Dark Ages House

Almost everyone we know who has visited Portugal or lives in Portugal says, go to Porto or as Oporto as it is often called.  This city is big!  Actually, the Porto area is two cities, like Little Rock and North Little Rock separated only by a river.  Porto lies on the west side of the Rio Douro and Gaia is on the east side.  Our apartment happens to be in Gaia.

Porto is the second largest city in Portugal and both cities sit at the mouth of the Duoro River as it pours into the Atlantic.  These sister cities are known for two things – port wine and the iconic bridges crossing the Duoro.  It is also known for its ornate medieval churches, wine caves, and merchant houses that are still standing today along the river and along narrow, more than narrow cobblestone streets.

Our apartment is in one of those ancient buildings that dominate the area.  I call ours a house from the Dark Ages.  The streets to our apartment and so many others are like narrow rough cart paths.  When we arrived our driver had to fold in his mirrors to prevent scraping them on stone buildings on either side of the road.  We held our breath most of the way.  Our eyes were wide as moons.  Because our street is so narrow there is barely room enough for one small car, much less room to turn around.  Thus, our driver drove up our hill in reverse.  Good grief!!  William, our driver, is probably 6’ 4” and is sturdy.  When we finally reached our apartment we remembered it is on the second floor.  This man insisted on carrying our two largest bags, each bulky and weighing 40 lbs., up those stairs–one in the right hand, the other in the left.  Once the door was opened, we stepped back into modern times.  The apartment is new and fully equipped for our two-week stay.   Note to self, when making our return trip to the airport two weeks from now, we may have great difficulty finding another UBER driver willing to drive up these tiny paths to reach us and all our baggage. 

“La-tee-dah,” I say, “we’ll worry about that tomorrow, Miss Scarlet.”

We had to buy food and wine for the house.  The nearest supermarket is about half-mile away.  We struck out.  We do like to walk.  When we have a day without a minimum 5-mile walk, we feel like slugs.

My God!  That walk!   That’s why I call this the Dark Ages house.  The streets are roughly paved with stone bricks, lying atop the earth.  These are not the quaint cobblestone streets. They invoke hard walking, like rough hiking and primarily up and downhill.  Note:  all of coastal Portugal is up and down steep hills.  That’s just the way it is. 

Not knowing what to expect I still had on my dress and pink slip-on sneakers.  They felt wobbly on these rough stones.  The walk to the nearest food store was about 40-minutes but before we shopped we had a delicious hot plate at Camponesa Do Fojo.  It was a roasted beef, potato, and carrot stew – just like your mom would make!

Since this market is so far, we tried to buy all the essentials we might need for most of our stay.  We were loaded, like pack mules, but doing ok.

I was nervous walking on the Dark Ages streets, especially in my pink slip-ons and a heavy load in my backpack.  At this point, I was not feeling so good about this place.  I thought, maybe we can get outta here a little early and just move on to Bordeaux.

Later, safe in our apartment and all settled in, just to the rear of our house and from our bedroom window we looked out over the river toward the Porto side just as the sun was going down.  The wide river is nearby.  We could see that there was a flurry of activity going on there.  Boats were going up and down the pretty river.  People, just down there, were shopping at outdoor bazaars; they were eating and drinking at outdoor restaurants and cafes, and people were walking across the famous bridges . . . both the high one and the low one.  And, farther up our street, there is a marked, decent walking path straight down there.  A shortcut!!

OK!  That’s better.

Stan and I are going to be in the middle of all that tomorrow!

I guess this place may be ok after all.