After a fabulous sleep in a king-sized bed, Luke and I awoke ready to enjoy the wonders of the Lake District and to catch the bus to Windermere to meet Luke’s parents, Lea and Pete, at the Windermere train station.
The smiles are a lie. It was freezing and I was deeply regretted not bringing my coat.
We caught the open-topped bus from Ambleside to Windermere and had a wander around Booths while we waited. It is a large and fancy supermarket where everything looks perfect and fresh and the labels are all very English and cute, it’s a bit like walking around an art gallery. Also there are no decent supermarkets in Ambleside so we picked out a few things to buy later before we caught the bus back.
Close to the time the train arrived, we went to the station, which is right next door to the supermarket. Precisely on time, the train pulled in.
I had several potential plans for the afternoon and we settled on the following:
Brunch at a cute cafe.Full English!We saw a huge dog in the street.
Then up to Orrest Head, one of the best bang-for-buck walks in the area and it starts right by the train station.
A lovely leafy walk.Not too many stairs.Beautiful green views along the way.The view from the top was fantastic but is hard to show in a photo, so here’s one of us instead:-) On the way down we found the Gruffalo! We also saw some fat native bumblebees and robins bobbing around the undergrowth.
Then a tour of Booths to buy supplies..
Examining the beer selection.
Then onto the bus to Ambleside!
Followed by relaxing in our lovely apartment, eating cheese, drinking wine and sharing travel stories.
Our flat is up those steps.
In the evening we took a short walked to bridge house, which had already featured in the blog at least once, many years ago. It is the most photographed building in the Lake District and used to house a family with six children. It was built across the beck to avoid land taxes.
We had a drink outside one of the pubs then bought some pizzas from the little local supermarket to heat up at home. We were all in bed by 10!
I’d like to say we looked this happy when we woke up in the morning in our tiny shoebox hotel room, but neither of us got enough sleep and so we struggled out of bed and over to Euston station. Along with an average breakfast sandwich, I had what I hope was the worst coffee of my life, because if anything worse is ahead of me I might avoid coffee forever.
I like how people with bags on wheels take up twice the space of one person and they always seem to walk right in the middle of any walkway.Our train was, and I am not exaggerating, 16 carriages long and we were in furthest one.
The train was on time and we enjoyed watching the scenery roll past and catching up with each other’s lives since we were last together.
We spotted lots of bluebells from the train, so lovely!
We got into Windermere on time just before lunch and dropped our bags at the information centre so we could go for a walk around town and use up the time before check in.
We had some coffee while chasing up the address details for our accommodation in Keswick then went for a walk down towards Bowness.
They spelled my name wrong!It’s been a real trend for people to crochet letterbox decorations for the coronation.
We found a beautiful pub for lunch.
Then walked to a little lookout through some quiet woods.
Lovely weather!
Eventually we got our bags out of storage and caught the bus to Ambleside. Our Airbnb was right in the centre of town in a little alleyway called ‘The Slack’.
By the time we got into the apartment we were more exhausted than we’d been in a long, long time. After almost falling asleep a number of times we decided to go out for groceries and then to the nearest pub.
View from our front step.
We walked into the Ambleside Inn and everyone was watching football so we asked who was playing and who we should barrack for (Liverpool against Leeds, the crowd was fairly split on who to support). We bought a drink each and went into the upstairs bit. We ended up talking to a local guy who told us basically his life story and all about the area. He and his friend gave us a recommendation for a pub on the last leg of our LD trip (the Kirkstile Inn) and I showed him my fell pony photos. We ended up hugging him goodbye and he wished us a lovely holiday. Delightful!
Finally we fell into bed for a long and dreamless sleep, the best we’d had in several nights!
Thanks to Danny booking our accommodation in an epic location, we are really close to almost everything in Porto.
Our apartment is in that white building, behind it is the main cathedral and town square and it’s right beside the biggest bridge across the river.
We had an excellent sleep then I found a very Melbourne-style cafe for breakfast, but at about half the price of a Melbourne brunch.
Near us was a large table of people of various ages who were all spread out using various devices and tapping away. We thought they were all working independently. Just before we left they all stopped typing and started introducing themselves and talking about poetry. We tried to overhear when was going on but it was a bit mysterious.
Next stop: stained glass museum! As you can imagine, one of us was more excited about this that the other.
Danny wasn’t terribly keen, but it was only eight euros and literally backed onto our accommodation so if he wanted to go sit it out he could.
A nice surprise when we paid…
Art and port, a winning combination! Sure, it was 11am but it would have been rude to refuse.
The museum is very small but had some nice stained glass.
Tiffany!
Next, a quick break at the apartment to charge devices and do some puzzles with our feet up. I hadn’t known previously that we were both fans of word puzzles and this book I bought in Australia has been great entertainment.
Then we went for a walk and had a snack break with a view.
It was kind of a brioche-pizza-calzone mashup.
We wanted to do a bit of shopping today. We walked to a mall for a look around and I bought a book. Shopping centres really are the same all over the world.
I was very grateful that the mall bookshop had a couple of shelves of books in English and even a decent selection of fantasy and sci fi.
We went on a walk around town to see street art and other lovely sights.
Iconic Porto church.
I found a nice middle-aged-lady fashion store and bought a dress to wear if we go out to somewhere nice for dinner. While in the shop I met a couple of Kiwis who had been living in Mount Martha for the last ten years. it’s (relatively) just down the road from where I live so it seemed like quite a coincidence.
Next we walked through some markets where I bought strawberries. the strawberries we’ve had here have been really great.
Danny has been wanting some open shoes that would be more comfortable with his blisters.
Despite my encouragement he didn’t even try on this pair of fake-diamond-encrusted trainers (rude) and went for some Birkenstocks.
We made it to 10km and decided to have an afternoon rest and watch some Rick and Morty, during which Danny feel asleep and I started my book.
I’m coming to realise that this isn’t my most riveting blog entry but I’ve written too much to stop now!
Porto is a VERY hilly city and the walk to our restaurant for the evening was quite an ordeal. Worth it though, for views towards the sunset and feeling like we’d found a place where locals hang out.
I’d been reading up on local street artists and there was some work right by our spot.
Subtle but beautiful. Hazul luzer, a local artist.
We walked back to the apartment to get our laundry at 9pm. It turned out that the nearest laundromat was halfway back to the restaurant. Up and down hills again.
In the very new and clean laundromat we got talking to a couple from Melbourne and a couple from Turkey. We all agreed that the laundromat was the place to be on Monday nights.
We’d brought drinks, everyone agreed it was the right idea.
We had to be up and out by 7:30 to walk to the train station for our trip to Porto via Vigo. As I’d been woken at 5am by people literally screaming and shouting on their way home from nightclubs (don’t book central locations on weekends, friends), I was pretty much packed and the apartment was tidy before Danny’s alarm went off. He has wisely chosen a bedroom at the rear of the apartment.
The train to Vigo was only 20 minutes then we had half an hour to get across town to a different station for Porto.
Seemed like a brand new station, kind of like Melbourne Central but empty.
A lady on the Camino had said Vigo wasn’t worth a visit but what we saw was nice enough.
No time for breakfast so it was lucky we’d stowed some biscuits and fruit in our bags. The views from the train were very misty and everything looked very green. I always think of the Iberian peninsula as dry and hot but it’s definitely not all like that, particularly in the north and by the coast.
The train from Vigo to Porto was about 2.5 hours and our clocks changed as Portugal is on the same time as the UK.
Our carriage was full of pilgrims and this is a terrible photo of their backpacks.
As we left the station there was a charming sight!
Beetle parade!
We arrived in Porto quite hungry so we had to tick this off our Porto bingo sheet:
I did actually make a Porto bingo sheet.
Egg/custard tart: done!
We dropped our bag off at our accommodation then it was time to revisit one of the best foods Luke and I had on our last trip: roast pork rolls and green wine!
They had revamped since the last time and added some menu items but it was still amazing food.
Ice filled cooler bag covers for wine bottles – brilliant.
I’m sorry to say that the first thing I did was video call luke to tell him where I was.
It was warming up. The next logical step was…
We had a wander through town and listened to some street performers, took some photos of the views and then went to look for a bar.
We specifically wanted the smallest bar in Porto.
Phew!It was very, very small.Drinks were regular sized, thankfully.
I was tired so we went back to the apartment and I slept from 5pm to 7pm. By the way, Danny tells me it’s bizarre that I don’t have my watch face showing 24 hour time, he thinks 12 hour time is for babies. Except when talking about time out loud. I don’t get it.
We wandered around in the evening and found a restaurant that was nice.
I had prawn linguine and Danny had a local dish, kind of a croque monsieur but with gravy.
Not altogether appealing in appearance.
It gradually dawned on us that the service would’ve been a lot better if at least one of us had been a teenage girl – the waiter was talking to every table of girls for ages and barely spoke to us. Eventually I had to interrupt him flirting right behind us just to get the bill.
We then wandered through the streets.
Across one of the big bridges.
Catfish!
Had a drink at a bar then brought some wine home to watch a bit more Ted Lasso. We’ve got a few things lined up to do tomorrow but I’m looking forward to lying in!
I hope you’re all appreciating the fact that I haven’t posted any photos of Danny’s blisters but they, and the weather, are why we are taking today off.
We have sat ourselves in a cafe that is pretty much below last night’s accommodation and have been phoning people for chats (Luke’s parents are currently on a cruise in Germany) and watching the world’s slowest window cleaner.
He took over two hours to do these windows.
He did do an excellent job but the rate was glacial.
It’s been kind of interesting watching people come and go. The cafe has an extensive menu but mainly seems to sell bread from the front end of the counter and beer and coffee from the back half.
Hardly any cafes display their menus or even have them out on tables. Approximately half of this menu was translated into English, the other half is for locals only!
The vast amount of tiling and cold lighting in Spanish cafes make them all feel a bit cheap and basic but this place has stools and clearly is a regular haunt for many retired men. There’s a row of them at the bar with their newspapers and beers.
Half the houses here have benches out the front so I imagine that all their wives are sitting out neighbour-watching between housework while the men are in here.
Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. This is one of the less disgusting ones. Poor Danny.
We’ve spent the rest of the day with our feet up and Danny trying to get me to look at his disgusting feet. Danny has been enjoying Ted Lasso for the first time.
The highlight of my day was saying I’d race Danny the four flights downstairs, him taking the lift and me on the stairs. The stairs circle around the lift and I hit every ‘door open’ button on the way down and could hear Danny shouting at me from the lift. I nearly died laughing by the time I got to the bottom.
For dinner we went back to the same cafe and had the same arepas as last night. When we walked in the owner and bartender gave us big smiles and right at the end I talked to a girl at the bar who told me they were all from Venezuela. They were all so lovely, if you’re ever in Sigueira I highly recommend stopping at this place, just look for the little square with the fountain on the west side of the main street.
Also we’ve generally found that the cafes that line the busiest roads are nowhere near as friendly or pleasant as going a street or two back.
In the evening, between Ted Lasso episodes, Danny booked all our travel and accommodation in Pontevedra (two nights) and Porto (three nights). After that Peter and Ash arrive and we will meet up in Santiago de Compostella and properly see the city that is the official end of the camino.
Night views from our apartment.
Ok so this morning Danny told me how much this apartment is worth. It’s on the fourth floor, there’s a lift. Here’s some photos before I tell you how much it’s worth.
Within the apartment was a second floor, the bedrooms were upstairs.
There’s a separate lounge and dining, three bedrooms and three bathrooms plus a car space and a fee of 52 euros a year for the body corporate. the town is also pretty close to an international airport.
A very central location.Double-double glazed windows with those amazing roller blinds that you never see in Australia but are everywhere in Europe.
169,000 euros! 277K in AUD. Time to learn Spanish!
Here Comes The Planet 