Another bittersweet farewell this morning.  While we are excited to be on our own, driving around Portugal, it is always so sad to leave all our friends and ship family behind.  Today is no exception.  At least we get to say goodbye to Gayle on the gangway (where else would she be?) and get a big hug from Marcelo, before hitting baggage claim and heading outside to find our Uber driver.  Tears brushed away, we find our driver, but then have to wait for a stressful 20 minutes or so while he tries to figure out how to get out of the parking lot after the payment machine ate his ticket!  Poor guy – he is getting so frustrated (as are we, but what can you do?).  As it turns out, the problem is that we are so early, and no one is answering the help phone “button.”  But finally, at 8am on the dot, someone picks up and they finally let us out of the darn lot.  Phew.  That was a little nerve wracking for all of us.

The rest of the trip to the airport was simple and a breeze and our driver was a doll who talked to us all the way.  He also knew exactly where to drop us off for the rental car, effectively missing all the horribly backed up traffic into the departures area, dropping us off literally right in front of the door to the rental counters. Perfect.  The rental agent is equally sweet and gives us all these great tips on things to do on the Douro River (she had just been there!).  She also offers us this great upgrade on a hybrid VW with gas included, but we really need a small car because of the parking garages, so we demur.  Might cost us a little extra, but for peace of mind, a little more money will be worth it.  Paperwork complete, we are out the door trying to find the garage – which if we’d just looked in the right direction, we could have found without hauling our suitcases up 2 flights of broken escalators and down again.  Sigh.  We’d never win Amazing Race.

Finally, we are blessedly in the car and out of the airport and on our way through Lisbon and up the coast of Portugal on our scenic tour to Porto.  I have a whole route planned with far too many places to stop to visit if we want to make Porto during the daylight, so we begin our little excursion heading to Cabo da Roca, the most Western point in Europe. On the way, we pass through Cascais and Sintra, heading out into the wilder, more undeveloped part of the coastline.  About halfway there, we can’t resist stopping for a cappuccino and – of course – our first pastel de nata in this adorable, totally local café called, of all things, Café Caracol (Snail café!!!).  Perfect!

A short drive through beautiful countryside brings us to Cabo da Roca which is as gorgeous as advertised, all rocky windswept cliffs perched out over the Atlantic ocean.  It is a great place to get out and stretch our legs while enjoying the stiff sea breeze.  And our timing is pretty good too – arriving before the 3 busloads of Asian tourists descend en masse on the area.  We’re outta here.

Continuing up the coast, we stop in Azenhas do Mar for more seaside scenery.  We were hoping to find someplace to eat here, but it is a bit early and when we investigate driving up into the little White Village, we decide it isn’t worth it – those roads! Plus it is starting to rain, so we continue on our way up the coast, hoping for dryer weather. 

Our next stop is Ericeira, another White Village, but a much larger one. Unfortunately.  Because in our efforts to find the lighthouse and fort, we get terribly turned around and then can’t find a legal parking place on the one street we managed to navigate. Even though this is the place for seafood restaurants, and we can see them all around us, we can’t find any place comfortable to park.  Sigh.  Abort.  But aborting isn’t as easy as it sounds because we (the royal we!) still have to navigate through these narrow little cobblestone lanes to get out of the darn village.  But – as is frequently the case – this works out to our advantage because as we are nearing the end of the seashore cobblestone lane, there is a parking lot.  Eureka!  Pull in!   And alongside the parking lot?  A seafood restaurant – Esplanada Furnas.  Lunch time it is!

This place is situated right on the very edge of a rocky outcropping with a view of the surfers on one side near the jetty and the long southern facing coast on the other. Perfect.  The set up is a little confusing, but fortunately everyone speaks impeccable English.  Basically, you enter into a fresh fish shop where there is a guy (we are guessing the owner) showing you whole fresh fish and telling you which is the best for you to order.  There is another guy shucking oysters and yet another chef grilling the fish you order. Couldn’t be any fresher. We just want small plates – but that is obviously not happening here.  So we end up ordering one Sea Bream (49E per kilo!!!) to share – then the guy tells us the appetizers come to the table.  Oh, ok, got it!

Arriving at our table on the patio, we have the catbird seat in the corner where we can watch everything outside and in – order our drinks, and then comes the appetizers. Well, we know this drill! Everything is extra, just because the waitress has a big tray full of shrimp and cheese and all that doesn’t mean you get it for free. We settle for some bread and await what turns out to be some of the best fish we have ever eaten.  Seriously.  Totally worth the cost and the experience!

It is getting on after 1pm by the time we are finished and while there are still a ton of places we can go between here and Porto – it is still a 3+ hour drive, so we bag the rest of the destinations and just head out along the coast until we are out of the village and onto the main highway (with a bonus stop at a Lidl’s right outside Ericeira for Port supplies!).

Arriving in Porto – we drive past a shepherd and his sheep – I mean, we’re like 5 minutes from the old city! Then right across the cool bridge and into the old city. The apartment is easy to find, although we have to circle around once because it came up too fast on the other side of the street.  Once there, we call Dalila, our host, and she comes down to direct us into the garage.  Down 3 floors, through 2 different sets of locked garage doors (yikes!) and into this little teeny space.  Yep.  Upgrade would not have been a good thing here in this garage.  Once situated, we grab our bags and head up to the adorable apartment overlooking the old city.  It is a great space with all the amenities – including sweet snacks and breakfast treats. So nice. 

Bags arranged, restroom visited, we strike out into the city to get our bearings.  Heading toward the pedestrian shopping street – Santa Catarina (it’s my street!) – we meander about, looking at all the different chain stores and marveling at the Capela Santa Catarina with all the beautiful Azulejos tilework walls. 

Back toward the apartment, we start to peruse all our food options. Everybody has these things called Francesinha – which we look up and turns out it is sort of like a grilled sandwich with tons of different meat inside then smothered with a cheese sauce and an egg on top.  Oh – we are so in for that!  And there is actually a place called Santa Francesinha, and right next door Francesinha Santiago, which Dalila says has the best Francesinha – good enough for us!

We get a table on the first floor – order one Francesinha and one filet of fish to share and sit back and watch the stream of people – with tons of kids – parade past, all going upstairs (there are a couple of floors above us) and the other tables around us attack their huge meals.  Oh jeez – the portions are monstrous!  Our Francesinha Santiago arrives as large as all the others and we dig into an artery hardening feast!  Loaded with ham, sausage, what they call bologna and beefsteak and definitely smothered in sauce – it is great – but definitely coma-inducing.  The fish is equally good – but far lighter – thankfully!  We only wish we had further to walk to get back to the apartment!

Happily stuffed, we stroll back to the apartment to watch the moon rise and the lights come on over the old city.  Tomorrow we shall walk off the Francesinha indulgence.