I’ve just had my best Portuguese meal yet and I’m told the best is yet to come. We awoke early this morning and checked out of our comforting Hotel Avenida Palace. We whizzed to the aeroporto in a fast taxi. The rain had started to fall steadily. Our Aerocondo flight was delayed. Finally, a bus took the 10 passengers to the plane and we loaded up. It was a small plane and a bit unsteady in the air. I mostly tried to sleep and ignore the turbulence.
We were the only ones to get off the plane in Vila Real. We were standing in a small terminal of only 2 rooms, one for waiting and one for eating. No one looked like the legendary Francisco. A couple of moments later, our host arrived with a burgundy small typical European car. The land around here is greener, an occasional vineyard, some areas burned by fire (evidently fires before we came). Driving around reminds me of southern Bavaria where we did most of our driving.
We housed at the Hotel Mira Corgo and waited for our host to return from an errand. We joined up with Bryan Wyvill, another speaker from Calgary, and walked to Terra da Montanha, a regional restaurant. This region moves away from the seafood heavy food of Lisbon and focuses on meat. We sat in a large half wine barrel that held a table for 4. After an exchange of words, appetizers (unordered) appeared – green beans frieded like tempura and dark, fatty sausages named little chorizo’s. Then the main course came, large iron dishes filled with T-bone steaks, potatoes, and cabbage. 2 arrived, then 2 more-one seemed enough for two. Still, I ate a whole steak for lunch after eating a sausage and enjoyed the entire affair. I turned down desert. We’ve been doing that a lot. Francisco says we need to try more. Tonight he says it will be better. And wait till tomorrow…oh boy!
Wayne gave his talk to an auditorium of 50 students. Students everywhere look the same, differing levels of disheveledness and interest. The skin and hair here are darker, more Mediterranean in appearance. No one had blonde hair in the audience. The talk went well. Smoking is rampant everywhere. Evidently, students will smoke in class despite it being against the rules.
We retired back to the hotel for a pre-dinner nap. We joined Francisco, Bryan, and a Lisbon colleague Joaquim for dinner. Bryan and Joaquim are obviously old colleagues and sparred back and forth about naval and colonial history with interesting stories. We all had delicious salmon steaks and desert of cream and coffee chilled (delightful). Wayne tried an after dinner port.