Train!

Tuesday, January 9, 2023

I have asked if it is Tuesday nine or ten times today, because I cannot imagine that we only arrived in Portugal two days ago. It feels like weeks. We have really enjoyed our hotel. The people have been very, very nice. Bruna at the desk has been very attentive and friendly. Our room is on the 6th floor, but there is no elevator to the 6th floor. We elevate to 5, then walk up to 6. The reception floor has lamps for lights that I like a lot.

We had a lovely breakfast at the hotel – lingering quite a bit longer than 5 minutes today. We were the only English-speaking people in the room full of people eating breakfast. I was somehow very surprised by that. I found butter to go with the wonderful bread, so that was quite a treat. Did I mention our hotel looks like a door from the outside? A door between two shoe stores? When we came in, there were curtains pulled making a hall from the door to the elevator. When we left, the curtains were opened because the shoe stores were open. Our “hall” is just an open area of one shoe store with two doors. The elevator door opened and Keith was completely confused as to how the elevator had taken us somewhere else. Very tricky.

We Ubered (Keith setup an Uber and he was outside our building immediately, like magic. We opened the door and got in the car) to the train station and got on our train to Porto. I slept for 90 straight minutes and woke up just feeling wonderful. I haven’t been feeling tired (except for Sunday night when I kept falling asleep), but when there is a chance to sleep it feels so good. I think I actually just dreamed about how comfortable I was. I took my sweatshirt off and used it as a blanket and it made everything so good. I cannot sleep without a cover of some kind.

We got to Porto and it was raining. I told Keith we had to wear raincoats because I wasn’t going to get soaked two days in a row. We were dry for the 20 feet to the Uber and the 4 feet to the hotel door. We are staying at the Se Catedral Hotel Porto and the lobby is filled with fun fluorescent signs. There are really bright colors in real life, but the picture doesn’t do justice.

We set off to walk the neighborhood before dark and to pick up pizza that was rated so good it would change your life. I didn’t believe it but was willing to try. Keith forgot his umbrella (tiny drizzle forecast, but I was taking no chances) and while I waited in the lobby, a Scottish gentleman struck up a conversation. His wife came from the restroom and said it was quite amazing, I must see it. Keith came and we all chatted a bit. We were all going for a walkabout the area and the Scottish gentleman told his wife her shoe was untied, then proceeded to tie it for her. She said to double knot it, because it always came untied. I jumped in and said I knew a great way to tie that wouldn’t come untied, but also unties with just a pull. I showed him and he was delighted. He pulled it untied and said he needed to try it. He couldn’t get it. We did it over and over, wobbling the poor Scottish lady standing on one foot. She and Keith were having a nice conversation for the about…I don’t’ know…about ten minutes we were tying her shoe.

Off we went for pizza. We were about a block away when it started raining. We were a block and a half away when it started RAINING. Pizza was supposed to be very near, so on we went. We turned a corner and walked. We turned a corner and walked. We turned a corner and walked. I figured one more turn and we would back at the hotel. Keith said we had to take a street at an angle to get the pizza. We did. It was closed. It was before 6pm, so I don’t know what that was about, bit just about everything was closed and it was RAINING. We decided to go back to the hotel. I led us back to where we had taken the angled street, but apparently, I was completely wrong, because the hotel was actually 180 degrees off from where I thought it was. Huh. I thought that was amazing.

We had dinner at our hotel restaurant. Keith had beef short ribs with sausage rice, and it was delicious. I ordered some kind of chicken sandwich that turned out to be a club sandwich. The brief description (there was a brief description!) led me to think other things. Everything was delicious. The Scots came just as we were finishing. They had gotten very wet, came back and dried up, then decided to have dinner at the hotel as well. I hope they are on our tour tomorrow. I didn’t ask, but it would be very lovely if they were. I went to visit the lobby bathroom and it was worth the trip. I want that bathroom tissue. Life might be too short not to have that toilet tissue.

We watched the movie No Hard Feelings and were very amused. Keith practiced and helped me do a little sink laundry.