Getting better acquainted

Week 2 in Porto started off with a trip across the river to tour a port house and do a tasting.

As fans of beer brewing, wine making, and whisky/bourbon distilling, we enjoyed the nerdy, learning part of the tour. Key differences between ruby and tawny ports, what makes a 10, 20, and 30 year tawny (surprisingly, a 10-year tawny port won’t be only 10 year-old port – it is a blend of 6-19 year old ports that achieve the head winemaker’s desired profile), etc. What we did not enjoy was the port itself. I could see maybe liking some tawny ports with a sharp, aggressive cheese (Roquefort or a sharp blue) as a dessert, but I could also have something else that I know I will like so why waste a perfectly good dessert opportunity on a gamble?

We also spent time with Matt, Marnie, and their boys who were in town. And we got to navigate with a sprained ankle for Luke 😦

We had a few hot days in a row, so daytime activities were focused on shade or were slower-paced. Unlike at home, where the air soaks up heat so it feels hot even when you are sitting still, the temperature here is largely driven by the sun. There is immediate coolness from simply stepping out of the sun and into a shady patch. Similarly, nights are (usually) cooler and it is possible to sleep without AC.

With Luke’s sore ankle (which is improving, thankfully!), I decided to sign us up for an all-day Douro wine valley tour. I’m not typically fond of such tours because the group vibe can be fabulous, awful, or anywhere in between and then you’re trapped, but the tour promised wine (yay!), little walking (yay!), and AC (yay!). Turns out, there were some pretty cool folks in the group and we ended up enjoying it.

The Portuguese do seem to love wine. For under $1, you can buy wine juice boxes in the grocery store (and for the record, the one on the left carries the brand of the grocery store chain where we bought it – it’s not even named for a winery!). Not nearly as good as the mid-tier bottles which sell for less than $5, but at least one of them was perfectly passable. It would easily be a $10 bottle in the US.

We topped off one evening with a dinner at a restaurant called the Cult of Cod. Portugal loves cod. LOVES it. This restaurant (run by a Michelin-starred chef), had cod in every item on the menu, as far as I could recall. The thing that I was most worried about was dessert. After all, how could you possibly put cod into dessert and have it taste good? Well, I was too curious not to try it, and I am glad I did! It was super thin slices of cod, fried to be light and crispy, then dusted in cinnamon and sugar. It was served with a runny egg yolk custard (similar in taste to what’s in a pastel de nata) and served with vanilla ice cream. Heavenly!

Portugal has a law requiring most restaurants to have at least 1 vegan option. While not vegan, I often have trouble finding anything I can eat in the US (let alone finding anything I want to eat). US vegetarian food is painfully generic. Grain bowl. Stir fry. Veggie bowl. Blech. I’ve eaten absolutely fabulous food every single day here.

Pastel de nata (pasteis de nata, plural) is an icon of Portuguese cuisine. These little puff pastry tarts are filled with an egg custard, and they are perhaps the perfect balance to a strong coffee, so we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take a class and learn how to make them ourselves! gain, a bit of a gamble since it was a group activity, but mst of the people were cool and we had a great time.

As we explored the Crystal Palace Garden this morning, we saw signs for a craft beer festival, so we will explore that tonight. The gardens were pretty and featured a surprising array of birds. Chickens, pigeons (of course), ducks in all sizes, and peafowl. We did at one point get cornered by a peacock and had to make a dash for it lest he charge us. Peacocks are jerks.

It is sad that we have only 1 week left. It is so comfortable here. I know where I am going (at least, as much as I do at home), I’m in a good daily rhythm, and I truly like almost everything about this city. It absolutely won’t be the last time we come here.

Well, hello, Porto…again

Less than 3 months after coming to Portugal, we are back. This trip spans 24 days and is very much a scouting expedition to see if we could live here. When we booked this trip, I was nearly confident I would be unemployed by now and fleeing the US. I’m not unemployed, thankfully, but that’s only because I managed to jump ship and find a new job before the ship that is federally-funded global public health sank entirely. Nevertheless, we are still here scouting because: a) the US is in deep trouble and heading toward an authoritarian autocracy that I may still find too hostile and dangerous to stay in, and 2) even if the US turns things around, I’m retiring at some point and there is NO WAY that will be in the US.

The cost of living in Porto is less than half of what it is in Boston. That’s the difference between retiring at 59 1/2 and at 72. While the US has many good qualities, Portugal sees those qualities and raises them all with ease. Safety? Portugal is one of the safest countries in the world (leave your sliding doors open overnight in a ground floor apartment level safe). Healthcare? It’s universal here, and you can buy up for premium care if you want to be fancy. Food? Portugal – quality is amazing and prices are super low. Wine? That’s not even a conversation! Ease of getting around? You do have to walk most places here (although there is a metro), but everything is close by. I think there are 3 big grocery stores within half a mile of our apartment, and probably 20+ within 1 mile.

What I like most is the wildly conflicting vibe of this city. A fancy new hotel will be wedged between an apartment building that’s probably 150 years old and a municipal building that has at least one exterior wall that’s older than the US. Craft beer bars are next to traditional bakeries which are next to tiny cafes filled with locals passing the evening with a glass of port. This city is young and old, high brow and crumbling, classic and contemporary, and vibrant and quiet all in one. I’m not sure what Porto is, exactly, and that is what I love most.

Week 1 included a walk to where we stayed last time (to get oriented), a walk to a major cemetery, and a walk to the main city market (disappointingly tourist-focused, like the Boqueria in Barcelona).

Jewish Prague

I never really thought about the Jewish population of Prague. Obviously, there is/was one, but the Budapest population seems to attract much more attention so Prague’s Jewish history was new for me. In Old Town, there is an old Jewish quarter with a few sights so we started the day there.

Some of the synagogues were relatively new looking and were built on the foundations of very old synagogues.

The Old-New Synagogue had a strong gothic cathedral resemblance, although on a smaller scale. Classic gothic arches stretched across the ceilings, ornate iron chandeliers illuminated the place, and it even had the wooden seats lining the edge that I associate with cloisters or church choirs. Unlike a church, however, the synagogue had only a modest ark at the front rather than an ornate pulpit.

The Spanish Synagogue reminded me a lot of the great synagogue in Budapest, but much smaller (and more modest). It had the high ceilings with balconies for the women, the ornate ceiling, and the gold gilding all over.

Lastly, the Maisel Synagogue, which was the most contemporary and honestly, least interesting.

Since it was a nice day, we turned our sights on the Charles Bridge and Prague Castle. I have no idea what story the statuary on the Charles Bridge is trying to tell, but it must be quite the saga given the broad range of imagery.

I know we walked up to Prague Castle last time we were here, but for some reason, we didn’t go in, so we decided to go see what the castle complex had to offer. The Castle itself is more interesting from the exterior than the interior – it’s just a large, cold, mostly empty stone castle – but the church buildings around it were gorgeous.

View of the Prague skyline from atop the castle hill

Cathedral of St. Vitus, part of the Prague Castle compound

At the end of the 15th century, the castle constructed new fortifying walls which included a row of tiny, colorful houses initially meant for castle security but later becoming homes to alchemists, goldsmiths, artists, and writes, including Franz Kafka.

We wrapped up the day with a hike over to a hilltop beer garden. Amazing views of the city, good beer, and great company.

The next day was rainy, and so we planned to do some thrift and vintage shopping with kiddo. Prague has a good number of such shops and so we trekked all over the city finding some cute things and some, well, let’s just say some interesting things.

Yes, that is a 1-piece outfit made to look like a check flannel shirt tucked into jeans. Interesting.

We stopped for lunch at an outside food vendor. When Luke and I were here forever ago, there were food stalls all over Wenceslas Square but they have been eliminated. I really wanted to try one of Prague’s famous street food items – a giant potato pancake – and so we put our pride aside and went to one of the vendors on Old Town Square. Your menu options here are potato pancakes or ham, cut off the giant ham on the charcoal smoker out front. That’s it, and you don’t need anything else.

At this point, we kind of felt like we’d done about as much of the city as we wanted – Prague isn’t that big – and so I researched day trips. There’s a town about an hour away that is famous for having a church made of bones (I have so many questions), and so we boarded the early train into the Czech countryside toward the town of Kutná Hora to see what this is all about.

The Sedlec Ossuary isn’t technically made of bones – it is decorated with bones. I still have questions and they will apparently remain unanswered as there were paltry infographics in the church. They also don’t allow pictures, so I only have a few illicit ones.

Well, I am glad this trip didn’t end without at least one weird sight. As Anna-Sophia noted, we do the strangest things on our trips (shark cage diving, sleeping under the starts on the Botswana salt pan, going to the DMZ in Korea, and so on). Well, I think that just makes the experiences all the more memorable! I’ll take a weird experience over a boring one any day!

We got back to the city and went to a jazz performance. Luke and I went to a tiny underground jazz venue when we were here last, and while I highly doubted we would find the place again (or if it would even still exist), I am pleased to report that we DID find it! In fact, when they took us to the table I reserved, we discovered it was the exact same table. Hah!

Prague, after all these years

It’s been over 23 years since we were last in Prague. I don’t feel old enough to be celebrating my 25th anniversary or to have gone 23+ years between visits to a city, but the calendar doesn’t lie!

We crammed our stuff (and ourselves) onto the flight from Barcelona to Prague. I’m not the tallest person in the world, but I now see what they go through – these seats were TINY!

After arriving at our hotel, we ditched our bags and went to dinner at a super fancy place that specialized in deer meat (venison). I had fabulous mushroom risotto (Czechs seem to love mushroom!), Luke had venison medallions, and kiddo had a venison burger. Desserts looked spectacular and artistic, so we planned ahead and got two to share. Kid got a golden egg, complete with a passion fruit “yolk” that was tasty and visually impressive.

We walked around a bit after dinner. Our hotel is in Old Town, the part of the city with most of the historical buildings. Like elsewhere in Europe, some buildings lean, some are elaborately painted, and all have a quaint historical feel to them. Around every other corner is a church, castle, monastery, or other stunning building to punctuate the city’s visual appeal. Prague reminds me of Budapest in some ways, but it is so much cleaner and generally has wider streets, and it is quieter. Prague has plenty of people who come here to party, but it feels like the city has worked hard to keep things under control and I think that resulted in Prague feeling less like a giant bachelor party and more like a city with just a lot of tourists. Budapest is the adolescent and Prague is the adult.

Before heading off to bed, we stopped to watch the astronomical clock perform. This clock has been around for over 800 years in one form or another, and it continues to draw a crowd to this day.

Relaxed state of mind

Anna-Sophia noted that we are much more chill when in Europe. I’m sure the lack of work and the mid-day beer help that, but I do also think she’s on to something. I just love being here!

We spent the morning meandering through some of the architectural wonders of the city before sending Melissa and Sue off to see La Sagrada Familia. While we waited for Rich and Rissa, we sat on the rooftop deck of the hotel and enjoyed the sunshine (I am truly a cold-blooded creature and need the sun to feel alive).

Our anniversary dinner was at El Glop. It isn’t the absolute best restaurant in the city, but it’s comfortable, reliable, and a place that we’ve been to every single time we’ve been in the city.

The next morning we had breakfast at a corgi cafe. Food was great, as was the company. 🙂

After we ate, we headed up to Tibidabo, the hilltop at the edge of the city that we’ve seen a million times but never been to. After a train to a funicular to a bus, we finally made it!

The main attraction here is Sagrat Cor de Jesús del Tibidabo (Temple of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Tibidabo). This architectural masterpiece is a contemporary of La Sagrada Familia’s groundbreaking, but its construction lasted only from 1902 to 1961 so it won that race easily.

This is effectively two chapels in one. At the first floor, the mosaic tile work was certainly unique. Scenes of ships and what we could only guess was a scene of railroad tycoons meeting Jesus…it was all oddly contemporary, yet mixed with traditional Catholic symbolism, to give off the weirdest vibes.

Everybody loves a selfie in front of a bridge

I’m struggling to interpret this mosaic…

From the first chapel, we took an elevator up to the mid-level deck. From that height, you can see everything in the city laid out before you. I’m not a fan of heights, but it was impossible not to appreciate how spectacular this view was.

Lucky for me, there was even more height to go! A spiral staircase later, and we reached the tippy top of the church. It felt like on a clear day, you could see France from this vantage point!

Upper chapel contained zero confusing mosaics

Kiddo, with Tibidabo amusement park in the backdrop

After several late nights, we had a light dinner on the rooftop, packed our bags, and then turned in for a modestly early night.

Sunset (at 9:15pm!) over the hotel rooftop

I was meant to be European

Truly, there is little about the US way of life that works for me. Europe (and specifically the Iberian peninsula) has so many things going for it that suit my style:

Universal healthcare
Beer and a sandwich for €3.95
Outdoor cafes, everywhere
Coffee and beer are fine, but water is suspect
Cheeese!!!
Walking everywhere
Dinner starts at 8:30pm (and even then, just barely)
Good wine at $7/bottle
Most days between 50 and 80 degrees

I will admit, not all of Europe is knocking it out of the park, but Spain and Portugal certainly do for me. This is a lifestyle I could get used to with little difficulty. I’m excited to try living in Portugal next month – obviously, the vacation mindset will have a luster that might wear off after several weeks in a row, but I do truly think that the Iberian peninsula is the ideal place for Luke and I to live when we retire (and sooner if the US becomes a true fascist authoritarian state and we need to escape).

This artist, Qwert, has become my new favorite. Their art is all over the city and I desperately want to find them all!

Melissa and her aunt are here with us, so we did a grand walking tour. Barri Gotic, Casa Battlo, and Barceloneta. It’s been a delight to show first-timers around the city.

Giant lobster sculpture by the entrance to Barceloneta

Luke, cranky that we stopped at the infamous “due chicken sandwiches, por favor” McDonalds

There is something wonderful about returning to a city time and time again. We know where we are, where things are, what’s worth seeing, and what isn’t. We have a favorite restaurant (Taverna El Glop), and we know the city’s customs and rhythms.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly 25 years since the first time we came here, but also it’s amazing that we’ve been coming here for 25 years. La Sagrada Família had no roof when we first saw it, and now it is nearly done. I remember seeing the cathedral for the first time and Luke and I making a vow to come see it when it was done in 2020. Well, 2020 came and went and the cathedral still isn’t quite done, but we are still coming here, together, and that beats out any architectural achievement in my mind.

25 years of adventure

May 20, 2000

Our wedding

Luke and I have never done things the way others expect us to. Our wedding was in a park, the reception in a brewery. Unusual, yes, but also consistently rated as the most fun wedding either of our families attended. We do our own thing, and we do it our way.

We are off to Barcelona, where we went (along with Madrid) on our honeymoon. At that point in my life, I’d never left North America, so going to Spain was exotic, exciting, and totally new. I’m a seasoned traveler now and while Barcelona isn’t what I’d now call exotic, there’s a special place in my heart for it. Similarly, we went to Prague in 2003, back when we were younger and poorer and more willing to wing things. We loved it but haven’t been back since and it’s about time we remedied that!

When we went to Barcelona the first time (and to Prague!), we booked nothing but the airfare there. I’m a better planner now so we have hotels, but I have to admit, I’ve booked nothing else and have absolutely no itinerary beyond dinner one night. There’s something nice about knowing a city well enough to be able to show up and wing it.

But first, we have to take off, and that’s proving to be more of a challenge than expected. Here’s to a quick maintenance visit and a subsequent takeoff!

Porto

We took an early train out of Coimbra to Porto. Porto is twice the size of Coimbra (yet only half the size of Lisbon), and a new city for me, so I was excited to see it. Final report: Porto did not disappoint. Of course, we were only there for a little over a day, but initial impressions suggest it is a lively city with lots going on.

After a relatively short – and completely punctual – train ride, we dumped our bags at the hotel and stopped for a coffee while we figured out what we wanted to do for the day. I adore the practice of stopping at a cafe patio for a coffee mid-morning. And I adore that the Portuguese believe a coffee is to be enjoyed, unrushed. Americans get their coffee in a paper cup so they can bolt from the coffee shop as quickly as possible, with no assumption that one should savor the beverage.

We walked over to Igreja da Ordem de St Francisco – a Franciscan monk order and church. Again, a whole lotta gold. Technically no photos, but…

Luke spent a lot of time working through his Catholic learnings and history to try to piece things together. I didn’t bother since a church is a church is a church to me, but it’s always amusing when Luke discovers a new rabbit hole to explore.

The main cathedral has been decommissioned. On the property, there’s also a smaller church/chapel, a museum, and a crypt. The crypt had a lot more private burial chambers than I was expecting, but it did have an underground space you look into that was just full of bones. It sounds like there was a lot of cemetery mobility as residents outgrew their burial spaces.

Luxuriously-sized burial chambers in the crypt

At some point in the crypt, we passed the point of being hungry. When we got back outside, we were both feeling cranky and we had a hard time making decisions about lunch. I hate when we miss the window for making decisions!

We eventually settled on a fancy-looking place under an even fancier-looking hotel. This place had veggie options so I was excited! Cauliflower soup with green apple slices (amazing), slivered beets with greens, and – of course – cheese and wine. It was all excellent, and the service was exceptional, so it was a good choice. The only negative was when we had to fight off a pigeon. This bird was circling our table, then hopped on the table next to ours. That behavior isn’t unheard of, but we certainly didn’t then expect the bird to fly onto our table and try to eat our cheese! We had a horrible time swatting the damn thing away (and then keeping it away). So if one of us gets super sick in the next week or so, it very well may be bird flu from the pigeon who tried to eat our wine and cheese.

After defending our lunch, we headed off to the Porto Cathedral.

Many of the columns and walls were colorfully painted

Gorgeous ceilings (although with more heads on them than I typically prefer)

Predictably, it started raining shortly after we left the cathedral, so we walked a bit and then found a comfy place to grab a beer and wait out the rain.

When the rain let up, we went to the hotel to freshen up before going out for a late dinner at Gruta, a little Portuguese-Brazilian fusion restaurant that was praised as having some of the best fish in Porto. Wow, those reviews were not kidding! I had croaker (I’d describe it as a sea bass or durado relative) in a roasted red pepper and coconut milk sauce that was simply amazing. Luke had a rice dish with some special Portuguese shrimp. Desserts were similarly spectacular. Luke’s was a meringue with wasabi ice cream and port-soaked cherries, and mine was a cassava cake with caramelized coconut and honey-drizzled cheese. They sound wild, but I assure you, they worked.

Thankfully, our hotel was close by since we were full and sleepy. I’m not used to 9:15 dinner reservations!

Churches, libraries, health insurance, and other beautiful things

As with the prior day, we started off with a walk across the river in a horrible downpour to get to the Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Nova. This was the 2nd cloister built by the same order as the one we visited the day before, and since they left the first because of flooding, this one was obviously going to be uphill. We joke that the idea of “walking uphill both ways” surely must originate from here because it feels true.

This building was not much to look at outside, but the inside was simply amazing. I’ve been to a LOT of cathedrals and churches in my travels, and while La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona is the most awe-inspiring cathedral I’ve seen, this was the most ornate. The altar looked to be made of just gold, and lots of it!

Coffee was in short supply (and poor quality) at the hotel, so we walked over to Santa Cruz, the church where we were meeting up with Matt and Marnie. Having a coffee in a church cafe was a novel endeavor and we enjoyed it. Plus, it was dry and out of the rain.

Gorgeous tile work adorns the walls of Santa Cruz

Statuary is always a bit weird, but this one takes the prize

Many of the streets in Coimbra are pedestrian-only, which is a delightful experience. We meandered along, buying postcards and looking at the other various souvenir shops before heading back up to the university for our 2:00 tickets to see the library. Yes, we had timed tickets to see a library, but this is no regular library. The Joanina Library (also called the Baroque Library) is more like a cathedral with books than anything else.

I was fascinated to learn that this library has 2 colonies of bats that have lived in the library since the US declared its independence. The bats eat the insects that would otherwise devour the books, so the library maintains a symbiotic relationship with the bats. That’s not something you see or hear about often! In the US, we definitely would’ve exterminated the bats and then spent oodles of money managing the ensuing insect problem. We would probably have poorer results, too.

We rounded out the evening with some wine and games back at Matt and Marnie’s AirBnB. One of the many perks of life in Europe would be the proximity to friends. And escaping a megalomaniac dictator who cares only about his own power, of course. Whenever people ask where we are from and we say the US, they give us such a look of pity (and they are right to do so). I was researching health insurance and it seems that if you pay into the social security system here (which happens if you have a job), then you just get health coverage. For free. My US-oriented brain can barely comprehend the idea of a government wanting its citizens to have access to medical care.

Changing perspectives

Over the last two days, we’ve started to really think more about Portugal as a place we could live. We’ve always talked about moving abroad when we retire (or at least snow-birding abroad), but we both increasingly feel that we may have to move sooner/immediately so we are approaching this trip more and more as a scouting trip. Portugal has a very accessible cost of living, and obtaining a visa to live and work here wouldn’t be terribly difficult (especially since I’ve never met a bureaucracy that I couldn’t navigate). It’s very multi-cultural, and it has all of the contemporary aspects of daily life that we would hate to give up on (wifi, consistent access to water and electricity, etc). It’s one of the safest countries in the world, with pick-pocketing being the predominant crime. And travel from here to the rest of Europe (and the US) is really easy.

We started the day heading over to the mall to get some provisions. It was sunny out, and truly a lovely morning.

We met Matt, Marnie, and the boys at Se Velha, the Old Cathedral, and then explored the cathedral. Not a bad cathedral, but it wasn’t the highlight of the trip, either. Very average.

We did some more exploring, stopped for more wine and cheese, and mostly just spent time visiting. It’s been too long between visits with these folks!

A major rain and wind storm was entering the city, and as it approached, we parted ways for the evening. Dinner was at a place not far from our hotel. I had more cheese, because cheese in Europe is amazing and not like the bland stuff sold as cheese in the US. Same with wine. You can talk about Napa Valley all you want, but even the cheap Portuguese or Spanish wines are much better than the good CA stuff. So, I will eat my fill of local wine and cheese while I can!

Friday was Marnie’s birthday – the reason we are here. And, of course, it poured all day, with on and off torrential downpours. Not ideal. Matt said Portugal got over 2/3 of their annual rainfall over the course of this storm and I believe it.

Since Luke and I are up and about earlier than our friends, we went across the river to Mosteiro de Santa Clara-a-Velha. This was a really interesting place. It was built by a wealthy upper class woman. Hearing the documentary talk about how she was excommunicated because she diverted her patronage from the Franciscan monks to this cloister was unexpected. Seems a little petty and selfish, and the video definitely leaned into that perspective.

Inside what’s left of the convent, it’s truly remarkable how different it felt than typical cloisters which were built by men. This had a simple design, but with a scale that was grand and just enough ornamentation to make it visually appealing without being gaudy.

Coimbra is a college town and so we headed up the hill (so many hills!) to see the college. The library was the main attraction and it was (obviously) sold out for the day, so we got tickets for the next day and went over to see some of the college sights. they have a hall of minerals, a physics hall, and a cabinet of curiosities.

8-legged calf in the cabinet of curiosities

Luke and Marnie were on the hunt for the secreto pork cut – something unique to the Iberian peninsula. They didn’t quite find exactly what they were looking for, but they got close.

We got back to our hotel, with its 1920s decor, and marveled at the phone room, complete with physical, corded phone.