One Last Fling in Portugal

By tomorrow afternoon, France will be our new home.  Bonjour!  We’ve rented a townhouse in Bordeaux for the next month.  The weather there is hot so we will be able to empathize with our friends and family.  Summer in the USA this year seems especially brutal.

During our two weeks in Porto, we ventured out of town to Braga where the beautiful Bom Jesus stunned us.  We walked to San Pedro da Alfuera for time on the Atlantic ocean beach and fresh seafood.  We took a train to Guimaraes to see the Castelo – Paco dos Duques de Braganca, and we are still dumb-struck that the stone walls we saw and touched were the actual stone walls that might have been also touched by town folk and soldiers 800 years ago.

For this last day, one last fling.  We love the trains here.  They will take you virtually anywhere you want to go.  Today’s ride cost 1.25 euros each.  We bought a ticket for Miramar, a small town with a cute name on the beach. At the designated time, we jumped on first train going in that direction with about a hundred other people.  Apparently, we caught a direct train and not the local.  I thought it funny when Stan announced to me, “ah, we just passed Miramar.”  Stunned for a station stop or two, we left that train in Espinho.   What the heck, we thought, let’s take a look around.  Espinho is another beach town on the Atlantic coast. The beach is just two blocks from the train station and holy cow!  Where did all those people come from?  And today is MONDAY!  After walking the beach promenade and having a good look, we thought, hey, we set out this morning to see Miramar, so back to the train we went – just in time too!

At Miramar, the beaches are yellow-white and a bit coarse but very popular.  The ocean’s coast is so bery pretty. The water is a collection of blue colors and big black boulders and lava pads make private pools for those who love to swim and dive. Miramar’s hot spot is the chapel, Senhor da Pedra, first built right on the beach, oceanside in 1629 and restored in 1936. I’m so glad we got to see this lovely piece of geography.

Only a short string of small restaurants serve the visitors.  We must have missed the opportune time.  Having what we consider an early lunch at 12:30, we obviously missed prime time.  Tables at the restaurants were full; the waiters were frantic and irritable When approached by guests wishing to know when they’d get to place their order or get their wine or get their check, the waiter at the first restaurant we tried shouted back.  I observed; I learned, do not bother the wait staff; they’ll get to you when they can.  Finally, at that first restaurant, the harried waiter stopped by our table to take our order.  We asked for Carne Estufada.  He said there was no more and we never saw him again.  We walked down to the next restaurant.  The atmosphere looked equally as frantic.  Finally, we sat . . . for about an hour at the last, larger restaurant.  I won’t go into all that, but we did get to have a nice fish filet with salad, rice, and potatoes.  I will never understand the fascination with rice and potatoes served together.  We paid to also have a cup of sopa, pao, and café but NOT TODAY.  Oh well, the fish was delish, and we did not need all that other stuff anyway.

Farewell Portugal.  Except for lunch today in Miramar, you have been exceptionally nice to us.  We hope to return someday.

Ok, one last thing. I dearly love to people watch and sometimes I see people in other people’s faces. Today I saw Mel Gibson, or at least a Mel want to be. I could not keep my eyes off this man as he leaned back in his chair, drank his beer, and smoked his cigarette, knowing he was on stage, on the red carpet, or just simply being watched. He loved it I loved it. You know the name, Mel is very cool. But Melvin is not so much. Melvin Gibson?