On Sunday we're flying back to Portugal, our fourth trip there in two years. This time we'll fly in and out of Porto to explore the northern part of the country, almost two and a half weeks traveling between Porto, Pinhão, Guimarães, Viana do Castelo, and Braga.
You've already read about the way we travel, and this trip will illustrate another of our quirks. We like to go beyond the usual destinations commonly published in guidebooks and explore lesser-known locales. For example, every guide to Italy mentions Rome, Florence, and Venice, but most of our travel there has been to what I call The Other Italy, wonderful cities with enticing food, art, culture, and history and very few tourists.
So it will be on this trip. There's lots of information about Lisbon and quite a bit about Porto, but Braga? Viana do Castelo? Not so much. We've done a fair amount of research but much of our adventure will be spontaneous and unexpected -- Serendipity is a good friend of ours.
We considered renting a car. (The last time I drove in Europe was in 2002 when we wandered around Italy's Le Marche region for a couple of weeks.) Checking on rates and regulations showed that things had gotten more expensive and more complicated: the rental itself was reasonable, but then there's several layers of insurance that cost far more than the rental itself, and even then it didn't cover glass, tires, or undercarriage. Look out for potholes! Renting a toll tag is extra. Gas is around $8 a gallon and Portugal has the worst accident rate in Western Europe. When I found out that I'd have to pay yet another fee and find a local AAA office to get the recommended international driving permit, it all got to be too much. I chickened out. We'll miss visiting some out of the way quintas and I dearly wanted to visit Almendra, the family home of our friend Ana, but in the end I opted for less stressful train travel.
Laptop and cameras are packed -- stand by for updates.
