Endurance and Enjoyment

Hello Jan here

A lot has happened since my last post; some good and some more tedious than we expected.

In my last post we were eating miles to get to Porto to meet our daughter Miranda. When we realised we had to skip briskly by the coast of Galicia and the northern Spanish rias; we were thinking 'what a shame' as on paper we had been looking forward to a more leisurely exploration of this bit of coast; but I don't know whether we have just had bad luck or whether this is the normal state of things ...but we didn't mind by-passing it in the least. In fact we couldn't wait to get further south because once again we have been plagued by tediously long journeys in cold weather and fog.  Not at all pleasant.

But Porto was a delight. We arrived on time and were very excited to see our daughter!

I have no idea why Porto has not crossed our radar before.  Neither of us can recall a single person we know from our well travelled friends saying 'You must go to Porto!'  Well we are both saying 'You must go to Porto,'  It was fabulous!  A perfect city break if ever there was one.

From a sailor's point of view the marina is by the sea and the city action is quite a bit further upstream.  The very helpful lady in the marina office assured us it was a 15 minute walk. It isn't.!!!..its at least 50 minutes to the main part of the city...we timed it several times as we walked it every day for 5 days!

It's an interesting walk though; passing by derelict waterside port warehouses and abandoned stately piles all temptingly for sale..provoking conversations about  'Grand Designs' opportunities and massive opportunities to create roof top bars of which there seem to be none yet but which probably reflect the current state of the Portuguese economy. More of a challenge returning when its getting late and you just want to get to bed! 

What a great house to renovate

Old waterside port houses for sale

Right next to the bridge and just asking to become a roof top bar and restaurant! 

The city itself is a riot of colour and texture built on steep hillsides, with plenty of hidden shaded alleyways and shops to explore, peppered with beautiful towers, churches and imposing architecture. Restaurants and bars are everywhere and there is a great energy about the whole city. This may have been fuelled by the fact that we arrived accidentally during the annual festival of St Joao when everyone was gearing up for the big event with fireworks and a massive influx of visitors. 

View from above the bridge

View from the bridge

The very busy waterside

Certainly worth going for the fireworks alone. Those of you who know Greg, will be aware that he is a firework afficionado.  Yes it may have been the degree of port consumed  and was certainly before he fell over and took me down with him...but after the fireworks he did say with a teary eye... 'I love this city and these are the best fireworks I've ever seen!'  The beauty of it was that you can get close in a way that is impossible in London! We had ringside seats.

Waiting for the fireworks

Friends who have adopted a similar lifestyle to us have said that the added happiness comes from having visitors to share the experience with you.  I can  understand that and certainly having Miranda and her friend Liv from Melbourne visiting us in Porto made the experience even better. The girls certainly make the boat more decorative than we do!

Our visitors added a bit of glamour to the boat!

The marina gave us free tickets for a tour of Churchill's port cellars which is a relatively new port house. We had never heard of Churchill's and almost didn't go, thinking we would rather go to somewhere with more history.  In the end we went and we were very pleased we did. Churchill's was set up by one of the Graham family after they sold out Grahams...so all of the skill and tradition was used in the making but because they are establishing their network we received an amazing tasting including some of their very best ports. It certainly paid to be appreciative because we seemed to have a lot more tastings on our table than the others!  Ask for Lilia as your guide! We now know that the year of the very best port worth laying down is the 2011 vintage.  And we both were surprised to find that we loved the chilled dry white port.

Greg enjoying the cellars

A few tastings later!

SARDINES!
We have finally had the sardine tasting.  Greg has been obsessed with the fact that every place we have stopped at since south of Brittany has had dedicated shops selling sardines in pretty tins at outrageous prices.  There are whole shops selling just sardines.  Greg has been magnetically attracted to them pointing out the difference between the price of the ones he used to buy for Vlad and these expensive ones in the area where the sardines are actually caught.

Greg marvelling at the price of the pretty tins of sardines

What could be special about these sardines?  We happened to have some tins of sardines on board from our larder sadly left over after Vlad's passing and Greg was given a pretty tin of the posh sardines in a particularly expensive marina as a sop to the cost!

So we had the taste test for lunch this week.

The posh tin from Isle de Groix 5 Euros!

The Sainsbury's 40p tin

Posh on the left, Sainsbury's on the right of the salad!

The verdict  .....the posh ones look prettier but the Sainsbury's ones tasted better.  Thank goodness we have dispensed with that challenge.  I hate sardines. Don't waste your money. 

Well we have now said goodbye to Miranda and Liv and have ploughed on down the Portuguese coast.  We have seen few vessels of any kind. It isn't a fun coast to sail to be honest. As Greg said "its a coast to endure rather than enjoy" due to the swell and wind direction which isn't favourable most of the time.  We are just aiming to get round the corner towards the Algarve and into the Med as soon as possible where we will probably have a few lay days to catch our breath, do some laundry and cleaning and re-provision the boat. There is no evidence of local sailing for pleasure along this Atlantic coast; most people are on a mission to get elsewhere.  

Next news will be from round the corner heading east.....