We had planned on spending every waking minute exploring Porto, one of Portugal’s most historic cities. However, the fabulous views from our balcony made getting an early jump on each day seem less urgent.
During the day, there were the soothing sights and sounds of the seagulls and boats on the river. At night there was the view of Serra do Pilar Monastery, all lit up in a blueish hue. The monastery was built in the 16th century and later used as a Portuguese military base from which to attack the French and successfully retake Porto. So much history!
Due to the new reality of fewer tourists and many vacant lodgings, we were upgraded to a room with these astounding views. The room was only $80 a night right in Porto’s prime location on the Douro River.
GOOOOAAAALL!!
Of course, nothing is perfect. Our last night in Porto just happened to coincide with Porto beating a Lisbon team to win the 2020 Portuguese soccer league title. And the celebrating lasted all night long. After a vigorous day of walking and wine tasting, we were quite ready for a good night’s sleep. This was hard to come by with all the GOOOOOAALLLS!, horn-honking, fireworks and drunk singing.
For all of you sports fans out there who are wondering, the score was a thrilling 0-0 at halftime, afterwhich Jennifer Lopez put on a spectacular halftime show. Oh, sorry, I’m getting football confused with futebol. I doubt they even had a halftime show. All I know is that in the second half, Porto went on to pulverize, humiliate and subjugate the Lisbon team by the final score of two to zip. Anyway, that was the non-biased report straight from our Uber driver’s mouth on the way to the Porto train station the next morning.
Here is a picture of the Porto team celebrating their victory in front of empty seats. I am proud of Portugal for taking the coronavirus seriously and not cramming people into this stadium with its 50,000 seats. And if you know how important futebol is here, then you would know that it was a decision that didn’t come easily.
The picture next to it shows the thousands of people celebrating in the streets. Or the half-dozen that somehow got separated from the thousands. Anyway, you will just have to believe me that it sounded like thousands from our apartment. Did I mention that it went on all night long?
Narrow Cobblestone Walkways and Lots of Stairs
As I mentioned, Porto was very uncrowded this year. We could eat at restaurants without reservations and walk down the narrow streets without bumping into people. We still wore our masks whenever there were people in sight, as most people did, or when we were eating and drinking, which was fairly often.
This woman is sitting on the railing somewhat precariously. I don’t know if you can make it out from the picture, but she was wearing a mask to be safe. I had to do a double-take before realizing that she was just a mannequin. You gotta love Porto!
The servers at the restaurants we ate at all wore masks. I noticed that my waitress accidentally brushed her arm against my glass and immediately replaced it with another. I wonder if she would have done that pre-coronavirus. Regardless, she was cute and I was fairly certain that she didn’t have any germs.
No protests here with people waving guns and demanding their rights to avoid wearing masks. There is no spitting or throwing tantrums or peeing on the floor in protest. First of all, Portugal has very strict gun laws. Probably some laws against public spitting and peeing, also. Second of all, I’ve noticed that people tend to have a lot of respect for their fellow citizens here. That is just an observation that is hard not to notice in Portugal. We are all travelers on the same ship.
Tree Top Walk at Museu Serralves
One of the highlights of our Porto Getaway was the Tree Top Walk at Museu Serralves. It was an 850ft wooden walkway built among the treetops. If you remember how it felt to sit in a treehouse when you were a kid, it felt something like that. Birds were chirping, the breeze was whistling through the leaves and I felt like I could have hung out there all day. There were other cool sights at Museu Serralves but that was the best part of it for me. Here is a metal sulpture at Serralves. One of the shots was taken from the inside looking upward.
Onward to Lisboa
Leaving Porto we took the train back to Lisbon. The express train is $37 per person each way. Worth it when you consider tolls, fuel, parking and overall stress of driving.
Everyone had their masks on the whole time on the train. Yes, the masks were rather hot and uncomfortable. But I have to admit, I felt much safer knowing that everyone was wearing a mask. Anyone who doesn’t think that masks work should look at the curvature charts in Europe compared to those in America.
With all the masks on the train, I was expecting someone to start walking down the aisle asking for everyone’s wallets and jewelry. One thing for certain, nobody is making their escape by jumping off the train. It reached speeds of 200kph (120mph). [A sad note to report here. Just yesterday, the same express train we took crashed into a maintenance vehicle, killing two passengers on the train and injuring at least 30.]
We spent the night in Lisbon to celebrate our friends’ anniversary. We ate at a wonderful restaurant overlooking the city from the outside dining area. We select outside areas to eat because it is safer than eating inside. Is it 100% safe? I don’t think anything is 100% safe these days, but we are doing the best we can to keep ourselves and others safe. While walking back to our room to call it a night, we did pass a young group of revelers outside a bar. It looked a little too close for comfort, so we crossed the street before passing their way.
The next day we rented Segways and cruised around Lisbon. That was a LOT of fun and it sure beats walking. Our tour guide was excellent, and he pointed out some of the historical sites along the way. When you visit Portugal, I would highly recommend making a Segway tour part of your itinerary.
When traveling around Porto and Lisbon, you will notice that there is no shortage of statues. The statues are of Kings and Discovers and Explorers in Portugal’s history, of which there are too many to count!
Tapada Nacional de Mafra
To finish up our busy month, we visited Tapada Nacional de Mafra. It was a pretty, forested area with different hiking trails from which to choose. They also had a train and a horse-driven wagon. This used to be a hunting ground for King João V three centuries ago. There are still three types of deer, wild boars and assorted small animals.
We didn’t see any boars, but we did see one type of small deer. They were not the least bit afraid of humans, so I take it that there has been no hunting here for quite some time. Cathy bought a bottle of wine on the way out because you can’t visit anyplace in Portugal without leaving with a bottle of wine. I think it’s the law.
How to Hear your TV without Blasting your Neighbors
We are new to apartment living and need to be considerate of neighbors when watching TV. Plus, our hearing ain’t what it used to be. Anyway, Sony MDR-RF811RK wireless headphones were the answer for us in Portugal. We picked up two pairs at the Cascais shopping mall (everyone wearing masks). The headphones were 80€ per pair. You can spend a lot more for headphones but I don’t know why you would need to spend more than that.
I made sure to ask the sales gal if the sound was clear and they would be easy to set up. She assured me that they were clear as a bell and easy as pie (not in those exact words). But when I got them home, the male Jack had no female Jill on the smart TV. That was one question I didn’t ask. I Googled it and found out that there are a few components you need to make it all work, but it was far too complicated for me to figure out. However, as luck would have it, there was a Castro Electronics store within walking distance from our room in Porto. So, after the port tasting, I stumbled that way.
I stood in line outside, wearing my mask, as the guard at the door let people in one at a time after lathering up with hand sanitizer. I swear I am getting a buzz by absorbing all the hand sanitizer. Anyway, I had pictures of everything on my phone.. the earphones, the jack, the back of my TV. After showing my pictures to the guy behind the plexiglass shield, he sold me a bunch of wires and plugs that came to only 13€.
He was extremely confident. I was skeptical, from experience. But he was right. It all works! We can have the TV volume at zero and our headphones can be at our desired INDIVIDUAL volume settings. No more “Could you please turn it up? Could you please turn it down? Could you please turn it upside down?”. I would highly recommend these even if your only neighbor is your spouse!
Headphones will be even more important now as we are moving out of our Mafra apartment on October 1st, into an apartment in Ericeira, close to where we are building. The apartment is smaller than where we are currently, and we want to start off on good terms with our neighbors. I hope they also have headphones! A side note, this next apartment has no place to fit all the furniture we bought so that we could entertain family and friends who never came, due to the pandemic. So, we will have to store it until we move into our new home.
The Best (and Worst) Countries for Raising a Family
For those of you with families who are weighing your options, a chart was recently published by The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. It lists 35 countries by different indexes (Safety, Happiness, Cost, Health, Education and Time). Time, by the way, means how many days off you get during the year for enjoyment. Portugal ranks 12th (Portugal is still #1 in wine consumption per capita, though, beating out France and Italy. The US didn’t crack the top 20.)
The Cost Index brought Portugal’s family ranking down because although the cost of living is low here, wages are even lower. Hopefully, if you choose Portugal to live, you will have income from another source. I see that Iceland is ranked first and their Cost Index is A+. I know for a fact that Iceland is expensive as hell. I can only guess that McDonald’s pays their employees 100€ an hour, or about the price of a Happy Meal.
Notably, United States ranks 35th, second from the bottom, sandwiched between Chile and Mexico. That is not a healthy sandwich! (Okay, maybe just a bite).
International Living
I am happy to announce that I am now a professional writer. By definition, anyway. International Living contacted me through Portugal Expat Life to write articles for them, for actual money. While this is not like winning a Nobel Prize or anything like that, I’ll take it.
So, I submitted my first article, picked up my hundred bucks from my PayPal account and that should cover my expenses for publishing my non-profit blog for the next few months. Why am I writing a blog for free when I can be making money writing for International Living? Because I don’t want to disappoint my dozen fans! So.. see you all again soon. Até breve!
I really enjoyed this one Bob. Keep it going!
Thank you, Jimmy! I enjoy the challenge and it keeps me busy.
Did you stay at the 1872 River House in Porto? That’s where we were and the views were spectacular! Love that shot of you, perhaps at Grahams in Porto?, tasting a few of the lovely port wines? We missed the treetop walkway but now I’ll have something to look forward to next time! Love these blogs, Bob. They keep me dreaming during these troubled times in the US, so thanks for that.
That shot was taken at Ramos Pinto directly across the river from our Airbnb. We didn’t stay at the River House. Didn’t have a name, just an address. I like that my blogs keep you dreaming. Pretty soon your dreams will become a reality and we’ll meet up for a glass of wine. Or two. I wonder if everyone will be arriving at the same time once the floodgates open!
Hahaha such a very entertaining read Bob — you really ARE a Pro-Writer with a sense of serendipity & whimsy … glad you are in it for the ‘kicks’ & not the meager €€€ … fuck anything but the Eternal-Now … keep ’em comin’ … your pal Cory- (locked-down in Mx. for the time being) nos vemos pronto
Hey, Cory! You were an inspiration for me to become an expat, picking up and moving to Mexico like you did. Stay safe over there. I have heard that tequila is some kind of cure. Maybe that was from you, though!
Love the blog. Keep them coming. I know all about the all night parties with futebol. They use a lot of fireworks here as well as horn and music.
Hi Sandy, always good to hear from another expat friend. Enjoying your new life in Medellin? The news is that Pablo Escobar is still dead! As you know, we don’t have to worry so much about religion or politics in Portugal or Columbia. But futebol? Take cover!
Thanks so much for the virtual travel adventure. I’m really enjoying your blog. May need to look into those headphones.
Enjoy,
Patti
You won’t be sorry, Patti! I think they go by a different model number in the US because of the different electrical.
Another entertaining piece, Bob. The tree top walk, the Segway tour sound great. Enjoy your new digs. I think it’s the law.
It oughta be a law!
Great update, Bob! Your Porto trip and overnight in Lisboa sounded fabulous. Remind us when we finally make it there to do the Tree Top Walk and the Segway Tour. Can’t wait! I am so dang proud of your for writing for International Living!!!!!
Thanks, Karen! I sure hope 2021 we will be better than 2020 to make travel plans.
Nice how uncrowned these popular areas are for low key travel right now.
I was wondering what kind of TV channels are available for you in Portugal?
The lack of crowds in Lisbon and Porto during the summer is unheard of in normal times. As far as TV is concerned, there is nothing that we do not get. We did have to get creative with special devices and subscriptions, however. That was a bit of a technical learning curve. Still not as hard as learning Portuguese, though.
Great description of your travels. So glad you included a picture of yourselves.
If the politics take a nose dive here, Costa Rica may be in my future.
The big Sturgess motorcycle event is upon us, and they’re protecting their freedom by not wearing masks. So numbers are still increasing in the United Stupids of America!
Stay well!
Thank you, Ronda. Costa Rica sounds nice also! A lot of people who had never considered leaving are now considering alternatives. Cost of living, healthcare, weather and overall safety are a few options to consider.
Great blog Bob, I love all the humor. Hope to see everyone soon.
Hope to see you soon, along with everyone who has had their travel plans interrupted. A lot of uncertainties still out there, unfortunately.
Totally enjoyable read that felt like I was transported to Portugal.
Thank you. If only travel was that easy, right? 🙂
Bob
I recently stumbled across your blog when the International Living notification popped on my PC screen. I love the way you write. You seem to add in just enough emotion to take the reader right with you on your adventures. It is a very honest, inquisitive adventure that you share. I like that a lot and it really makes for a great read. Thank you for that.
I believe in my soul that I will make my first visit to Portugal next year 2021 sometime perhaps for my twins 30th birthday in October or maybe even in January for my 61st bday. Who knows really with all that is going on over here in the US. It makes me sad the way things are going over here.
Anyway thank you again and I am looking forward to catching up on your back log of archived blogs.
Best wishes
Michele
Michele, visiting Portugal for the first time is something to look forward to. Hopefully 2021 will be a whole lot better than 2020 and your plans will come to fruition!
Thanks for that vicarious journey! I’m considering Portugal or Ecuador. Lived and taught in EC and would love to do a month studying Portuguese in Lisbon… will look into it more closely! Thanks again, Stephanie
Hi Steph! We also considered Ecuador before choosing Portugal. Ecuador uses the US dollar as their choice of currency, which eliminates one of the unknowns.