disaster averted!!!!

The next day we did a test and figured out which button it was so hopefully we can avoid this contra tempt in the future.

Thursday was “Organization Day”!!  Michael spent all day at CIBIO at the symposium.  I dropped him off in the morning and set out for my first drive in Portugal.   I had decided that I was going to drive thru the CIBIO facility and exit thru another (wider) exit.  As soon as I drove out I was met with an oncoming bus on a fairly narrow road…..this was REALLY not what I had planned.

I found driving to be fairly easy and was able to follow the GPS well.  However, I really needed a GPS once I got into the laundromat!!!  Instead I had a super sweet young woman who spoke NO English but still was able to guide me thru the entire process.   It is a fairly small place with only 8 washers and 5 dryers, but they are highly advanced and fancy!!!

You put your clothes in first,  select your program (fortunately with English Subtitles) and then go the another station…..

….where you make your payment and select which machines you are using.   The first thing that I noticed was that it was a lot more expensive to pay in cash.  I could, however, purchase a pre-paid card and save 1 or more Euros on each load.  The young woman helped me to load up the card and make my first payments.

She also advised me, with pointing and smiling, that I should put one of my loads into a smaller washer so that it would be less expensive. 

Once you push start, you cannot open the machines and the soap and softener is dispensed automatically….no need to carry a box or bottle with you!!

The machines are very efficient and are apparently set on a spring so that they can bounce when the spinning process is going on…..

The washing process took about an hour and I moved the items into a dryer.  Once again, I returned to the pay station and selected which dryer I was using and also had to select how many minutes I wanted.   Since it was a fairly large load of clothes (by our standard), I pushed 45 minutes.   The young woman frowned, shook her head and pointed to 30 minutes.   I acquiesced to her expertise, but was thinking that there was NO way that they would be dry in that short of a time.    When it came to the towel load, I let her select the time and she pushed FIFTEEN minutes…..NO way!!   However, she was completely correct and everything came out dry, fluffy and smelling wonderful!!!

The attendant also showed me what the internet password was and I have to say that the signal was better there than at our house in Georgia!!!

Even with the pre-paid card, it was a fairly expensive proposition, costing about 18 Euros for washing and drying two loads.  But, it certainly beats doing them by hand and having them drying all over the apartment!!!

I drove home, had lunch, had a short nap and spent the rest of the afternoon getting the apartment better organized.   I found a table that we moved into the Living Room and turned it into our “charging station”.  It was big enough to hold both of our computers and phones and was placed close to a series of plugs.  This was SO much better than having all of our electronics sitting on the floor!!!

As I was sitting in the laundromat,I had realized that I had not brought some of the clothes, so when I got back to the apartment, I started searching for them.  I became more and more agitated as I wondered HOW I had managed to lose a stack of clothes in such a small place.   You readers are probably ahead of me, but I finally remembered  that we had taken some clothes to the Cleaners down the street on the first and that I hadn’t completely lost my mind!!!

On the way back to pick Michael up, I stopped at the Supermarket and spent some time trying to plan possible meals and buying snacks etc.

Michael had eaten a large lunch and wasn’t particularly hungry for dinner, so I popped a small (2 serving) Lasagna into the oven and enjoyed half of that, along with a magnificent salad with Olive oil and Balsamic Vinegar.

We spent the rest of the evening, reading, relaxing and enjoying our apartment by the sea!!!

On Wednesday I spent most of the day in Porto, checking things out before all of our friends arrive and I turn into a tour guide.   Mostly I just wanted to get a feel for the place and figure out exactly how to get there and back again.

Michael dropped me off at the Metro station on his way to work and my first task was figuring out how to buy a ticket and which side of the platform to be on.   The ticket part was fairly easy as you simply picked which station you were headed to and then paid the fare for that particular Zone.

Next came figuring out which way the train was going to run.  I seem to be supremely hopeless with this and many times in London I would get on a train and realize that it was going the wrong direction.  Fortunately it is not hard to get off at a station, walk across the tracks and get on the opposite train, but I really didn’t want to do it this time.   As I was perusing the map, I noticed a little arrow at the top, pointing downward (toward Porto)……

And, sure enough, the arrow in the other side of the tracks pointed upwards…away from Porto.   Hooray, I had figured it out!!!

So, I sat down to wait for the next train, wondering where all of the people were.   I saw the next train approaching, stood as it got closer and then watched as it blew by me without stopping!!!  Afterwards, I looked at the sign and found that it was the “express” train that didn’t stop at the “little” stations!!

About 10 minutes passed and more people started showing up so I figured that it was coming soon.  I boarded, found a seat and relaxed for the journey into Porto.  The entire trip took about 50 minutes and was super comfortable.  I spent a good part of the time looking at my Porto map and reading in Rick Steve’s book, trying to decide what I wanted to find today.

I stepped off of the platform, confident and ready!!!    Of course, the first thing that I found was a church……Igreja da Trinadade…..

As with most Portuguese churches, it was ornate on the inside…..

I stood on the steps, taking photos of the courtyard and looked up to see a tall building in front of me.  The lady walking toward me in the photo stopped and pointed to the big building and told me that it was the “Camera”….basically the town hall……

It stands at one end of a large park called the “Avenue of the Allies”…

I had decided to work the city in a clockwise direction so headed first for a Market area.  Unfortunately, I missed the street that I needed and ended up on another one that I couldn’t find on my map.  However, I did notice that this street had a tram line on it, so I was able to figure out which street it was on the map.  I used the tram lines as a landmark several times during the day.

As fate would have it, one of the first places that caught my eye was a fabric store.   I purchased a small pack of traditional Portuguese fabrics.  They were very expensive at 19 Euros per yard!!!!  Having said that, a long, formal dress was shown in a window and priced at 39.99 Euros.

I loved the colors in this building…..

As I entered the market, there was a man busking at the entrance while a cockatoo sat on his shoulder.   The really cute thing was a little girl sitting next to him with two small birds on her shoulder and hat.  She was reading a comic book and was totally oblivious to everyone around her…..

The market is partially open air and partially covered and I remembered it with great fondness from our first visit here in 2009…….

It had the usual stalls, including bins of olives….

….lovely breads……

….and interesting marine products….

 

In Portugal they have a “Lucky Rooster”……

I decided that these were the unlucky ones……

Michael and I loved this market when we came here in 2009, but this time it seemed smaller and less interesting.   I don’t know if the supermarkets are putting these traders out of business so that it actually was smaller or if it is because we have seen so many markets in the intervening years.

Returning to the street, I found this Ex-phone box that had been turned into art…..

I passed another busker….blow up the photo to see the cute helper……

I passed this design……

Although it is supposed to be art, I see it is a lawsuit waiting to happen!!!

I have noticed an inordinate number of people wearing Tee-shirts with English slogans on them, but none of the wearers appear to speak the language.

I also observed one woman and her son…..she was telling him to stand in the middle of the street so that he could take a photo of her!!!!

As I climbed up yet another hill to get to this church, I could hear haunting trumpet music…..

When I got to the top, I could see where it was coming from…….

He was swaying as he played, obviously enjoying himself greatly.  These two, however, didn’t seem to be particularly happy…..

…even though they were following their photographer to have wedding photos made.

The City of Porto is straight up and straight down and I hadn’t realized how far up I had come until I looked over the wall of the church grounds….Now all I can think about is making a quilt using roof lines!!!

I looked at yet one more opulent church……

…..fortunately, arriving just before a large tour group following a young woman carrying a dilapidated sunflower as a beacon.

I knew that I wanted to head down toward the river so decided to start going down and to the left….….sometimes walking down super tiny roads…..

….but passing some interesting things…..

I found another church (unfortunately I have lost track of which one this was).  It was very ornate…..

….although it had a simple wooden altar…..

…..and an area with nice, relaxing colors……

I found this pipe organ interesting as I have never seen pipes that extended out like this……

I continued walking down and to the left until I finally hit the river.  I was starving and stopped for lunch…..

It was yummy, once I had been told that my silverware was in the cute box that the waiter had brought to my table…..I felt like an idiot!!!

There was a busker playing guitar in a classical style but the selections were popular songs.  It was a great addition to my meal!!   Also, I observed one man asking for a table for FOURTEEN.   The waiter told him in no uncertain terms that there was NO table available!!!

I returned to the street next to the River and started heading to the Ribeira area…..or so I thought!!!!!

I enjoyed some interesting art while I walked……

However, I was not so excited when I realized that I was walking FOR TWENTY MINUTES in the wrong direction!!!

While trying to figure out where I was again, I came across this strange sculpture……

The faces of the horses were well defined and normal looking, but the heads were truly weird…..

….even if you get rid of the happy face drawn on this one.

By this stage I was tired, cranky and LOST!!!   I was so tired of walking up and down streets, not knowing where I was!  I passed a woman standing in her doorway and asked her where I was on the map.  She very sweetly pointed it out to me and encouraged me that I was close.   I truly needed that!!!

Once I found out where I was, I happily continued walking around, scouting out a few more locations and then hopped on the metro for my return trip to Vila Do Conde.  Michael met me at the train station, ending a great day of reconnaissance…..bring on the tourist friends!!!

On Tuesday morning, Michael and I decided to get out and learn a bit about our adopted village and also spend some time at CIBIO (Centro de Investigacio em Biodiveridad e Recursos Geneticos).  This is the campus where Michael will be working during the next four weeks.

We knew that it was located in the village of Variao, but when we entered the address in our GPS it could not find it.  However, I could enter it into Google Maps so we set the GPS for the village itself and then followed Google Maps when it veered from the GPS. 

I have never used Google Map when I was overseas before but it is a wonderful thing!!!  It is easy to follow when walking or driving!!   My kids will laugh since they have been using it exclusively for many years…..I am just a bit slow!!!

We arrived at CIBIO without incident and were greeted by Paulo with many hugs and cheek kisses.  He said that he was “so proud of us” for getting our car and finding our way to the campus.

He showed Michael to his office……

….and introduced him to his office mates and others in the building.   It quickly became obvious that he was going to be talking and working for a while, so I grabbed the camera and headed out the door to do a bit of exploring in the area.

Before I even got off of the campus, I found an area with wildflowers and had a great time playing with the different settings on the camera…..

 

There are a huge number of Eucalyptus trees in this area as they were brought in many years ago.

I realized that there was a cobblestone road just outside of the compound, so I decided to go for a walk, first finding a landmark to look for.   This time it was two huge cell towers just outside of the gate.

The road was between two large stone walls and it was fun looking at the sun shining thru the flowers growing on top of the wall…..

I had a good laugh when I saw this sign because NO ONE was traveling 40 kms per hour over this stretch….140 maybe!!!

 

Once again, it was fun to try photographing the floral against the stone wall..

I saw a sign that indicated that there was a Mosteiro ahead so I kept walking until I ran into the Mosteiro de Vairao.  The Monastery itself is relatively plain…. but the cemetery is gorgeous…..

I spent about 30 minutes walking thru it, marveling at the beautiful markers and grave sites……

Most of the marble crypt areas had several markers sitting on top of them.   I am assuming that people have been cremated and their ashes are in the crypt.  Almost every site had a beautiful arrangement of flowers (many of them fresh) and several candles as well.

A glance inside the larger crypts showed an altar, mostly covered with gorgeous lace cloths, and one or more bunches of flowers…..

In many of the crypts, the coffins were simply sitting in the alcoves rather than being closed in…..

….and some of these crypts could hold 10 caskets!!!

I took a few photos from one of the overlooks by the Monastery, watching several people on large tractors obviously harvesting the grain crops…..

By this time, I figured that Michael was almost thru so I started walking back to the campus.  I found it interesting that I kept seeing different things that I had missed the first time thru and realized just how much difference your perspective makes.   Simply heading a different direction greatly changed my view!!!

As I walked, I mused on the fact that when I start traveling, it doesn’t take long for me to get into my “seeing” mode.  I become much more aware of the people, sights and sounds that are around me!!!

I passed stunning bunches of lavender dripping from the wall…..

…..huge Lemon trees weighted down with baseball size Lemons…..

……curtains with sunny, intricate crochet trim……

…..and funky chimney rooftops that mimic the house roof……

I came to this crossroad and thought that I needed to go to the right…..

…..but fortunately noticed the cell tower (that had been my landmark) on the left so I headed that way instead.

About this time, Michael called and said that he was about ready to go and I made my way back.  The only problem with this little jaunt was that I had not taken water with me and was dying for a drink when I got back to CIBIO.  I found a vending machine and bought a small water and drank every drop.  I then confiscated Michael’s bottle and drank most of it too!!!   Obviously, I am not quite in exploring mode yet!!!!

I had seen several backpackers while I was walking and Michael told me that this area was part of the Camino pilgrimage trail.  We are actually planning to drive to Santiago De Compostelo which is the end of the trail which goes thru France, Portugal and Spain.

Our next undertaking was to find the self-service laundry that I would use to wash our clothes.  Once we got the address entered, the GPS took us there easily.   We cased the joint (so to speak) and decided to walk around in the area before returning to our apartment.  

We were very close to the River that feeds off of the ocean and runs thru Vila do Conde and wound our way around to  a place that Michael had visited many times before……

In the 15th century, Vila do Conde became an important center of sea trade and this boat is a replica of the ones that would have sailed during that time.  It is normally open for your to tour but they were apparently doing some work on it today.

We were both hungry so sat down at a local restaurant for a wonderful pork meal…..

But first preceded by Tuna Pate and toast bits….

….and wonderful salty olives…

All of the cooking, whether fish or meat, was done on an outside grill, with just some sea-salt as a seasoning…..

And of course we had to have dessert……

Now, we both wanted a nap, but we persevered and took a walk instead.

We came to this lovely statute that saluted the lace making industry which is big in this area…..

I especially loved the detail with the hands and the lace work…..

My sweet husband always encourages me when I take these crazy photos….

We sauntered thru a park area and onto a street and then up a bunch of steps to a large church, passing one of the large Aqueducts…..

It was built between 1705 and 1714 and ran 4 kms with the aim of bringing water to the Santa Clara monastery fountain.

We reached another cemetery and fell in love with the blue sky and the monuments set against the Aqueduct…..

The Aqueduct provided for some interesting photos….

 

As we were heading back to the car, we passed this small church and had to have a look…..

Although it looks like a Mosque, it is actually a Roman Catholic church called the  Nossa Senhora do Socorro Chapel.  It presents a peculiar architecture, with a square plan, covered by a dome.

The interior is quiet, cool and covered in blue tile work…..

….and the altar has to curve to fit the ceiling…..

I particularly liked that the Madonna was holding an anchor, appropriate for a naval area…..

Just before we reached the car, we looked down on this park area and were surprised to see the tile designs.  We had not noticed them when were on ground level with them……

And of course, I had to finish off this trip with a picture of a man-hole cover….

We returned to the apartment, rested for about two hours and then dressed and headed to a local hotel for the opening reception for the Congenomics conference that is being held at CIBIO for the rest of the week.   We were treated to good food, good drink, fun views…..

……and lots of interesting people to talk to.

An end to a wonderful day!!!!!

As is usual for a trip like this, Monday was our day to get our lives organized so that we can live here for the next month.    The first order of the day was to find coffee for Michael and fortunately he found it within a block of our flat!!   He then walked around a bit and found a couple of stores that we were looking for.

Once I was ready, we headed out to find out about our new home.   Our flat doesn’t have a washer so we were looking for a Wash-a-teria.   Instead we found a laundry service that we think may be a dry cleaner.  We left a few pieces with her but knew we would have to search for a do-it-yourself spot next.

We walked on down the street to a small market and picked up a few items and then further down the street to a slightly larger store where we found a few more things.

We were puzzled by the bread display until I realized that the paddle was used to push the bread into a slot where it rolled down to a basket where you could pick it up……so ingenious!!!

 

We returned to our flat and ate a wonderful lunch with a ham and cheese baguette and chips.  

We had rented a car and were planning to walk the few blocks to the Europcar office, but realized that they were closing shortly for lunch so we hopped up and ran downstairs to find the office.   We were happily following Google maps on my phone and it said that we had arrived…..to an empty office……with peeled off Europcar decals on the windows.  Yikes!!!  I asked a woman in a nearby office if she knew where they had moved to and she walked outside and showed us the new address information.   Her first question was “do you know where McDonald’s is?” 

I knew that we had passed the McDonald’s coming into town and I had a vague idea of where it was located so we said yes and she gave us directions in broken English.  We thanked her and headed on down the road.   We knew we were on the right track when we first passed Burger King and Pizza Hut….all of the American stand-by’s!!

We passed McD’s and kept on walking but felt that we weren’t going correctly, so I asked another woman for directions.   She sent us back to the McD’s and told us to go down the street beside the restaurant.   We followed those directions and quickly found the Europcar office.   As we walked in, the young woman looked up and said that they were closed.   I apologized and told her that we had gone to the other office and then she apologized and went ahead and put our booking thru. 

She showed us to a black Fiat and gave us the cursory tour of the operating systems on the car.  We immediately took a photo of the license plate so we can hopefully find it easier…..

 

We got in and drove back to a large grocery store that we had seen when we were walking and spent the next 45 minutes trying to figure out what we could easily cook in our apartment and buying ingredients for those things.  But, before we could shop, we had to figure out how to get our shopping cart….

After looking for a few seconds, Michael decided that you had to put a coin in.  He inserted a Euro coin and the lock popped off.

After shopping, we placed the lock back on and, amazingly, our coin popped out!!!

We got back in our car and started trying to set the GPS to take us back to the apartment but ran into a problem because everything was in Portuguese!!!   After about 15 minutes of trying to change the language, we drove back to the Car rental office and asked the young woman to help us.   She worked on it for a while and then another worker came over and was finally able to switch us to English.   This made our travel MUCH easier.  The only problem arose when the address we entered actually took us too far down the road, just as the Taxi Driver had done yesterday.   Fortunately we knew what to do and were able to find our flat.

After we arrived back, Michael went up to the roof to sit for a while and look at the ocean and I headed to walk around and get a feel for the area.   I ended up walking to the Metro station that I will use on Wednesday when I go to Porto.

We had planned to cook for ourselves, but when it came down to it, we were too pooped so instead we walked down the road and found a small sidewalk cafe where we both had drinks…..

and Paninis……

 

……thus ending a fun day!!!