Before leaving the hotel Dan did a bit of laundry. Yes, we do laundry in our hotel bathroom. Somewhere I read that it was “frowned upon” by hotels, but there isn’t any sign saying we can’t and our clothing dries rather quickly. (Mine even faster than Dan’s since nearly everything I brought is merino wool.)

Then we decided to head to a market that we visited last time. I’m sure it’s a bit touristy, but it’s fun, and we actually do see people buying vegetables and they look to be locals. Rather than have breakfast inside the market building we got something right across the street and YES, it was actually an “experience”! Hah … breaking our own rule about not patronizing things that include that word. Go figure!

Then into the market building we went. Mercado de Bolhão is really nice. Very clean, too. And it’s great fun to walk around, aisle by aisle, which is what we did. Oh, and we bought a cup ‘o fruit.

At one end there were some ceramics and I actually purchased a dish. We so rarely buy anything on trips, but I liked it, and as Dan suggested, if I can get it back home in my luggage, go for it! (His luggage is completely packed.)

Eventually it was time to do our little “market experience”. It’s so very different than the states: you can purchase a glass of wine (for a very small price — my glass was probably 3.50€ — and you can walk around with that glass. We did just that, until we found what we’d want to snack on, which for us was a small amount of sashimi. We sat on some steps and relaxed a bit.

Then it was more walking in the market, and we opted to pick up two tapas each. And, just because it really must be done, we each also had a pastel de nata.

Leaving the market, I suggested we go to a church I’d read about. It’s actually two churches with a very small house (a “hidden house”) between the two. First we had to find our way there. (And I thought of Brandon when I saw the cocktail club so I had to take a photo!)

We opted, for a fee, to see Igreja do Carmo, because it included the small house as well. Sadly they didn’t allow photos in the house, but in the church it was fine. (Sounds backwards to me, but what do I know?) The house is in ill repair and I can’t imagine it’s going to last long if they don’t do some restoration, but it is quite interesting to see. I read that it was three feet wide, but I think that’s not quite true. Even the front seems wider than that. Perhaps eight feet. Inside it might get as wide as twelve feet. The first story has a bedroom and small study, the second looks to be like a small living room, and the third is a tiny kitchen and eating area. Pretty wild! We couldn’t go up to the next floor, so I don’t have a clue what it was. We continued through the church, but did not go up on the roof. I knew I couldn’t, and Dan didn’t seem interested. There was a hospital associated with the church, and I had to take a photo of the birthing chairs!

From there we decided we needed to sit and rest a bit, so we stopped at a little place and ordered a couple of the 0.0% beers and some sort of French fry thing. The “thing” ended up being fries with an egg and some (mostly unchewable) ham. It was … okay. The server also placed a wooden plate on the table with olives and a basket of bread. One thing we learned early on: you have to pay for that if you eat it, but if you don’t touch it they can’t charge you. Eventually we asked another server to take it away. I think a lot of tourists get caught by this little issue, but it’s just the way things are in some countries here. A lot of the time we actually want the olives and bread, but not this time.

From there we walked more. Saw the famous Livraria Lello bookstore. The line was long, and we simply weren’t interested in standing there waiting to get in. (And yes, it costs something to enter. The minimum is 10€, and you can pay as much as 50€ if you want to get into the “Gemma room”.) I’m going to bet a few book lovers would gasp at our skipping this place, but we simply can’t do it all.

We continued our walk, and eventually got to a spot Dan had talked about from last trip. I couldn’t remember it at all … until we got there.

Moving on, we reached a spot that I remembered that had an amazing view.

Then it was time to make our way back to the hotel. A bit of rest was called for. And perhaps a potato chip or more. I actually fell asleep for a short bit so I guess I needed that. Eventually it was time to get to dinner.

Ah, dinner! I’ve been using The Fork to find places, and they give the average price, but I guess we aren’t average because every time it’s more than I expected. Tonight was the same. The food was very good, but I am learning that servings are far too large for me. I ate so much that, if you hid my face, wrinkles, and gray hair, people might think I’m pregnant! Sigh. But in any case, it really was yummy, typical Portuguese food. (I had what they call “duck rice”.)

After dinner we walked over the same bridge we walked over yesterday, but this time we were on the lower level. I shot a few photos (of course!), including this boat with a pool at the top. Now I’m not interesting in pools (or beaches or anything for swimming to be honest), but if I were, that might be rather fun!

We walked back to our hotel via the Ribeira. It is an incredibly active, noisy, touristy, but rather fun spot. Too much for my ears, though! I’m not sure if this video will work well, but here it is:

Then it was into our hotel. I saw the person at the reception desk that checked us in and had to wave. I did the same last night. Her name is Patricia, so I feel (call my crazy) a connection. But she was the one to point out that we share the same name so there’s that. Still, as I told Dan, she’s probably thinking, “There’s the crazy old lady waving again!” Heh.

But now … time to say goodnight. One more full day in Porto and then we move on to not only another city, but another country.

Goodnight!