Sunday ; Mostly sunny and mild.
Lots of wandering around and exploring.
Monday ; Mostly sunny and mild.
More wandering around and exploring.
Tuesday ; Mardi Gras / Carnaval
Cloudy, light rain all day. Stayed indoors, squabbled and sniped all day.
Wednesday ; Mix of sun and clouds, intermittent rain early in the day.
We got caught in the cold rain during our early walk this morning. BRRRRR !
Our afternoon walk included another trip to the Continente supermarket. I dislike going to the supermarket here in Horta. It’s a long walk up a difficult, steep hill, and another long walk down the hill laden with heavy grocery bags.
This afternoon I worked on planning some bus trips, within the city, and around Faial Island. And a sightseeing hike up a local mountain. Probably. Maybe. We’re feeling old. And after more than three months I think we’re suffering “travel fatigue”.
Thursday ; Mix of sun and clouds, mild, windy.
Our plan for today had been to take a city bus from one side of the city to the other, sightsee a bit, then return via a different bus route. So we caught the Blue line city bus near our guesthouse, in the Porto Pim neighbourhood, on the far south side of town, near the Blue line route’s starting point. We rode it around and through and across town to the end of its route on the far north side of town. We had planned to wander around for awhile, then catch the Red or Yellow city bus back to the Porto Pim neighbourhood on the south side of town.
BUT … we got off the Blue bus, and began to wander around. And around. And around. And around. And rinse and repeat. Eventually we decided we might as well just walk the rest of the way back home.
We bought some Oyster mushrooms and cilantro at the Mercado (municipal farmers market). I bought some OTC meds at a farmacia. We eventually came to a restaurant that was on Joanne’s radar. Until today I had two items of Portuguese gastronomy still on my bucket list of “things I must eat while in Portugal”. Now there’s only one !
We had Francesinha sandwiches for lunch. A Francesinha is a Bitoque … <HA HA HA> … drenched in a tomato and beer based gravy. They are usually made with pork as the meat ingredient. The restaurant we went to today prepared a Francesinha with chicken for Joanne, and one made with beef for me. I’ll try to describe ;
A Francesinha is a meat and cheese sandwich on a crusty Portuguese ciabatta bun, served in a soup bowl, with a fried egg on top, drenched and floating in tomato beer gravy, fries on the side. 76,208 calories per serving. CAUTION ; do not expose coronary artery bypass grafts to Francesinhas. HA HA HA HA HA !
We eventually made it back home. Late in the afternoon we went for a much shorter walk. At the end of that walk we stopped at the bakery half a block down our street to buy a few items for tomorrow, then across the street to the neighbourhood’s tiny “grocery store” which is open for a few minutes each day, at random times, to buy a jug of water.
Friday ; Cloudy, intermittent rain, heavy at times. The rain was forecast to begin early in the evening. It started in mid-afternoon. Very inconveniently !
After lunch … (MMMMM … leftover Francesinhas) … we went out for an afternoon of hiking up nearby Monte da Guia. We walked a block over to the ancient “fortified gate to Porto Pim” to get access down to Praia (beach) do Porto Pim. We walked the length of the beach, then up again off the beach to the 700 year old defunct whaling station that was the genesis of what is now the city of Horta. We wandered around, always heading uphill onto Monte da Guia, where there are a series of miradouras (vewpoints) looking out over Porto Pim Bay, and Porto Pim Beach, and the city of Horta, and even over to the relatively close Azores island of Pico. We were just meandering around, enjoying the sightseeing, I was taking lots of photos, when I noticed some ugly clouds coming over the inland mountains west of the city. I told Joanne we should turn around and start heading back down the mountain, because I thought it would probably begin raining within an hour.
OH … I was wrong ! In about ten or fifteen minutes it began to pour … heavily ! With very strong winds. <sigh> We were just about down off the mountain and about to climb down to the beach. The squall ended in about ten or fifteen minutes, as we were about halfway across the beach on our way home. We were drenched ! And cold ! <sigh> We’re too old for this !
I concocted a stuffed puff pastry dinner, stuffing mushrooms, shrimp, and Azorean cheese in mine, and chorizo, prosciutto, and cheese in Joanne’s. Pretty darn good ! Ever since we arrived in Portugal more than three months ago I have been experimenting with puff pastry dough, used widely here, easily available in grocery stores, and inexpensive. I’m hoping that it will be as easily available back at home, and I can continue to experiment with it.
Saturday ; Sunny, warm, very windy.
Tonight we had cause to celebrate. NO … she’s not pregnant … she’s 69 years old ! HA HA HA ! We went to a local restaurant that had the two menu items we wanted ; alcatra for Joanne, and arroz de polvo com algas / stewed octopus risotto with algae (seaweed) for me. NOW … my Portuguese culinary bucket list is complete ! I had a Portuguese beer, Joanne had a glass of Portuguese white wine. We shared a lime mousse dessert. The bill was outrageously expensive ! <shrug>
DSK
No comments:
Post a Comment