The fast train to Porto was smooth and comfortable. Being eligible for those senior fares, for a couple extra Euros, we bumped ourselves into the first class car. A mere 3 hours and voila, here we are. And then there was the taxi. Grubb will fill you in on that.
For those of you who like to map it out (thanks Charlie and Wynette for that idea), our address is Viela Ilha de Ferra 12. Put it in ‘street view’ and you can see our apartment is at the end of a narrow, cobbled sidewalk. It is the sidewalk that is named Viela Ilha de Ferra. Our apartment is on the first floor (remember, ground floor is floor zero here so we are up a flight, first balcony). The place is quite modern. Interior pictures to follow later.
Adriano met us at the apartment, explained the ins and outs, spread out a paper map and got us oriented. He also shared many links to stuff on WhatsApp. He seemed a little surprised that I knew what WhatsApp was and even had an account for several years. Yes, us old foggies (or is it fogies?) do have…if only fleeting…a handle on technology.
Next, we chugged (all uphill even after 4 flights of escalator – see Grubb’s post ’Wait…where’s our cab driver’) ourselves to the nearest Metro stop and after some patient explaining on the part of the info lady, we purchased our “senior” transportation cards (called Andante cards) which gets us on all busses, trains and trams for the month of April. Being er…um…’senior’ does have its perks here!
As we wended our way back in the direction of home, we intended to stop somewhere for dinner (it was about 6:30 by now) when what should we see? A tiny storefront called Istanbul Kebob. Takeaway falafel and duram! Perfect. Aren’t we boring? Two nights in a row, the same thing.
One more stop before home. The supermercado – really a mini mart but they did have the basics.
I’m sorry to disappoint, but no ice cream was ingested today (which is really already tomorrow since it’s 4:30 in the morning) . I guess I’ll have to do double duty today.
There were kabob places on most of the towns in Spain we visited. Supermercados are sadly not that super in Spain either. One place had a “ultramarket”, that was, to be fair, pretty big. More word inflation.