Portugal is Beautiful and Friendly ... and Cold

On Monday we left Paris and traveled to Porto, Portugal.  Our travel day wasn't the best; everything was long -- the RER train to CDG took for ever, EasyJet's computers were on the fritz, which meant that we spent almost an hour in line to check in, the plane did one of those "load and then sit on the tarmac" things, which added an hour to the total travel time, the shuttle to the rental car was late and crowded (although we ended up with a cool car, a Volvo diesel), and, to top it off, we had a little bit of trouble finding our apartment.  But we finally made it, got settled into our apartment, then went to a restaurant along the water that was recommended by the nice woman from whom we rented our apartment, where we had a satisfying meal consisting of enormous, delicious portions.

Now I'm sitting in the living room of our apartment in Canidelo, a southwestern suburb of Porto.  We have a beautiful, large, extremely quiet apartment right on the beach, with a large window that looks out on this:



So far our first day and a half in Portugal has been wonderful.  It is far and away the most friendly country we've ever been to.  Without exception, the people have been kind, accessible, and warm, despite our complete lack of ability to speak in Portuguese.  (I note that one of the interesting things for us has been the sound of Portuguese.  We had assumed that it would sound like Spanish, but it sounds nothing like that.  It has a suite of consonant sounds in it that make it sound oddly like an Eastern European language.  And more so than any other country we've visited, the Portuguese seem able to speak English without much of an accent, even people who obviously have limited English ability.)  We've felt so very welcomed here, and between that and the fact that our place is very, very quiet (we haven't heard a siren yet) and that we are not in a big city, we are feeling very, very relaxed.

Yesterday we had a nice, easy day.  In the morning, we went for a walk on the beach, despite the fact that a cold front had come through the day before, making the day very cold and very, very, very windy.  The flip side was that the day was totally clear and bright, with large, powerful waves, and we enjoyed the beach very much.



We wanted to do something outside of a big city, so we decided to visit a relatively nearby city called Guimarães, which is called the "Birthplace of Portugal" because it was the country's first capital. We didn't know what to expect, really, but what we found was one of nicest, prettiest, most wonderful places we've ever visited -- a middle-sized city with an incredibly well-preserved, yet unspoiled and untouristy, older quarter, a magnificent castle dating from the ninth century (the most genuine-seeming castle we've seen, and totally open, so that you could walk along the walls and climb to the very top of the towers), charming narrow streets, and incredibly friendly, open people. Here are a few pictures; more are available at this link.













As an added treat, prices here are much, much lower than in France. Coffees for .60 euros, a meal for the four of us for 24 euros, tip included, groceries less, gas less, everything less. Our money goes much, much farther here. The only negatives so far have been that our internet access is sporadic, and the pastries in the bakery next door are not the same league as those in Paris. (Also, if we were to stay in Portugal longer than a week, I'm sure we'd gain 5-10 pounds; the food is delicious but not exactly what I'd call light.

A final observation concerns my son Andrew, he of resist-French-at-all-costs fame. Of all of us, he has been the most interested in learning phrases in Portuguese -- how to say hello and thank you, etc. It seems that we've introduced a love of language in him despite himself.

Finally, for you Google Map fans, to orient yourselves, here's a map showing our travels in Portugal so far:

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