There’s so much to experience in the city of Porto that unless one spends an extended amount of time in the city, the average length of stay visitor will miss so much.  Most visitors won’t know to take the local train to Espinho to walk the coastal boardwalk or visit the market.  And, most visitors won’t know how to walk from Matosinhos to Porto, which is the path many Camino pilgrims follow to exit the city as they walk toward Spain.

If it’s Monday, then it’s market day in Espinho.  And what better way to get to Espinho than by train and a good long walk along the coastal boardwalk.  It all makes for the perfect day.

There are a multitude of reasons why one should visit the coastal city of Viana do Castelo.  The views from atop Mt. Santa Luzia are breathtakingly beautiful.  The historic city center is charming and a visit to Igreja de la Misericordia is well-worth the price of a train ticket.  But, when you get right down to it, the reason everyone should visit Viana do Castelo is to eat doughnuts.  Yes, you heard me.  The city is famous for the Bola de Berlim.

When I think of Lisbon, I think of the city as being the gateway to Europe.  When we fly from the east coast of the United States, i.e., Washington, DC to Lisbon, it’s about a seven hour flight and no doubt, it is seemingly the shortest distance across the Atlantic Ocean.  Given that I’m not a fan of flying, we always opt for the shortest time spent on a flight.

They say Aveiro is the Venice of Portugal.  Now, having never been to Venice I don’t know if that’s true, but just the same, Aveiro is unique and not like any other small city we’ve visited in Portugal.  Aveiro has lovely canals where the water travels through the historic center of the city.  Oh, and an added perk of visiting Aveiro… it’s on flat land. A far cry from the hills of Porto and Coimbra, another terrific day trip destination.

We found our way from the Guimaraes train station to the historic city center only to discover hundreds of school children gathering in the center.  Of all the days we could have chosen to visit Guimaraes, we happened to pick the one day on which seemingly, there was a city-wide school field trip.

It’s crazy, I know, to whine about bad travel days.  But the truth of the matter is some travel days can really suck big time. As much as we are grateful for the opportunity to travel, every now and then we’ll have to endure a miserably long day.  With convoluted flight routes to online booking woes, to turbulent flights, to cancelled connecting flights and stormy weather, some travel days are just really unnerving.  Some days I wonder why we put ourselves through it.  Why does anyone?

It’s a humbling experience to wait in the SEF Immigration office, in Porto, surrounded by dozens of people seeking immigration status for one reason or the other.  There are stories to be told.  Stories of personal choices, such as ours, and stories of trying to gain or maintain work or student visas, or perhaps even desperate stories of life saving pursuits of residency.  It’s humbling to have choices knowing that so many do not.

Have you ever thought about which is the lesser of two evils… the red-eye flight on which you spend 7 – 8 hours painfully exhausted but unable to sleep, or is it less evil to be wide awake and giving up an entire day to fly across the Atlantic Ocean or to some other long-distance destination?

We’ve crossed the Canadian border more times than I can remember, but never before have we been asked if we had weapons in the car.  And, it was the Canadian border patrol doing the asking, the US border patrol didn’t ask.  Sadly, I think it may be a sign of the times.  Aside from a few questions such as in which state do we live, where were we going and how long would we be there, along with a quick scan of our passports, crossing the border was a drive-through breeze.  It was just a matter of waiting our turn.