8:00pm - sitting in Brasao restaurant, literally right below the apartment, after a long fun day. Early morning calm before the storm in the city was eerie. Got breakfast at a cafe next to the station. They warmed my chocolate croissant!
Caught the 8:20am train to Guimaraes, one of the oldest cities in Portugal and where the first king was born. It has a UNESCO protected medieval historical center, a palace, a castle, and a thousand churches. When I arrived I went to the info center and not only did he print me a timetable for the bus to Braga I'd need later but he showed me exactly where the station is and ask the important things to see in town! That's how you be tourist-friendly. I went to the two main museums, the archaeological museum, which was a little disappointing with only about ten cases of fragments of old stuff, and a museum of religious art, which was small. The palace was more medieval than the opulent palaces in Sintra. I didn't feel like hiking around the castle.
Wandered back through the old town and found the bus station, which was underneath a shopping mall that had a food court. Grabbed a chorizo roll from a bakery rather than McDonald's or pizza hut (not euphemisms, actual McDonald's and Pizza Hut....) and caught my 1:35 bus to Braga. It took a little less then an hour.
For some reason I kept getting disoriented in Braga. It's technically the third biggest city in Portugal and it felt rather small but the streets wound around all over. It also has a protected historical center and a fantastic cathedral that's older than Portugal. To tour the choir and chapels you go with a guide. It only costs one euro more than just going into the church but I basically had a private guide for a little while.
Kept wandering and got a delicious gelato at Spirito of mocha, dark chocolate, and sesame (which was delicious but I'm still not sure what it exactly was). I pondered taking a bus a few miles to thud important church but ultimately decided I didn't feel like the effort. That's where being on the tour would've been nice. Instead I wandered through a supermarket and got some strawberries. I was eating them and using the town's free Wi-Fi when I heard music. A couple student groups were performing on the street and they were SO GOOD! watched them for a while and wandered a but before making it to the train station and barely jumping on the 6:21 train back to Porto. What's normally a five minute walk took about 40 because of the rally car thing. People are hanging out of windows and standing on phone booths! To see cars weaving around obstacles on old city streets. OK!
After making it back to the apartment I decided there was no way I was going far for dinner, so I literally went downstairs. Enjoying bread with Iberian ham in the butter and mushrooms and asparagus sauteed in the ham fat. Oh my! And I got here just in time because people are now being turned away! And then I got a "half" pica-pau, which is beef and it looks like a couple types of sausage in a tomato type sauce with melty cheese and maybe some other stuff too. It was served with homemade potato chips and toast points and I have no idea what the correct way is to eat it so I ate it with a fork. I could barely eat half of it and i'd hate to see what a full size order looks like.
Sitting here for over an hour and watching them turn what has to be a hundred people away. And that's the difference between restaurants in the US and in Europe.
11:00pm - now time to go to bed after coming back and doing some laundry. The car race seems to be over but there are still tv trucks I can hear downstairs.
Today's totals: 30,570 steps, 12.6 miles, and 37 floors, yikes! Need to make tomorrow a lighter walking day!
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