Walking around Porto and Foz: Day 11
From our hotel, higher up the hill from the river, we walked to the Jardins de Palácio de Crystal, saving energy by walking across the hillside without going down to the river. The Palácio itself is now the SuperBock arena (the National, a rock band, was playing there that night). The gardens were beautiful, with grand old trees and many terraces overlooking the Douro river. There was a section with exercise stations and we played there a bit.
The weather was still hot, so we took a rideshare to the Foz lighthouse, where the Douro river meets the Atlantic. We walked along the Atlantic shore and enjoyed the breezes.
We stopped for lunch on a terrace along the beach at Restaurante Praia da Luz beside the Jardim dos Ingleses.
Gardens and Beaches
We walked past Castelo do Queijo into Matosinhos. (That means the Castle of Cheese. I think it’s called that because it’s shaped like a wheel of cheese, or, as someone else wrote, there was a rock nearby that was shaped like a wheel of cheese.) The beach becomes very wide and flat. David and I walked to the water’s edge to test the temperature – very warm! It must be shallow there; it was much warmer than the chilly water at our beach at Caxias, further south outside Lisboa. Then we took a rideshare back to the city center in very slow traffic.
At the São Nicolau church, we heard a late afternoon concert — violinist Gaspar Santos played a Sonata and Partita by Bach. Our friend, who took up violin as a retirement hobby, enjoyed it very much. Senhor Santos is a fine violinist.
We had dinner at Concept 31, which we chose because it had an available table. It turned out to be an excellent traditional restaurant. Pam had Bacalau a Braga, with veggies, which was tender fresh-tasting cod, the best we’ve had yet. David had Quindim, a Brasilian pudding.
Concert and Dinner
Our stay at Laranjais was excellent, the best features of an apartment and a hotel. The two bedrooms were perfect for two couples, with a sitting room and an adequately equipped kitchen for making breakfast. We probably could have cooked some real meals too. The housekeeping service even cleaned up dirty dishes if we didn’t manage to do it.
Train back to Lisboa: Day 12
We got a rideshare at the hotel’s checkout time to Campanha station, but traffic was heavy. We got to our train with five minutes to spare. After that initial anxiety, it was a calm, uneventful train trip back to Lisboa. We ended the day with dinner under the umbrellas at Bahia Beach Club on our beach in Caxias.