Off to Porto

Go to Portugal they said. Escape the rainy English countryside. Uh huh...

We arrived at the Bristol airport, returned our rental car and headed for the terminal. We had never flown RyanAir before, but our friends had warned us that it was probably the most budget of the budget airlines. We had opted for fast track service through security and it lived up to its name, at least until we got to the screening part. Bruce got pulled out for the contents of his bag and I got pull out because of my body scan. A very nice young woman asked if she could touch me. It was all I could do not to make a joke of it, but I managed to keep my big moth shut and was "treated" to a very thorough pat down. The zipper on my jacket proved to be the culprit so I was released. Bruce got stopped for the lentils in his backpack and his Aeropress coffee maker. Okay, so we killed a bit of time before heading to the gate, which turned out to be a very long walk. We got there, joined the queue and boarded. Once everyone was seated and the door closed, the lead attendant informed us that due to weather conditions in Porto, we would be waiting on the tarmac for approximately two hours. Good thing I brought a book. Finally we took off and about two hours later we were in Porto. Beautiful, sunny Porto.

It's a pretty small airport and there is no automation at the immigration desk. We ended up with a very nice - and very chatty - immigration officer who told us about Porto and how so many Americans were moving there, stamped our passports, and let us through. Our bags were waiting for us and we got an Uber for the drive to our hotel. Because the flight was delayed, we ended up in the middle of rush hour traffic. I felt really bad for the Uber driver but I enjoyed the sights along the way.

We finally made it to our hotel flat at the Oporto Comfort Dom Hugo, in a very historical area of the city.

We found a little restaurant

where we enjoyed a nice meal and the sparkling personality of our waitress, Nani. We walked around in the mist and saw more of the sights we hoped to enjoy the next day.

It's a lovely city even when it's raining.