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Today’s Adventures

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Woke up on the later side today, and after doing my ever-important Wordle (the streak continues!), shower, and a bit of laundry, it was breakfast time. Since we opted to skip the 10€ each breakfast here at the hotel we went to the place about 30 seconds away and had our coffees and croissants for less than 10€ total (to be specific in dollars, it came to $9.67). Yes, sometimes we are thrifty that way.

Then back to our room we went, to decide what today should bring. It was much quieter outside, but still there is a bit more noise than in any other city we’ve visited. (The music in our breakfast spot was rather loud. Of course, typical of me, I didn’t recognize songs at all, so I googled one. Heh. Serena Gomez. We’ve seen her on Only Murders in the Building but, while I knew she was a pop singer, I’d never heard anything of hers before. Quite different than her morose character on OMitB.)

Dan checked out ideas and we settled on things and went out the door. The timing was perfect, as there was a little parade out front!

Then we followed a similar but not identical route, because we had already decided where we’d get lunch. (Sure, we didn’t eat breakfast that long before, but we only had coffee and a croissant so why not? Besides, we are in Bilbao and PINXTOS!

I took some photos as we walked, of course. This time that included a menu we saw that was of interest to us.

And then we ran across this. I don’t know what kind of weight lifting event this is, but the woman was clearly able to lift the thing multiple times. I didn’t even record the whole thing!

More walking to our destination, so a few more photos.

And then, where are we, you ask? Well, we went to the same place we had pintxos yesterday. I have to laugh at us sometimes: there are a zillion possibilities and we end up at the same place. Still, we did order from a different place, and that counts for something, I think. Oh … and we’ve noticed the use of “collaboration” several times now. So I think it means more than I think it means. Or something.

After our lunch (which, honestly, was quite light), we walked up the “not a river” for a time. And yours truly figured out she had north and south completely switched around. As always. We reached a place where there was selling going on. I saw coins, books, DVDs, and at the next stand, plants.

This man caught my eye because he was holding a clock and eyeing it the whole time.

More walking, including the Zubizuri bridge, some team that walked by (CCF?), a quick view of the Guggenheim Bilbao, and then to the Funicular de Artxanda or Artxnada ko Funicular, you choose.

We had read that the views at the top would be good. We read correctly!

We did a little walking then, and noticed so many playgrounds. I should have taken photos, I suppose, but you’ll have to trust me: we saw a good number. I did shoot graffiti, though. Go figure.

We took the funicular back down, and then made our way to Guggenheim.

This time we did go over the Zubizuri bridge which took us over “not a river”.

Okay, to explain about “not a river”. I had been calling it a river, and then Dan read that it was an estuary. I prefer calling it “not a river”, but the funny thing was that when I took the video neither of us came up with the correct name!

This is a sculpture called Las Sirgueras (The Rope Girls) and is by Dora Salazar. The rope girls used only ropes to pull vessels full of iron down the “not a river”.

We didn’t go in to the museum (we have tickets for another day), but we spent some time taking photos.

I loved seeing Jeff Koons “Puppy”.

More walking …

Then back to our hotel we went, for a brief siesta or blogging session. I wonder who did what?! But, well, someone might not have napped after all because we opened the balcony door to let fresh air. It’s much quieter here today, but then … ta-da! … an accordion arrived. We now know, since we walked by the sax player yesterday on our way to dinner, that the buskers are pretty much right below our room. We are on the second floor, so we are above them, but boy does that sound travel. (When we went up near the Guggenheim (thank you for the alert, Lisa!) we saw another hotel we had considered. It was very quiet, but we agreed we are enjoying being in the middle of it all!)

And why do I know this tune so well? Someone know?

As a sort of off topic aside, as most people know I’ve pretty much lost my hearing in my left ear. It happened shortly before our 2023 ten week trip and I’m pretty much used to it now. When we were on that long trip, I’d sometimes ask Dan, “Do you hear some sort of faint Gregorian chant or something?” He never did. My ears were playing tricks with me: when there is a lot of noise I can’t hear clearly, and somehow my brain turns the noise into the faint sound of shingling. Sometimes it’s all men. Sometimes not. It’s always some sort of chant, though. That just happened here, as the sounds down below, now sans accordion, meshed together and I heard men singing. It’s not all together bad: I do love a good Gregorian chant now and then. Later tonight it was a men’s group singing a drinking song. Yes. Really. Am I crazy? Well, of course. Am I crazier than I thought. Um … don’t answer that!

But I ramble …

Finally, dinner! Let the dinner search — a comedy, really — begin. We started out looking at a few places we saw earlier in the day, along with some I saw online that got good reviews. But no, we can’t just settle that quickly. So we walk some more. And more. And then we end up where we began, at a place I’d just seen with good reviews. (At least we got more walking in, right? But still my Apple Watch is not impressed.) There were instruments on the wall. A good omen?

When we went in we were seated, looked at the menu, and had a question about the monk fish since it looked like it was at market price. We asked our waiter. Both of us heard “fifteen” and assumed it was 15€ per some sort of weight. Fine! I’ll get that, thank you very much. Dan ordered the cod. We also got “natural asparagus”. And OH the yum factor was very, very high.

Then the bill came. My fish wasn’t 15€ per something, but it was 50€ total! Eek! Well, this has turned into the most expensive dinner on the trip. Go figure. But still, it was delicious, and in our neck ‘o the woods it probably would have cost us a total that was twice as much. Still, I think we need to be more careful and ask for clarification on things sometimes.

Once dinner was done (after 22:00), we went outside and headed back to our hotel. Sort of. Someone (I won’t name him) got turned 90° off once we entered the Plaza Nueva. Someone else (I won’t name her either) was correct in her directions. No need, though, to point out who was wrong or who was right, yes?

And now goodnight. We’ll see what excitement tomorrow brings. I’m hoping it’s not the 50€ sort of excitement, but you never know !

Day Two in Porto

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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!

Day Two — Miles To Do!

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According to the booklet:
Distance 13.1 km | 8.1 miles
Elevation: +400 m | -405 m
Altitude: 584 m to 788 m
Climb: 1,315 ft

Breakfast at Quinta Manhãs D’Ouro wasn’t available until 8:30. It appears breakfasts might be later on this trip. Since we have no luggage transfer today we didn’t have to rush to get things packed, and we could sit around for a bit. (I’ve managed to play my Wordle game every day so my streak continues. The other games aren’t always getting played, but I do like keeping the streak going. News you can use … or maybe not.)

I realized (too late!) that I forgot to take a room photo when we arrived. Honestly, it’s nothing worth seeing, but I still like to do these so when I go back through our trips I can remember the places. This Quinta is nothing fancy, the room is small, and quite basic. (And the tile floor in the bathroom is mighty slippery after a shower!) But it’s a very quiet location, and those running it are friendly.

But oh the view!

Breakfast, dinner, and, if we opt for them, drinks, are on the main floor.

So after breakfast we got ourselves ready, including our rain coats because, surprise, surprise, it was raining. I opted to leave my rain pants at the Quinta though, since my weather app said the rain would subside and it wasn’t going to reappear until much later.

Our app with instructions for the walk said it was to start back in the village just below us, so off we went.

We tried to find the start point (where the pillory is … hmmm … not finding it!). We went one way. We went another. Pillory? What pillory?!

We finally just opted to start walking since the app will show us where we are in comparison to where we should be. But, well, um, wouldn’t you know we ended up right back by where we are staying!? We could have started from there, and would have if only we’d started the app sooner. Ah well. Reaching “our” place, though, the rain had increased enough that I decided to go back to our room (up a steep hill, mind you) to get my rain pants.

In case you don’t know, this is the rule: if you don’t bring it, you will need it, and if you do bring it, you won’t. Better to choose the latter, I believe. (And no, I never did use them!)

Getting back down the hill the rain had diminished so much we just walked on without wearing the rain pants. Initially we were on the same route we took when we passed the Quinta yesterday, but the we went up a dirt road. There was a good uphill. Not killer, but definitely uphill. We still had some rain at times, and also heard thunder.

We had some lovely views, and there was a flower I don’t think I’ve seen before (anyone? Maybe an allium of some sort?).

More views. A cemetery. A town (Vilarinho de São Romão). The rain had stopped when we neared that town.

Until we decided to stop for lunch! Go figure. This is one of our lunch bags, provided by Green Walks. We hand the bags to someone at wherever we are staying, and they hand them back full of our lunch. Handy, right? So we ate our sandwiches in the rain, and saved the rest for later because we didn’t want to continue to sit there with the rain coming down.

After lunch was another uphill walk, but then a huge downhill. I’m never jazzed about downhills. I know that means an uphill is in my future! We got to the village of Fermentões, and took some time to eat what look like pancakes at this spot with water and a bucket … perhaps a laundry spot? In any case, the pancakes were sweet and a nice thing to enjoy before another big climb.

On the climb we saw sheep, flowers, great views (eventually), and the ever-present broom (bright yellow flowers) that in our neck of the woods is considered an evil invasive species. It is ALL over the mountainsides here and I wonder what people here think of it. It’s really quite lovely, but it does seem to take over everything. Other flowers I’ve seen are lavender, some other yellow plant that I suspect is related to a pea plant (?), lupine (so far all yellow), your typical yellow daisy like flowers, and either heath or heather (I’ve never figured out the difference between those two). We’ve seen pine trees, eucalyptus trees, fruit trees, what we suspect might be nut trees (I was pretty sure I saw chestnut). There are berry plants of some sort (no blossoms or berries at this point), and obviously a ton of grapevines.

But I ramble … here have some photos!

We didn’t follow the app completely — it would have taken us back to the village below where we are staying and having seen it twice now we figured we could skip it, so back to our lodging we went. As we were getting quite close a car drove by and a man said, “Camino!” to us. Yes, there are signs that designate a Camino walks here. We’ve barely seen any walkers at all, though. Our Swiss friends from yesterday were nowhere to be seen. I’m guessing they are just too fast for us.

Getting back to our Quinta we came upstairs to get things taken care of, but eventually went downstairs to enjoy the remainder of a bottle of tinto vinho we bought yesterday. It was lovely to just relax and enjoy the view out the windows — one side showed puffy white clouds and sun and the other very dark clouds. We are learning that weather here is pretty crazy!

Next up was dinner, and it was very good. And relaxing. And I didn’t take a single photo so just trust me: we had a duck rice main after a dinner roll, sausage, olive appetizer. There was also salad, and a chocolate crepe for dessert, along with a decaf espresso. All very fine.

And I am all very tired!

Tomorrow we have our breakfast at 8:30 but our driver arrives at 9:00 to transport us to our starting spot so we will have to eat quickly, I suppose. I’m not sure if he is also the one who transports our luggage as that wasn’t mentioned in our booklet. So we will learn about that in the morning. I think tomorrow’s walk is an easier one, but it’s a long one. But again, we’ll know when we know.

Goodnight for now!

December 20th Adventures

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When we woke we noticed no clouds in the sky. No complaints from me about that. It was cooler than yesterday, though, so we were back to our down jackets.

Our first goal was to find the meeting spot for tonight’s Tapas Tour. Our tour guide is Andrés Jarabo and he runs Old Town Madrid Tapas and Wine Tour. I’ve read many good reviews of his tour and I’m looking forward to our evening.

The meeting spot was located, and we then moved on. We aimed toward the palace, but also looked for a place to have coffee and a small bite.

Mission accomplished.

Then we walked over to the palace. We weren’t really interested in paying 13€ to go in, so we just walked around part of it.

(Side note: There are people dressed up as various characters and animals. I took no photos because then one is expected to give them money. But it’s all so very strange. I realize this is not just here, but everywhere. Just seemed that there were more of them around the palace.)

We had a pretty nice view near the side of the palace.

As we went away from there, we saw a cathedral and headed in. It had lots of more modern looking stained glass. It had some really beautiful pieces. (And it makes me sad that we Protestants so frequently neglect art. Do we not care about beauty?! We seem to have given up on good music … and art … and, well, I’m rather sad and frustrated about that!)

I have to say, though, that the “candles” that are no longer real candles leave me a bit cold!

We saw the front of the opera house. No, we aren’t going to an opera, though. We have the tapas tour tonight and a Flamenco dinner show tomorrow. I think that’s plenty!

Then it was back to the hotel for a moment, and then up to a different area of Madrid called Malasaña. I had read that it’s less touristy and that locals eat up that way. So up we went. Of course first we had to cross the most popular street, Gran Via. It was very crowded, and clearly is where all the shows are. I saw Lion King, Book of Mormon, and more.

For lunch we found place with a board outside that featured the daily menu. We had read to order that way rather than from the printed menu. Turned out to be far too much food (and we’d been told by Andrés to go light on eating before the tour. Oops!). The server didn’t really speak English and we muddled our way through. I’m so glad people here are patient with us!

Then, again, back to the hotel. This time it was a longer time so we could do some computer stuff (like starting this entry) and nap a bit.

After our bit ‘o rest, we again went out and just rambled.

I have enjoyed seeing the fabric stores, and have shared them with Kelsey since she has started sewing. She would LOVE these stores!

Eventually we aimed toward the meeting spot for our Tapas & Wine tour, and met up with the group. There were eight of us plus Andrés. We were the first there (hey, I’m on oboist and we are always first to arrive!), but shortly after two more (Rose and Taylor) came, and after that it was four more and how frustrating that I can’t remember all of their names. One of the younger men was a student at Santa Clara University, though, so we chatted a bit about that.

This tour … well … what can I say? Um … if you are in Madrid DO IT! Andrés is fabulous. He fills you in on things as you walk. He brings you to great places. We ate and drank some amazing things. (The dessert wine was so darn yummy and I want to see if we can find that before we head home, although that might mean we have to check a bag. OR we do the duty free thing, which is something we’ve never done before. ) I’d go on this tour again in a heartbeat. So thank you SO VERY VERY MUCH, Andrés! I’m so sad that we didn’t do a photo of all of us, but you are THE BEST! (Please, readers, feel free to contact me if you want more info about the tour.)

After our tour, which lasted until something like 10:30 (and began at 7:00), Dan and I walked back to the hotel. We both agreed it was a wonderful evening.

So far we have no plans for the day tomorrow. I guess I need to think about that. Do we go to a museum? Do we wander aimlessly (which I love)? Who knows? Check in tomorrow to find out what we did. 😊