Hello Everybody,

Something personal has come up on my end and I have to return home in a few days. Yes, this means that I have to cut short this Camino but I hope take it up again in the near future.

I am a very lucky and grateful pilgrim for having completed 2 successful Caminos and know that my third one is only being placed on hold temporarily.

This trip has been incredible in spite of the slight setback. I have been given the opportunity to see more of Porto portugal instead of just rushing past this beautiful city, trying to get on the Camino road quickly which I had done last year. I missed out on experiencing Porto at that time.

Now Porto has stopped me in my tracks so that I may enjoy what it has to offer. I love Porto!

I shall be seeing most of you in a few days. Thank you for following my blog posts.

I leave you with the following short video showcasing one of the many reasons why I love Porto. This woman was just selling bottled water but she made her attempts at sales so much fun. This is Porto!

Thank you so much everyone!!!

Hilda 💕😍🙏

So far what do I know that Porto is famous for?

First and foremost PORT WINE. The Douro River was used to move & export this fortified wine, a few hundred years ago. They put barrels of the stuff onto boats shown below and transport the product throughout from their manufacturers. The boats shown here are no longer functioning for this purpose, merely for show and tell.

The Sandeman Don

Remember the Shadow in my earlier post. Well, he is actually “The Don” for Sandeman Port Brand.

Porto and the surrounding districts are also famous for Francesinha sandwiches.

Then comes the Tiles on Buildings. You see them everywhere in Porto and other municipalities of Portugal.

Portonians are also very proud of the Dom Luis I bridge in the Ribeira Historic District. From this bridge, you can view breathtaking vantage points of Porto and the adjacent city of Vila Nova De Gaia that is across Porto.

One bar being creative with the following invitation, encouraging the bridge climbing experience with drinking. 😉

After walking across the Bridge, you enter the city of Vila Nova De Gaia.

Then you have the incredible street performers, tourist cars and trains, historical trams still functioning carrying people around and modern Segway scooters for tourists.

Other items of interest:

A macdonalds garbage bin that opens when you move your hand in front of it. Sensor operated garbage door. So cool. I was thrilled to bits with this one.

Woman feeding the birds:

Karen attempting to Phone home:

Phoning home was not successful so snail mail is next. Lol. 😂😉

Both communication attempts above not working too well, so next up is a divine measure consideration of prayers and Karen’s looking at religious articles to help her along. Lol. Please note I am taking liberties here with this story telling with Karen’s permission. 😉

Other articles of interest:

That’s it for now. Have a great day Calgary!

Hilda 😍

This post is all about the food for all of our foodies (you know who you are).

We did some cooking on our own. Not too upscale but still deserving of a quick mention.

Here are our cooking endeavours:

Then we also had meals at restaurants and/or at accommodations that came with in house breakfasts:

Chalet D’Avila’s Breakfast

Restaurant Daterra

Pizza Restaurant by the Douro River In Porto

Italian Restaurant in Vila Nova De Gaia where Karen had the famous dish called Francesinha. It is a steak, cheese, ham sandwich slathered in heavy gravy.

I had a pasta dish and finished the meal with apple crumble and ice cream.

We even shared a big breakfast at Macdonalds. It was a very nice Mickey Dee’s as they had chandeliers in the restaurant. Very “high society” kind of atmosphere but serving fast food. LOL. 🤣😂

The rest of the photos on this post are snacks and pictures of food offered at a food market much like the Time Out Market in Lisbon.

We are indeed eating well in beautiful portugal.

Hilda 💕 portugal 🇵🇹

It is beautiful here in Porto. We walked around the city to absorb some of the lovely vibe. So many things and areas to check out.

It is also a statutory holiday here in Portugal. May 1 is their labour day. Most shops are closed. We caught sight of people in the streets with banners. Some sort of protest, I think.

Play the video:

Here’s food for thought. As we no longer have a fixed plan for this trip, we decided we can design this in whatever manner we want it to be. Perhaps we can stay a few more days in Porto to sightsee as we had in Lisbon.

We walked around the area near our hostel. The following are pictures from our ‘walk’.

We also took pictures of unusual items in the following:

Can you see the side of this building?

And for those of us who have seen the movie featuring this comic hero, The Shadow (of course, I am just simply naming this picture as such as it reminds me of that character):

Karen took the next picture which I think is pretty cool. I look like I am “shooting light” (Elaine…..if you are reading this one, please note the obvious joke here. Perhaps we can compare notes later……LOL)

We took a few more pictures:

And found a couple of Camino arrows:

Then we went back to the hostel. Their chefs Erica and Jose were inviting guests to their pizza making party.

We had already decided on cooking for ourselves tonight so we could not join them.

Our dinner was pretty exciting too:

Have a great “May Day” Calgary!!!

Hilda