Bill and Maria To Portugal 2019

March 31 Continued Had dinner 4 miles up the hill from our hotel at Veranda da Estrela.   Our very cute waitress Johana, who spoke perfect English, turned out to be a fantastic standup comic and we all had a lot of fun working through the menu and the ups and downs of being Portuguese or American.   Once Johana found out Jason and Laurie were from Florida, she started scheming to get them to smuggle her there.   I guess I was not surprised she was a character since I had our hotel book this restaurant for dinner and the concierge was laughing her butt off on the phone trying to book us.    This reminded us that a number of the wait staff we’ve encountered on this trip have been very funny comedians.       This is definitely a contrast to some of the older Portuguese we see walking through towns who seem somewhat very dour and probably worn out from years of medieval Christianity.     Johana’s fellow waiter also spoke exce...

30 March 2019 Drove south out of Viseu in the morning and broke up the two-and-a-half hour drive to Covilha by stopping in the small quaint village of Belmonte.   The bustle factor is winding down as we head further south and that works for me.   Belmonte is a picturesque little town and I’ll let the pictures do the talking. Arrived in Covilha the middle of the afternoon at another Pousada hotel – this one a repurposed sanitarium originally for TB patient’s way back before antibiotics.   Then in the 1970’s it housed, and I love this phrase, “hundreds of returning Portuguese”, and I assume they were returning from some African colony they got their butts kicked out of.    Nice euphemism.   The hotel is by itself on the side of a mountain four miles up a winding road out of town and the view is forever.   We’re high enough and close enough to Spain that I think we see it from our room.   The hotel, Pousada Serra de Estrela,   is a hug...

28 March Viseu Checked out of Porto today and before driving to Viseu in central Portugal, we sidetracked to Barcelos, about an hour’s drive north.   Maria had read that Barcelos has an open market every Thursday with one reviewer describing it as having few equals in all of Europe.   Once in Barcelos, we headed towards the center of town and finally found parking in a dusty sandlot.   Actually we were waved into the parking lot by one guy and another guy guided us into our space.    Although parking was clearly free I knew the guy expected a tip so I gave him 2 Euros, but he motioned for more.    Then the guy who waved us into the parking lot went after Jason who was thumbing through some change but before Jason could decide what was appropriate, the ballsy guy grabbed all the change right out of his hand.   Jason just threw up his hands in a WTF move while the two guys let us know by their looks that we were cheap bastards. ...

25 March 2019 Drove from Lisbon to Porto yesterday.   Short cab ride to the airport to pick up rental car then 180 miles north to Porto on stellar highways with almost no traffic.   Very calm drive except for all the Audis blowing by us at Autobahn speeds.  Well maintained Interstate type highways were almost empty and I was reminded of the almost unnecessary Interstate 91 which runs through northeast Vermont.    One the way we stopped into Obidos, a “thoroughly charming” (as the guide book put it) town for a short walk and lunch.  Obidos is a very well preserved medieval village surrounded by the original wall from the 14 th century.  Back in the day at least one king of Portugal was married there although nowhere in the town are there signs of extravagance.  The area of the town is not much larger than a football field but I counted six churches with most of them out of commission and probably unnecessary since this ...