Europe
2016: Trip Notes # 4
Our Porto hotel's location is absolutely perfect
for people watching. Although fairly active during the day, it is the late
afternoon through late evening when this place truly comes alive.
Bachelor-ette Festivities
It is not
just the eating and drinking. It is also watching boats go up and down the
river. It's watching street entertainers and looking at what the night market
vendors have to offer.
Portuguese Love Song
Restaurants Getting Late Delivery Of Potatoes
(Typical Local Meals: Fish, Octopus or Meat and Potatoes)
Iberico Ham: A Local Specialty
While walking around, we ran into the young man who
helped with the luggage when we first arrived.
It turns out that he was very lucky and was able to
get a "bellman's" job at a soon to be 5-star hotel. While living at
home, he earns a slightly above minimum wage of 575 Euros each month + >
2000 undeclared Euros in tips. He plans to make hotel management his career.
The young man gave us some tips on nearby
restaurants. We were lucky to get into a place that specialized in Portuguese
tapas. This was a "WOW!" experience. "Carmen," the
restaurant owner (nice lady) spent quite a bit of time talking to us. Her restaurant
can handle about 24 guests/evening. (It's a hole-in-the-wall place that offers
the most delicious tapas with presentations prepared in the most unique ways.
Iberico Ham, Melted Cheese And Cooked Fruit
Melon, Cheese and Crisp Bacon Bits
Warm Asparagus and Cheese Over Toast
More Local Cheese? Why not...
To Health And Happiness!
With the meal finished and with a sweet and sour pomegranate gelato desert from
a place a few steps away from the tapa restaurant, what could be better!?!?!
* * * *
With plenty of sustenance from a full breakfast and
surprisingly easy to find our car in the parking structure, it was now time to
try (again) the two malfunctioning GPS' that we brought from home as well as
our i-Phone's (Google maps) as our back-ups.
Amazing! The GPS which was not working yesterday
was a happy camper today. The other GPS (which worked reasonably yesterday) never
acknowledged our existence!
Nevertheless, we arrived per schedule to our first
destination (Guimaraes) - famous for its10th-11th century castle which was used
to fortify the area, begin the nationhood of Portugal and to start the process
of eliminating the Moors.
Lucky Us - Very Few Visitors
* * *
Many of us or even all of us have tasted Mateus
wine at some time in our life. Our second stop was the "Casa de Mateus
located near Vila Real - a sleepy town in the rural country-side.
Remember The Bottle?
This place
has a multi-century family history - a mansion filled with old and very
valuable items, a small, ornate family chapel and pretty gardens. Not knowing
what to expect, we were pleasantly surprised. We even were lucky enough to end
up with an English-speaking guide.
A Unique Place Far From Urban Areas
Besides a library filled with "thousands of
books," there were old prints along with the original copper plates, We've
seen prints before; but, to go along with the copper plates? Amazing! (Photos
not allowed!). Ming Dynasty (1600's) place settings, religious icons and
priest's ornate (1700-1800's) vestments were also displayed.
Actual Key That Opens Mansion Doors
Old Tech Vs. New Tech (Car Key)
Mansion Courtyard - Stables And Wine Pressing Area On Left Side
Pretty Gardens, Pretty Lady
* * * *
Well ahead of today's schedule, we were looking
forward to our next resting stop where we could simply kick back with a glass
of local wine and not doing too much the rest of the day other than, responding
to a few emails, go for a swim in the hotel pool and working on the next blog
chapter. In fact, Jerry had an idea that he thought could be incorporated into a short
story. We were happy with the day - until, getting ready to turn onto a small
street and (only) going about 3 MPH, we had a major blowout with a rear
tire!
Riding on the rim, we were able to maneuver the car
up a hill and park it next to a curb that was somewhat out of the way of the
town's few vehicles coming and going. We were stumped. What would we do? What
could we do? There is no "AAA." No one was around. It was Sunday.
Most of the stores were closed.
A young couple happened to come along.
"Mark's" English was quite good and "Rachel's" command of
our language was "passable."
This couple:
· called
Europcar for us
· got
a tow truck (about 30 miles from this town) to come to the rescue
· discovered
that the car did not come with a spare tire.
(The car did not come with "Run Flat" tires.)
Confirmed - No spare!
(Notice The "Crowds" In This Town!?!?!)
The couple also:
· worked
with the truck driver (truck driver's English was so-so) to determine the
process (with Europcar) as to whether or not we had to be towed back to the
Porto Airport (to exchange cars) - we were about three hours away from the
Porto airport.
translated what the truck
driver concluded - that there were (also) some electrical / computer issues with
the car
drove with us to a COSCO / Pep-Boys type place
· helped
us buy two new tires (the bad tire could not be fixed and there had to be
matching tires. Rip off!)
Not A Good Situation!
· determine
(from Europcar) who and how the new tires purchase would be resolved in terms
of payment, (We had to buy the tires with an attempt to be reimbursed at a
later time
· and stayed with us while the tires
were changed
· and
escorted us to our hotel so we wouldn't get lost!
This entire process took several hours. Besides
giving the couple a PMI Frisbee, we slipped Mark some money so that he could
buy his girl friend a nice dinner. They were taken back. They were embarrassed.
They told us that they were not helping us for the money. We understood.
However, we wanted to help them since they were both unemployed, couldn't find
a job in this small town and they were both in a "lost" situation
with the economy being as bad for them as it has been.
We said our good-bys - hugs and kisses.
We were in our hotel, getting unpacked and working
on this blog when our hotel room phone rang. It was Mark. He felt very awkward
with our "little gift" and wanted to share it, by the four of us
going to dinner. We politely declined. We were very tired. It was a frustrating
and emotional day. We wanted to get to bed early since tomorrow would be a long
day of driving to Salamanca, Spain.
* * * *
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