Um Poste Misto

Introduction

In Portuguese, the word misto, pronounced “misht”, means “mixed”.  We often see it used as a descriptive adjective on foods that contain several ingredients.  In the padaria (bakery) where we had breakfast earlier this week, Mike ordered dois croissants mistos – two mixed croissants.  What we received were two large croissants with slices of ham and cheese in them.  

What you’re reading today is um poste misto – a post with two different sections that don’t relate to each other.  We took a few days off this week to do our our first overnight trip outside Porto since we arrived here in June.   

It’s always been difficult for us to do full blog posts when we’re traveling.  Our last attempt was during a vacation in Hawaii several years ago.  We found that we could either get out and see what we went to see or we could stay in the hotel room and do blog posts.  (Mike is not a fast writer!)  Faced with that choice, the vacation always wins.

In coming weeks, we’ll write more about what we did, saw, and ate in Aveiro.  Today, we have some reflections on driving in Portugal and a happy update to an earlier post.  

Driving Is Like Riding a Bicycle, Except When It’s Not

A couple weeks ago we decided that we needed to get out of Porto for a few days.  It took us about 30 minutes to hatch the plan.  Mary found an AirBnB in Aveiro, a lovely town about an hour south of here.  Mike rented a car online.  We would pick it up the following Tuesday at noon and be in Aveiro by mid-afternoon.  

Neither of us had driven a car since we left the US five months ago, so we approached the trip with a mix of excitement (“Hooray, we’re going somewhere!”) and worry (“What’s it like to drive here?”).  

We walked to the rental office, picked up our car – a new Renault Clio – and drove back to the apartment to collect our luggage and Sox, our Boston Terrier.

A cheaper alternative would have been to take the train from Porto to Aveiro. But we haven’t finished training Sox for longer trips. Unlike riding the Metro, which she now does four or five times a week, on the intercity trains she’ll have to wear a muzzle. We just bought one for her, but have not tried to acclimate her to it yet.

And besides, riding the train wouldn’t “scratch the itch” Mike had for driving a car again.

Driving Miss Penelope

It turns out that driving in Portugal is much the same as driving in the US.  We drive on the right side of the road.  A motorway in Portugal looks very similar to an interstate highway in the US.  And city traffic is city traffic, whether the drivers curse in English or Portuguese.  

And it’s not our first rodeo. We drove in England on our first trip there years ago. Mike had driven in Scotland, the Netherlands, and Belgium while on business trips. So we expected the mechanics and logistics to be similar. What we didn’t anticipate was the level of stress we experienced.

Mary put the address of the AirBnB in the GPS (“the nav system”) and a calm English woman gave us directions.  We nicknamed her Penelope. 

Within a few minutes of leaving home, Penelope had guided us to the motorway and we were driving south toward the Douro River.  It was four lanes of traffic, moving at high speed, and Mike was tense behind the wheel.  We crossed the river and drove through Vila Nova de Gaia, the larger city south of Porto.

After about 20 kilometers, we were out of the urban area and traffic thinned out.  Mike relaxed a little and enjoyed the drive. The roads were in great shape – smooth pavement with no breaks or patches. Since it doesn’t get below freezing here in the winter, the roads aren’t subject to the freeze / thaw cycle that buckles and cracks highways in the US.

The major motorways in Portugal are toll roads, so maintenance is paid for by the people and companies who use the highways. Our rental car was equipped with a Via Verde transponder – the equivalent of an EasyPass box in the US – so we didn’t have to stop at the toll booths.

Via Verde, or “green lane”, is used throughout Portugal and is even being adopted at some carparks and gas stations. There are even fast food restaurants where you can pay for your drive-thru order with Via Verde.

In a few places along the way, we didn’t go through a booth at all – sensors overhead pinged our transponder as we drove under them. The electronic “ding” told us we were paying the toll.

It was more white knuckles when we got to Aveiro. Even though it was a much smaller town, the streets were busy with mid-afternoon traffic. Penelope guided us through the narrow streets, but sometimes suggested we go the wrong way on one-way lanes.  We had a clear division of labor: Mike drove, keeping a careful watch for pedestrians. Mary watched the nav screen, repeating Penelope’s instructions and interpreting the map.

We made it without incident, and were happy to park the car for the day.

We had a similar experience on the way back to Porto.  After three days in Aveiro, we knew the neighborhood streets well enough to feel comfortable getting out of town, with Penelope’s help.  But as we approached Vila Nova da Gaia, traffic got heavier. When we crossed the river into Porto we started anxiously watching for the correct exit from the motorway.  

When Penelope suggested we exit in 1 kilometer, Mike was in the 3rd lane to the left, with big trucks all around us. We missed the exit and spent a few extra minutes getting rerouted from the next exit back to our apartment.  

Sticker Shock at the Pump

While Mary took Sox and the luggage upstairs, Mike went to get gas and return the car.  We had driven a total of about 200 kilometers and used 1/4 of the tank of gas. We knew gas was much more expensive here, but Mike still got a shock when he filled it up: 17.7 liters at €1.809 per liter for a total of €32.15. In US terms, that’s 4.7 gallons for $36 – about $7.71 per gallon!

Mike was quite happy to return the car.

It was convenient to be able to go directly from door-to-door on this trip, and with practice our stress levels would decrease. But the cost of operating a car here makes no sense to us, as long as we’re living in a city with good public transportation. That one fill up was more than one of our monthly transit passes.

Two tips for any of our friends planning to come to Portugal and rent a car:

First, if you’re planning to visit Porto, Lisbon, or any other large city – don’t rent a car! Parking is scarce and expensive. And traffic is…well, you heard our story.

Second, be sure to practice your stick shift skills in advance. Almost every car here has a manual transmission.

So we’ll keep walking. And next week, after we’ve processed notes and sorted pictures, we’ll tell you about Aveiro. For now, here’s this week’s second story.

The Vandals Don’t Always Win

Several posts ago, we talked about street art in Porto.   In that post we showed a portrait painted by Rafi die Erste that had been vandalized only weeks after she painted it.  

We’re happy to report that while walking down Rua de Cedofeita a few days ago, we saw that the portrait had been cleaned up.  The spray paint that defaced it had been removed.

Time will tell if that’s a permanent state, but for today, the good guys won.

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Do you have a nightmare travel story? How about a tale with a happy ending? Share them in the comments below or drop us a note via the Contact Form.

Enjoy your weekend / Aproveite o seu fim de semana

Mary and Mike

The Cook and The Writer

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