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It is 18 August 2018, and we are at Charles De Gaulle, just having said our goodbyes to Bruce and Sam.

We checked in for our flight and headed for the gate. We were sad to be leaving Paris, but excited about the prospect of seeing Paulo in Portugal. Our flight was scheduled to take off at 10:35 AM for the short flight to London Heathrow (of course every British Airways flight in Europe MUST pass through London Heathrow before you can go anywhere else). Our flight from Heathrow to Lisbon was scheduled to depart at 3:05 PM and arrive in Lisbon at 5:55 PM. Unfortunately there was some mechanical difficulties, and they needed the maintenance crew to locate and replace some sort of valve or switch. It was quite a long delay, and we didn’t arrive in Lisbon until 11:00 PM. We had scheduled a rental car for short three night stay in Portugal. Ahead of us was a 3 hour drive from Lisbon to Porto, and our B&B which Paulo had arranged for us. We arrived shortly before 3:00 AM, and we were relying on our GPS to take us to the B&B. Unfortunately, it was located in a very old part of Porto, and the streets were VERY narrow. We went around in circles for half an hour and still did not arrive at the address we had entered into the GPS.

Google Maps shows why we were having difficulty locating the B&B. This is in broad daylight. Imagine what it was like at 3 o’clock in the morning.

This aerial view shows just how dense the buildings were, and how narrow the streets were.

Pete finally found a place to park the car, and he took off on foot to find the place. He was gone for over half an hour, and I was starting the get really worried about him, walking around a strange place at this hour, and there were a couple of seedy looking characters just standing and eyeing me some distance from where we were parked. I felt I was safe in the car, but I worried about Pete. Finally, he appeared from an entirely different direction from where he disappeared. He said he found the address, and we got our bags from the trunk, locked up the car and headed off.

Inside the B&B it was bright and cheery, and quite modern. It had apparently been completely renovated recently.

There was nobody there to greet us, but they had left out a tray with fruit and lime flavored water, as well as some rather tasty custard cups. We had the combination number to enter the B&B. There was also a push button combination lock to enter our room. It was very well planned, and Paulo did the hand holding via text messaging until we were safely in our room.

Of course there was no elevator, but fortunately our room was on the first flight up. We enjoyed some coffee and a tart before heading out to meet up with Paulo the next morning. Since he was up as late as we were, assisting us via text message, I was surprised that he was up for meeting us at 10:00 AM, after us having arrived so late. What a great friend he is!

He gave us some directions to a Starbucks, which was down this little narrow street from our B&B, and on a busier road where Paulo could easily find us. We didn’t have to wait long until he pulled up in this luxury car in which he whisked us off to see the sights of Porto. Paulo was an amazing tour guide. He had a wealth of information about the history of this amazing city.

There were several bridges that crossed the Douro River, but I think this was the most spectacular. From here we drove to the beaches, and they were spectacular. Being August, it seemed everyone was on holiday. I so wished we had more time.

We knew we only had this one day with Paulo, and he wanted us to get the full flavor of Porto.

We walked along the beach for a while, and came to a restaurant where the chef was grilling the fresh fish on a huge grill right in front of the restaurant, on the sidewalk. The aroma was most tantalizing. I liked the way he had the orders on nails with corks to keep them from blowing away. It can get a bit windy at times.

That was one huge octopus. I was definitely ready to enter the restaurant and place an order. Paulo was the perfect host.

We let Paulo do the ordering, and his selections were excellent. The fish was grilled to mouth watering perfection.

The new potatoes and vegetable sides were a delightful complement to the meal.

Having finished a wonderful lunch, Paulo continued our tour of Porto by car. All the while he was giving us a history lesson.

The oldest trace of human history in Portugal is this 400,000 year old Homo heidelbergensis skull discovered in the Cave of Aroeira in Almonda.

Can you even imagine what this beautiful city of Porto must have looked like 400,000 years ago? There was no city at all. Or even 4,000 years ago. And look at it now, this city we humans have created in just a geological blink of an eye!

Paulo drove us to the top of a hill overlooking the river, with magnificently breathtaking views.

It was topped by a rather unique church which had a circular architecture.

It was quite a warm day, and tourists, myself included, were seeking shade wherever it could be found. This church courtyard was fortunate enough to support some beautiful trees, and one was rather ancient looking.

The building below probably looks rather impressive at street level, but from above you can see that it had at some point in its history been gutted by fire.

This little hill is a very popular place for the tour guides to take their charges for a grand view of Porto. You can see their open air vehicles lined up against the wall in front of Paulo’s car. We were very fortunate to have Paulo as our tour guide.

Portugal is a relatively small country, yet it is strategically located such that it was historically a place that produced a multitude of seafarers and natural explorers of the world.

As you can see from the map below, the Douro River is quite large as it passes by Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia on its way to the Atlantic.

Paulo lives in Vila Nova de Gaia, a hub of the port wine industry. I think I acquired my taste for port wine from my paternal grandfather, who enjoyed a glass of port almost every evening after dinner. I’ve settled into that very same habit since living in Argentina, where a wonderful port, Gran Oporto Grotta, is available in our local supermarkets. It is a product of Mendoza, Argentina.

We left the hilltop with it’s spectacular views and Paulo took us to a magnificent hotel which had a terrace with views even more spectacular, and there we each ordered a tropical drink and some delicious snacks to satisfy our appetites.

The views from this terrace were stunning, and I was in heaven getting full use of my Samsung phones camera. The camera was my main reason for selecting it as my first smart phone. Can you believe it, 81 and getting my ‘first’ smart phone. The learning curve is very steep, but I’m determined to master it. ;o) Don’t laugh. I may not be able to master the Spanish language, but technology and I are old friends.

This place was very elegant. The architect created an amazing work of art. Paulo certainly knew the right places to take us.

After the snacks we had on the terrace, Paulo took us on a walk along the river and we had the opportunity to check out a few of the shops, and to experience the relaxed life style of the Portuguese people.

It was getting late in the day, and dusk was not far off. Paulo selected a nice restaurant for us to enjoy a real meal. We had no qualms about letting him make the selections from the menu.

The wine was very good, and the food was excellent. The experience of enjoying a meal in Portugal is total satisfaction.

The dishes were prepared with great care, and my tase buds were delighted with every bite. I definitely want to return.

By the time we finished sharing this dessert, it was well past sunset, and we were going to leave Paulo to return to our B&B and get a good nights sleep. We were definitely cheated from having one the night before. Paulo did give us a list of things to try to see on our trip back to Lisbon. We didn’t want to say good bye, but we were on a tight schedule. I wished that I had allocated more days for our Portugal visit, but there is always a next time. We were very grateful for the time Paulo gave us.

The next morning we left shortly after enjoying a cup of coffee with some small custard tarts they maintained a good supply of in the lobby. We had gotten a GPS with the car we rented, so we input the first stop Paulo had listed for us.

If you look at a satellite map of Portugal, you see that from Porto to Lisbon the coast is one very long and continuous beach. The first frame below is the whole of Portugals Atlantic coast. The other five are zoomed in to show the wonderful sandy beaches that run the entire length of the country.

On the ground, you find that in August it seems that everyone heads for the beach.

They had built these wonderful boardwalks that seemed to go on for miles and miles.

The beach was so huge that there was plenty of room for everyone to spread out. The waves looked perfect for body surfing.

It looked so inviting, and I wished that we had come prepared to spend the day, but we had a long drive ahead of us, and we had several more places to stop.

The sun was so warm, and the sound of the surf was so soothing. I could easily have spent the entire day here and enjoyed ever minute of it. Portugal I’m certain is a place we will want to return to again.

We spotted this little beach restaurant, and it being lunch time, we ordered a couple of drinks and burgers, and the burgers were great!

We left this place and headed south, relying on the GPS to get us to our next destination. Unfortunately, we had a slight problem with the GPS, and we didn’t realize it until we were over 50 miles past the next stop on Paulo’s list. We considered turning around and going back, but thought better of it, and proceeded on to Sintra, the one place I really wanted Pete to see. I was there some 40 years ago, on my first trip to Europe, and I hiked up the mountain to the top to see Castelo dos Mouros, the Moorish castle. It was like something that was torn from the pages of a book of fairytales. The satellite picture below shows the extent of the castle. It was huge.

In 711 Moors from North Africa invaded the Iberian peninsula, and quickly conquered what is now southern Portugal, ruling there for centuries. They were, however, never able to subdue northern Portugal.

At ground level the immensity of the place becomes apparent. The stone walls were put in place without mortar, and they still stand today with very little sign of crumbling. The Moors were obviously masters at working with stone. Forgive me for relying on the Internet for the following photos. When we finally arrived at Sintra, there was no place to park our car, and the whole area was overrun with tourists. It’s a very popular tourist attraction today. Forty years ago when I was here, there were very few tourists, and the long hike up the mountain to the castle was a pleasant adventure. Today, for me to make it to the top would have been a major undertaking that may have ended with me having a cardiac arrest. Neither Pete or I were up for joining the mayhem of a tourist crowd, so we made a tactical decision to simply head for our Lisbon accommodations and enjoy a quiet evening and a leisurely meal before retiring. Pete had been driving for hours, and having not even owned a car for the past 18 years, you kind of lose the competitive edge you need to cope with the stress that comes with freeway driving in the 21st century. I cannot fault him for wanting to put an end to it.

Getting back to the castle, I was amazed by the enormous cistern the Moors had built as a part of the survival system for this fortress. In the right hand photo below you can see the arched gateway which was the underground entrance into the cistern.

The cistern holds a tremendous amount of water. One might ask, how did they fill it? One method is shown in the frame to the right, where rain water is funneled into a pool above the cistern, allowing any impurities to settle to the bottom, and then pure water is siphoned off the top and flows into the cistern. Pure water is drawn from the cistern with wooden pails.

Because the castle was built on the highest hill around, it has a commanding view of the surrounding area, including the sea, so they would have ample warning of any approaching threat.

But like any security system, the advantage it gives is soon negated by changing circumstances. In this case, the 11th century crusaders. In 1109, the castle became subject to attack by crusading Norwegians, led by King Sigurd I, on their way to the Holy Land. Every man in the castle was said to have been killed as they had refused to become christened. The Moors were Arabic and of the muslim faith. It was at this time that the area became known as Portugal.

Walking these ramparts doesn’t require much imagination to visualize what life must have been like in the days when it was inhabited by the Moors in the 8th century. For me, forty years ago, it was an unforgettable experience.

Our accommodations near the Lisbon airport were quite nice. We dumped our stuff on the bed, took a quick shower, and then went out for dinner.

We found this little hole in the wall restaurant and enjoyed a quiet dinner together.

Of course what’s a quiet dinner together without a selfie?

The next morning, after a very pleasant night of good sound sleep, we discovered that this B&B had a very nice breakfast as part of our stay. Yeah, I know that’s what the second “B” stands for, but still I was very pleasantly surprised.

We were obviously the first ones down for breakfast. We had an early flight (11:05 AM) back to London Heathrow, and a long layover waiting for our 8:50 PM flight to Athens. I have no idea why the connections are so bad.

Pete brought the luggage down from our room, and we bid a fond adieu to this place. Finding the rental return location turned out to be more complicated than we had anticipated. We put the car rental company name into our GPS and it took us to their corporate office. Grrrrr! Simplicity just went out the window. Pete played around with he GPS some more and finally figured out the address for the rental return location. In another 17 and a half hours we would be landing in Athens. We hoped there would be someone there to meet us, at 2:30 AM. Sigh! You’ll find out in the final part of our Europe 2018 adventure.