16th October (sunny and mild) 200 km by car

Only woke once last night at 2.45am when I heard the seagull give his horn blare squawk.  I imagined Bedrock Quarry where some guy pulled the tail of a prehistoric bird to let Fred Flintstone know it was knock-off time.  For me it was “more sleep time” and that’s what I did until 8am.  We’re getting quite used to this comfy lifestyle and the unexpected bonus of really good Spanish coffee, so decided to try out the hotel’s 4.50 euro breakfast.  Good coffee, good croissants, happy campers.

Vigo at 8.30am - can't believe how dark it is in the mornings.

Left Vigo at 10am and had the stresses of city and motorway driving.  Strange signs warning us of electronic tolls had us wondering what our bill will be when we hand the car back tomorrow.  Took a diversion to the coast just north of Porto to view the Leica swimming pools and hopefully get a swim as it was 20C and sunny.  Found the pools and even though they didn’t look as tranquil as the photos we’d seen, decided to give it a crack.  However, we were warned off by the local shopkeeper saying the water was too dirty now the summer season had finished – and gotta say, it did look a bit suspect.  So we had to leave that dubious delight and head for the wonders of Porto.

Leica swimming pool - the water quality was a bit suspect but so were the waves

Stopping off to see the pools, meant we got to see this little church on the coast

Driving in big cities must be one of the most stressful things known to man, especially when you don’t know where you’re going.  Maps Me ended up directing us to the cathedral instead of our apartment we had booked on Booking.com – at least that is what we thought, but eventually after driving around the block a couple of times, (which sounds easy, but must have been the busiest block in the city!), we realised our apartment was actually in the street below the cathedral.  Talk about centrally located, but along with central location comes parking nightmares.  We had been told there was free parking in the street outside the apartment.  I pictured a street like NZ with a well-defined tar sealed road and a kerb and footpath and signs saying where you can and can’t park.  No chance.  This was a myriad of skinny cobbled streets with cars parked haphazardly wherever they could.  We were accosted multiple times by drunken, drugged out self-appointed parking wardens who wanted us to pay for them for the parking spots they had seconded, but they didn’t realise we would rather drive round for two hours than fund their habit.  We did a couple of laps wondering what the hell to do as there were no carparks available, when a van pulled out of a primo carpark just round the corner from our apartment.  Bingo!  We were in there like a rat up a drainpipe, parked and locked the car, taking our valuables with us as there were several unsavoury characters about. 

Inside our beautiful apartment

View from the cathedral - that's our apartment underneath the washing in the foreground - the two right hand windows

View from our apartment

It wasn’t long before the dreadful drive in was forgotten and Porto had us under her spell.  What an amazing, crazy, colourful, vibrant, grungy but charming city with so many nooks and crannies waiting to be explored.  Two hours flew past and before we knew it, 5pm was upon us and it was time to go and meet the hosts of our apartment.

Now I have to say, the exterior of the apartment did not look like anything much at all.  Some of the neighbouring buildings looked thoroughly dodgy, but once Teresa opened the external door and we walked through into the wide tiled corridor with stone walls and took us up a wide flight of polished wooden stairs, we felt instant relief.  Then she opened the door of our studio apartment and we were just thrilled with our accommodation for the next two nights – all for only 60 euro ($100 NZ) per night.  We got everything out of the car ready to hand it back in tomorrow and then took off to explore some more.

Very grungy in parts - this is around the corner from our apartment

Had no idea my brother Nick was also in Porto (foreground)

Teresa had warned us not to eat on the Porto side of the river as they overcharged and the quality of food was not so good.  So we crossed the river on the historic Pont Luis bridge and found a restaurant that served big glasses of port for 2.50 euro each and a delicious salmon dinner for just 9 euro each.  We had a stunning view of Porto as the sun went down and a very pleasant walk back to the apartment afterwards.

We had a phone call from Pete’s cousin Elizabeth and she and Phil have been having a horrendous time battling headwinds and thunderstorms and gold medal snorers in the alburgues they’ve been staying at – makes us very glad we have hired the cars and made some headway.

Pete here: We thought getting out of Vigo was a nightmare, it was kids’ stuff compared with negotiating the tiny cobbled streets of Porto. Julia was giving me directions off Maps Me and the next thing you know, we’re stuck in a dead end or being directed up a one way street. Really stressful and poor old Ju was getting it head on from me. I was glad once we’d parked the car, to get all the gear out and into the apartment as it’s in a pretty dodgy area, although close to everything. The meal was fabulous…. Who says I can’t show a girl a good time. Salmon out of a tin, a nice tomato and a bit of lettuce, with some onion rings to spice it up. Now there are those of you who are at this minute are saying ….no ..no..surely not…..not even Pete would do that….and you’d be correct. The salmon dish was perfect, as was dessert and the Port was divine. And all with the person I love. Looking forward to seeing more of Porto tomorrow, just not keen on driving here.