After a couple weeks of non-stop DIY projects in the new apartment, we decided to give Wayne’s painting arm a break and get away for a couple days. Just a mini road trip before giving back the rental car. We booked two nights in Viana do Castelo which is just an hour’s drive up the coast. On the way, we spent most the day exploring the town of Braga.  Both are charming towns. We might have considered each for living except they are just a bit farther from Porto and the airport  than we want to be.   

The view from our hotel (pousada) in Viana do Castelo was amazing; considered one of the best hotel views anywhere.  The hotel and staff were charming. The only negative was the bed was miserably hard. We understand that Portuguese people like firmer beds than we do, but this one was extreme.

From Viana do Castelo, we drove to the adorable little town of Ponte de Lima where we caught market day. That was great fun except for the part coming into town where we got caught driving down one-way streets right through the center of market activity. We eventually parked and thoroughly enjoyed wandering through the market. This was not like markets we’ve been to in France & Italy that felt very touristy. This one was huge and full of things locals were buying. Popular stalls were plants, shoes, and clothes. My dream one day is to arrive early enough to do a time lapse of the set-up. It boggles my mind how they can set up so many stalls with such a great volume of inventory in such tight quarters along the river for these weekly or monthly markets. They seem to have it down to a science.

We also drove farther up the hills into the national park to see the granite corn cribs I had read about. The two days made for a nice get-a-way to see a tiny portion of the variety in this fascinating country.

Then it was back home to continue with projects. Through a Facebook post, we found and hired a handyman (Joaquim) to do a long laundry list of jobs including hanging and moving light fixtures, hanging the giant TV and hiding the cable as much as possible, screwing into our concrete walls to hang art, and general fix-it items. He moonlights around his regular job, so he came for all day Saturday and most of Sunday and checked a ton of stuff off our to-do lists. He also brought in a carpenter friend (and translated) to give us a quote on adding a deck/pergola to the terrace. Joaquim speaks perfect English which is not easy to find in trades people and he knows workers in all the trades. He is a god-send and we will be able to recommend him to lots of people. We really could have used a Joaquim in the U.S. for all of our real estate clients. There, if you can find anyone willing to do small jobs who will actually show up when scheduled, they’ll charge at least 5 times as much.

Our furniture maker Hugo with his Dad designing a barware cabinet for us.

We also made yet another trip to the “furniture city” Paços de Ferreira to find a cabinet for glassware. We looked at other stores there as well, but ended up again at our favorite place, Julius, to order a piece custom made. Their ability to make or alter almost any piece of furniture you need for a reasonable price is so impressive.  Dear Hugo, who is the son of the owner and grandson of the founder, speaks excellent English and is so creative. He showed us our partial order sitting in the basement warehouse space. There was tons of furniture there they are making for a hotel in Mozambique as well as for the Mozambique embassy in Italy. Looks like they stay busy.

After finally getting my residency card in the mail after a 3 week postal delay (big relief), we were able to go this week to register with the local Centro de Saude (medical center) and get our “utente” number. The next step is to get a doctor to say we are in good health and email his form to the IMI (like DMV) so we can exchange our US drivers’ licenses for Portuguese ones before our deadline of mid May.

Today we went to a Porto Expat group brunch that was really nice. Followed by more stops for drinks with a couple of friends from the group. The nice Spring weather held and we were still comfortable in short sleeves when we got home around 10:00.

The highlight of the last two weeks was getting delivery of several pieces of furniture we ordered over the last couple months. Now Wayne does not have to eat meals sitting on the seat of his rowing machine! We received our bed for the master, sofa, dining table & chairs, and a rug. It is really starting to feel like a real home now with pictures on the walls and everything! For the first time last night, we ate dinner at a table like grown ups and then sat down to watch TV on the sofa. Aaaaaah. Settling in feels great.