Across the River and into the Vines

The elevator had unnerved me. It wasn't all that high up, but it was glass, all of it, and it led to nothing but a rickety wooden walkway. When we descended the steps from there, my legs felt weak, so when we decided to cross the bridge, it, too, unnerved me. It was time for some wine and some sitting next to the river. Besides, the sun would be setting soon and sightseeing time was pretty much over.

view from the bridge

the whole world supports Ukraine - except Russia and MAGAts

We walked down this side of the river to find some dinner. Instead, we found weirdness.

What is "Portuguese Can?" we wondered. What happened next was one of most bizarre experiences of my life. Inside, while circus music played and costumed employees pretended they weren't living in absolute hell, were thousands of well-designed tins of canned fish.

 

 

 

canned fish actually made with gold

But that was only the beginning of the weirdness. 

Immediately after the canned fish circus, we walked into The House of Cod Pastry, where a guy was playing pop songs on an organ, everyone was eating cod pastries and drinking port in a kind of what-on-earth-is-this-daze, and a giant collection of books lined a wall. It all had a Dr. Phibes feel to it. 

After that, we went to dinner, and as we passed these two places on the way back, I expected them to not exist, as if they had been conjured up by black magic to mess with the heads of tourists.

 

 

these are both now in my house

Finally, we sat down to dinner, where I had a cod dish that tasted like would it be like if clam chowder was solid. Quite good.

We tried to call an uber back, but because there are only two car bridges, none seemed to be available to take us to the other side. We walked back over the bridge, then I got the dumb idea to walk up the steps to get to the top to call the car. 

 

We found ourselves at the cathedral overlooking the city at night. It would be Monday soon for most of the 250,000 people of this city. For us, it was simply Day 2 of our Portuguese adventure.

We found an uber and returned to our temporary home.

 

To be continued...