# Monday June 3, 2019 Drive to Porto

• Plan to be up at 7:00 but awoke 6:00 (gain an hour of prep to leave time)
• Plan to call Uber at 8:15, called 8:17 (lose 2 minutes of get to car rental early time)
• Pickup at 8:35 (lose 5 minutes of get to car rental early time)
• Arrive at airport 9:00 +
• Get in line for EuropCar rental
• Find out you have to take a ticket like at the deli counter
• Take ticket, no line necessary
• Shaina and Mo find chairs to sleep in
• 2 people processing everyone, now 3, now 4, now 2 went on break, now back to 4
• Takes an hour but we finally get car (Opal something wagon not Megaine or Rogaine)- they try to upgrade us for a price - NO, insurance - NO, Via Verde Toll Transponder - YES, extra driver - YES, return car full of gas, 24 hour roadside assistance - NO (so far so good according to my handy car rental checklist)
• Inspect car - Very dark inside garage and car is black
• Next on handy checklist says write down all damage and take pictures.
• They shine cell phone flash light on car, find a few scratches that we can't see and write them down
• Ignore my handy car rental check list and don't take pictures
• Car has about 1000 km on it so very good shape.
• That is my whole rental car checklist - oh yeah most important - GAS type - green pump gasolina not black pump - Diesel.
• Load up car and with Shaina navigating with Google maps we head to the Buddha Eden Sculpture Gardens and Winery on the way to Porto. (This is a surprise stop - no one has it on their list except me - no one ever heard about it except me and no one really wants to go except me and I am driving so guess where we go)
• At ticket office they sell us entry tickets and train ride - told it comes every 20 minutes - a hop on hop off kind of thing since the grounds are so big. We fall for the sales pitch.
  • We walk past the first train stop since there are the contemporary/modern sculptures there.

    

    

    

  • The bamboo maze is really made up of different varieties of bamboo shaded paths connecting sections.

    

  • Then the huge African section with very large sculptures of people and animals of metal and stone. And guess what - lots of giraffes!

    

    

    

    

    

    

  • There is a huge Chinese terracotta soldiers section although since they are blue maybe they aren't terracotta.

    

    

    

    

  • We still haven take the train because the next stop would have us miss parts of the Africa or soldiers section.
  • Next starts the Buddha section - sitting, standing, smiling, not smiling and on and on. Lots of Buddhas of all sizes.

    

    

    

    

  • Okay, now we are tired and want the train to take us back.
  • We see a sign that says "Train stop" - good clue.
  • We wait and wait and take pictures and wait.

    

    

  • At least 30 minutes.

    

  • Ernie goes to the cafe nearby and asks when the next train will be - 2:00pm about an hour from now!
  • We walk back to the exit/wine tasting - white and red Sangria.
  • I ask for a refund on the train ticket.
  • I'm sent back to the ticket office.
  • I explain I want a refund on the train tickets as there was no train.
  • She tries to tell me I had to take it from the start and it runs, oh I don't know, every once in a while.
  • I get my refund.
• We eat our sandwiches in the car - yummy ham and Flamingo cheese and MUSTARD!
• Shaina and Mo go to sleep
• Sherrie drives
• Ernie navigates
• Shortly thereafter Sherrie pulls off in a rest area for meia-de-leite (half milk half expresso)
• Back on the road we travel thru the Via Verde express toll booth lane since we have the transponder
• We notice the yellow light at the booth lights up
• It lights up green for everyone else
• Mo's Google results: 25 Euro fine for misuse and non-sufficient funds or something like that
• We've gone thru several - I think we are up at least 100 Euro fine by now
• Don't want to go thru regular toll lanes because have no idea what to do there
• Keep adding up the fines.
• Finally, Shaina calls the rental company - after trying 3 different numbers, she gets thru to someone
• She explains the problem. They are looking up our reservation and she gets disconnected
• She calls again, explains again and they say - it is okay. Yellow is okay. We do not have over 100 Euros in fines. Smiley face here.
• We decide to head to Figueira da Foz just for ice cream. We have to be in Porto at 6:00 so we have just enough time to find the recommended best gelato there.
• Ernie is navigating to Enhana II.
• Everything seems OK, at first.
• Then we seem to be going in circles
• Then he wants me to turn on a pedestrian way
• I'm getting upset with the whole driving thing and Google maps.
• Decide to park the car and find it on foot.
• Get to the address and it is a laundromat
• I've had it, I'm heading back to the car
• Mo spots 3 gelato places across from the car
• He picks one. We go in and it sells Emanha gelato.

  

• Four happy campers.
• I have coffee and chocolate, the others fruity stuff - what do they know
• Shaina insists her guava is best, I beg to differ.

  

  

• The beach across the street is huge, very huge and strange but no time to investigate, we have just enough time to get to Porto by 5:45, the Airbnb host is meeting us at 6:00.
• Google maps keeps telling us to turn on the longest street names like Rua Dr. Francisco Antonio Diniz and Passeio Infante Dom Henrique. Who can read signs that long before you are past them. It also insists on me turning onto pedestrian walkways. I'm not sure how but we ignore the directions and somehow get out of the city.
• Smiling, I continue to drive thru yellow Via Verde lights.
• I learn how to use windshield wipers
• I do not learn how to use cruise control
• We arrive in Porto (pronounced Portoo) at rush hour, still trying to make our 6:00 deadline (given up on 5:45).
• Ernie is still giving directions from Google maps. We are stuck in traffic. Haven't moved for 3 red to green light changes.
• GPS says: Go right at next light, I pull into right lane. I like it because less traffic.
• No, go left at the light - Not happening. I go right. Now GPS likes my turn. Maybe we should just turn it off.
• We find the place at 6:03! I can't stop in front so I pull and illegal U-turn and pull into a bus stop.
• Shaina runs across the street but no one is there to meet us.
• She keeps texting me something about a name but I have no idea what she wants
• Finally, I text the host and next thing we know someone comes out
• He steps into the road and stops a bus and has me do another illegal U-turn (maybe they aren't illegal, who knows) in front of the bus. I then pull partway onto the sidewalk as there really is only one lane on the road and the bus still has to pass me.
• I made it all the way here without stalling the manual shift car once. At least not that anyone noticed except Ernie.
• We unload all the bags.
• Shaina and I follow directions around the block to parking garage
• Steep S-turn to next floor up
• Shaina questions if 'I' can make it up in a stick shift
• Ha! Who does she think she is talking to?
• She obviously doesn't know my middle name is Mario Andretti
• P.S. I did not stall
• We walk back to the apartment to be greeted by 27 steps, landing, 22 steps
• Panting, we enter the apartment, I take one look around and say 'So Shaina and Mo get the loft'
• It's another 16 steps up

  

• Ernie and Mo want kudos for being pack mules - they carried all the luggage up in one trip (to the third U.S. floor or 2nd European floor - they start with zero so you don't get scared off)
• We sit to relax with bottle of wine left by host
• Just a quick recap on the very dramatic day:
  • Hour wait for the car
  • Via Verde
  • Return train tickets
  • Ice cream
  • Arrive by 6:00 pressure
  • Rush hour in a city
  • GPS weird directions
  • How to get into apt
  • Shaina and Mo get turned down for mortgage on this fixer upper

    

• Time to eat - that helps all moods
• Cervejaria Brasao Coliseu for dinner, a short walk away
• 3 of us try Caldo Verde - green wine (the waiter makes a face when we order a bottle, so we switch to one glass to share
• Ernie orders white Sangria-comes with a whole fruit bowl in it and some mint to make it more of a Mojitogria, yummy

  

• Now for food - Francesinha - a specialty of ham, sausage, beef, Swiss cheese huge sandwich baked with an egg on top and tomato sauce over, around and under it (Shaina eats the whole thing)

  

• On the way home stop at grocer for two liter bottles of beer to compare, the Lisbon preference (Super Bock) vs Porto preference (Sagres)
• Save the test for another night

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