The Show Must Go On(Queen) - Heading south to Porto

---

---

The sort of thing that all travellers fear struck in the wee small hours of the night!

Gretchen awoke with flu symptoms! Just how bad it was going to be might take a day or two to develop and it is fortunate that we have a short run down to Porto and don’t have to check out from here until midday.

Our short stay here of 2 nights has been excellent with a nice location at the seaside and good weather even if it was a bit windy.

We could have been on Porto in not much more than an hour if we took the highway but as usual we opted for the N13 which would take us close to the seaside practically all the way.

With Gretchen’s symptoms starting to show like she was in for a decent case of the flu she stayed in the passenger seat for the trip south.

The N13 passed through rural land with small towns every now and then.

An interesting point we have noticed both here and in Spain is just how aged, farmer’s tractors and other implements are although Gretchen did spot a Lamborghini tractor also of an aged state. And here we were thinking that Lamborghini only made flashy sports cars.

In every town there seemed to be a ‘Chinese Bazaar ‘or equivalent of our $2 shop like what we found in Viana do Castelo yesterday.

Our progress because of the speed limits through the towns was slow but we made the coastal town of Fao for lunch and drove down to the beach for lunch in a cafe. I had a hankering for a hamburger and was pleased to find one on the menu. Not your usual ‘plastic’ type hamburger from McDonalds but one with all the trimmings despite its title of ‘Plain’. Gretchen settled for a ham filled baguette and despite her flu symptoms continuing to advance she cleaned it off OK.

This beach and the next one at Povoa de Varzim had inviting white sand and safe looking beaches to swim at and we can tell that once summer arrives these towns will be very busy with holidaymakers.

We have been amused by the names of two petrol companies in Portugal of ‘Galp’ and ‘Gaspe’and today we passed a number with those names as we proceeded south.

About 30km out of Porto the tar seal gave way to cobbles which made for an interesting ride and slowed our speed further as the upkeep of the cobbled roads was certainly less that we had experienced on tar seal.

The passing of a Metro light rail train over a controlled crossing gave us an opportunity to see this relatively new system in action. The system first started in 2002 and now has a number of lines with much of it passing underground through Porto itself.

We did think if the Portuguese can do it then why not Auckland back home. Mind you the cost of the system, €3.5 billion or NZ$5.8 billion or 1% of the GNP of Portugal at the time could be one of the reasons the country had to be bailed out by the EU.

We had tried to stay off the motorway but eventually by either a mistake or just the way Gina was taking us we passed onto a motorway with gantries which C&M had warned us would electronically collect data of how far we travelled for a toll to be paid.However, they had found that the camera system couldn’t recognise their red leased French number plate and we reckoned it would be the same for us.

Crossing the high bridge, also designed by Gustave Eiffel of Eiffel Tower fame, we were over the Douro River and south of the city itself very quickly.

The GPS did a very good job and guided us to the apartment just up from Miramar beach. Miramar is a name we are both familiar with as a suburb in our home town of Wellington.

Waiting outside was Jose, a friend of Cristina the owner of the apartment (Air BnB), in typical James Bond fashion we saw him flash his headlights as we entered the street to guide us to where he was parked.

After he showed us around the apartment and gave us local information about supermarkets and pharmacy (perhaps he had spotted that Gretchen’s flu had advanced during the day) he headed off and we journeyed up to the supermarket to get supplies and dinners for the next 3 nights.

We decided to continue the theme of having fish which is the local staple diet of the Portuguese people. We took a number from a ticket machine and waited our turn for the number to come up to be served.

There were only 2 numbers ahead of and although there was only one person serving on the fresh fish stall we didn’t think the wait would be very long.

Wrong!

The first person waiting was dealt with fairly quickly but the second couple were a different proposition.

The fish stall gives a complete service through to preparing the fish you choose for cooking. That includes scaling, gutting and filleting.

The couple before us must have been either buying in for the next fortnight or having the family around for a slap up fish meal.

They purchased about 30 odd sardines all of which had to be gutted,2 salmon tails that had the tails cut off and what was left of the bodies filleted and then a couple of other large fish that required the full works.

With other people arriving waiting on service there were a lot of sly looks going back and forth between them which we joined in on as we awaited our turn for a piece of fillet salmon and a small local fish which we knew would need the treatment but because of its size wouldn’t take long.

As the sole woman on the counter came to an end with the sardines etc another woman turned up and we got served.

We wondered just how people at the fish counter at New World back home would take waiting 15 minutes to be served!

By now I had the beginnings of a sore throat, something which Gretchen hadn’t had, but felt OK.



We cooked the salmon tonight and although Gretchen’s flu symptoms were slowly advancing into the full blown flu of ‘hot and cold flushes’, tight chest, cough and general headache she did manage to eat her dinner and then we both thought it was a good idea to try and get a good night’s sleep in the hope that perhaps it was just a 24 hour bug that might be past in the morning.

---