Portugal 2007

Day 6 We walk over 20,000 steps in a very hilly town. Coimbra is a college town complete with McDonalds and a Pizza Hut. The town is quite during the day but after 9 PM the whole place is alive. We had dinner at a local beer shop which severed great food. There was a family next at the table next to us where the mother was trying to breast feed her child while the staff was bring the food to the table. They order some type of sausage dish that had a fire under it right on the table.

Day 7 – Finds us in the four star hotel in Coimbra. We walk down around the corner where we find a local coffee shop. We had to stop in at five coffee shops before a local cook would make as an omelette sandwich with ham and cheese :-) She brought out our meal with coffee and melon. Our plan for the day is to leave Coimbra and see the sights of second largest city in Portugal, Porto. Driving in the old part of town is the most challenging yet. Many of the streets are under repair so are using the Never Lost unit more to get us to the general vicinity. It took us down a road that was closed for construction which required us to back out after we folded the side mirrors in so we could squeeze by. On the drive from the festival to the hotel we had to share a narrow street with two way traffic. We were going down hill with three cars in front and five behind and there was a taxi trying to make it up hill in the opposite direction. We were all pulling in our mirrors, driving on side walks and navigating past the poles with stop signs.

We found ourselves in a festival on the water front. The streets were all lit up, there were carnival rides for the kids and a free concert going on.

TRIP TIP – Eat at the local places where there are crowds. The food is better, the staff is friendly and the prices are reasonable. We had coffee on the river bank where the tourist were and the prices there three times what we had been paying and the staff was less than pleasent.

Day 8 – Awoke in Porto to the rain which feels strange as every day has been sunny and beautiful. We had breakfast in the lobby for five euros. Coffee, mixed fruit, yogurt and roll with scramble eggs, ham, and cheese on a roll. This was a American style breakfast which felt out of place in our new home of Portugal.

We finally have the Hertz Never Lost (Tom Tom) device down and can find the local tourist office in any town. We arrived in Fatima and visited the Chapel o fthe Apparition. We are on our way to Costa da Caparica to spend our final two days at the beach where the locals hang out.