The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
Fun In the Sun

We spoke too soon. The missing bag did NOT come up from Lisbon last night as promised, nor was it on the 1:00 plane this afternoon as promised. The new promise is an ETA of 11:30 tonight ... which means the earliest we could see it is sometime tomorrow morning. They say it will be delivered, but nobody at the Porto airport seems to speak English so it's hard to be sure of anything.

The answer might be for me to drive out to the airport and pick it up. I'll have to go out there anyway because when I checked the car this morning, somebody had broken out one of the side windows! We left nothing in the car so no worries there. I reported it to the rental company who told me to just take the car out to the airport and they'd give me another one. Sure would be easier than police reports in Portuguese.

Along with news that my Seahawks were vaporized on Sunday night, that's the way today began. But we did manage to salvage the sort of scene I imagine everyone thinks we're living. Details below.

This is the way the morning started. In all our years of travel, this is our first time we've had anything like this happen. Fortunately I carry a mini roll of duct tape in my travel gear so we can at least keep the draft out until I replace the car.


There is a funicular (cable car) that runs from the area at the top of the Dom Luis bridge past a remnant of the old city wall and down the steep hill to the river level. It's only five euros round trip ... and it sure beats walking down an endless flight of stairs. The upper terminal is half a block to the left of our apartment, access to the upper level of the bridge itself is half a block to the right. Gotta love the location! Because the upper terminal is located underground, leaving on the downhill leg had the feeling of being shot from a very large gun. The view on the quick trip up and down is pretty neat as well.


The day was shirtsleeve weather, warm[ish] and sunny, so we headed down to the river to wander along the area known as the Ribeira which seemed to be where all the people gathered (at least those who didn't have to work today!) There was music, al fresco dining galore and just a nice feeling of enjoying the sun and the river.


The city comes right down to the river, so the Ribeira is not just a tourist magnet, it's also a residential area. I've got to think an apartment in one of the tile-covered buildings along the water would be a lovely place to live ... at least until the height of tourist season!


A nice long lunch ... by the river ... in the warm sun ... with a great date. What's not to like? This is what everyone probably thinks we're doing all day anyway, so we've got nothing to lose (and not much to do except take stupid pictures of each other!) Lunch was simple: fries and sauteed shrimp, both with lots of garlic ... and a cold beer or two. It all just felt so right.


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