Our week in Porto sees us half way through our trip and it’s a nice long break: no rush, no driving, no major plans. Life on the road can be very tiring, so we’re happy to potter around for a week.

Monday (written by Rod)

Monday we decide to walk to the river again, but head upstream. First I check out the corner shop, which I think sells ‘Andante’ cards, which are needed for travel on their buses/light rail/metro transport system. (We want to avoid the walk back up the steep hills on our return.) It is a small, local store and was filled with locals when I scoped it out the day before. I do some homework on my translator app and have some key words ready to go.

I enter and ask “Andante cartao?” This gets a nod. “Tres” (with 3 fingers held up, to ensure there is no confusion) sees the attendant successfully grab 3 cards. “Adicionar credito?” I ask, to check if they can also add credit to these cards, gets the reply “How many trips do you want to make?” The rest is pretty much plain sailing.

Walking down to the river (along a slightly different pathway) makes yesterday’s walk feel like it had a comprehensive risk assessment carried out. This one is full of narrow, one-way lanes (can’t really call them streets) with no footpaths but a steady flow of motorbikes, cars and even a bus.

We reach the river and are urgently sold tickets for a “6 bridges” river cruise. The urgency suggests the boat is just about to leave, but is, in fact, due to the fact that the seller does not want us to buy from another provider. The boat leaves in 35 minutes. The cruise is pretty straight-forward. A bit upstream, to get a view of the first/last (depending on which way you look at it) bridge. Then head downstream, under 4 bridges to the last/first bridge, before heading back to port. No headphones/commentary, which I find a bit disappointing.

We wander along the river bank and are just about to look at some local wares. As we approach there is some sort of warning call from one of the vendors. Nek minnit, all the vendors are covering their wares with blankets. Is it us? We cannot be sure. However, we stroll on and find one willing vendor. She speaks several languages, is most engaging and offers us a special promotion; one for 3 Euros becomes 4 for 10 Euros. I up the ante asking if this could then become 6 for 15 (maintaining the same ratio, to be fair.) She counters with 10 for 20. Sold! It would have been rude to refuse such a bargain and Belinda walks away with 10 new bracelets.

 

Gelato (written by Hamish)

Mum and Dad finally find a gelato shop in Porto. The lady let us try some different types. I had two flavours: pear and chocolate, Mum had plain French vanilla and Dad had Port wine. We sat in the square and ate our gelato. It was sunny as, not like in Gaia.

Bus Trip (also written by Hamish)

We caught the bus on the way home, it was the 901. Mum and I had to sit backwards, which was really messing with my mind. Every time we had to go downhill, it was like a ride on a rollercoaster! But sitting backwards! Mum said, she might feel sick. But she was fine (luckily). She said next time we’re on the bus, she has to sit facing forwards. It was a wild, wild, wild, also wild, ride.

New Year’s Eve (written by Belinda)

After discussing the pro’s and con’s of being out late New Year’s Eve, we decided to have a long lunch instead, and be home for the night. Our apartment is the top floor with uninterrupted views towards the river; we’ll see more of the fireworks here without the hassle of the crowds.

This morning, we caught the cable car from Gaia up to the top level of the bridge, which Hamish and I planned to walk over. The bridge is 85m high: Rod caught the light rail instead. It was a nice walk, interspersed with Hamish loudly saying things like, “I hope the bridge doesn’t fall down” and, “What would happen if…” Probably what other people were thinking anyway.

 

We found Rod safely on the other side and saw a few other sites of Porto, before heading to a riverside café where we spent the next couple of hours in sunshine with drinks and snacks. Hamish easily fitted in a lovely big piece of chocolate cake, before we caught the 901-bus back home. True to my word, I sat facing forwards, but this driver was nowhere near as intense at the retired formula one driver who flung us around yesterday.

New Year’s Eve has seen us home, doing puzzles, playing games, listening to music, having a few drinks and looking out our windows each time we hear fireworks going off. Not a bad way to spend the end of the year at all.

Happy 2020 to all our family and friends. See you in a few weeks. Oh, and Aunty Jenny? We had a Portuguese tart – thanks for the recommendation. It was delicious!