Left the hotel around 10:00 and walked to the Majestic Cafe, a 1921 Art Noveau cafe. The map made it look as if it was a bit of a walk, but it was literally around the corner. We cancelled our plan to buy a daily metro ticket and decided to walk everywhere. In the cafe, I had coffee with whipped cream, and scones with jam and cream. Song had a tea.
Walking around, visited some impressive buildings (just from the outside), plus the inevitable church. Went to the riverfront and had a pretty awful lunch. The weather was a bit chilly and windy but not too bad.
I picked up a bug – started to feel tired, aching and got a headache, sounds like the flu is on the way.
We walked along the river to a bridge designed by Eiffel, he of the tower. Then walked back, a round trip of around 40 minutes.
Caught the funicular up the hill (the river is in a deep gorge).
Song thought my hair was getting long so decided I needed a cut. I usually get it cut by an attractive Vietnamese lady, but Song found an old guy who looked about 70 and wore the biggest glasses I’d seen since the 80s. Plus he didn’t speak English, so I could have ended up looking like an escaped convict. He spent a good half hour, with me interrupting and saying “shorter”, “longer on top” and he managed to do ok. When he picked up the cut-throat razor I could see Song thinking about whether we’d bought a big enough insurance policy. Not the worst haircut I’ve had, not the best.
Went round the corner and stopped for a coffee and the world’s biggest vanilla slice (although we discovered what looked like cream was actually marshmallow, and it wasn’t very nice).
Song wanted to do some shopping but I was feeling a bit iffy so we went back to the hotel, then she went out again.
Oporto is, in my opinion, a lot nicer than Lisbon. There are some abandonded buildings, but not as many as Lisbon. The streets are cleaner, and there is not as much graffiti.
Regarding Portugal as a whole, things I will remember are the cobbled streets everywhere, in every place we’ve been. They look nice, but are slippery when wet, plus not easy to drag the cases over. The Portugese like cakes – there are patisseries everywhere, probably more than Paris although not as good. They also like smoking; it’s a toss-up between Portugal and Croatia on which one has the most smokers. The people are friendly and helpful, not like other places (I’m looking at you, Marrakech). A lot of the buildings have tiles on the facade which make them look colourful. Food is cheap – cafe food is around $5 each and decent restaurant meals are good value. The stuff in the supermarkets is also cheap.
Flying to Madrid tomorrow.