(written 22/3/2006 in Granada, EspaƱa, by
Liz)
Our first stop in Portugal was at a small bar-restorante for two 50 cent coffees. Our guide book says something along the lines of 'there is no such thing as a bad coffee in Portugal', and in this case it certainly seemed right. Our two coffees went down very well, and we continued on our way.
We drove to a tiny beach side town called Esposende where we stopped for a while to buy some food and to work out what to do with ourselves while in Portugal.
Back on the road, we drove inland a little way to Braga, where we had decided to stop for the night.
After finding a parking spot, and then wandering a little way to find the middle of town, we located a hotel (Peninsular de Braga) and then went out to explore.
The centre of Braga was
very pretty, with long narrow streets filled with afternoon shoppers. We spent a while looking at various town sights, not really knowing what things were, as our town guide was in Portuguese, but enjoying ourselves all the same. We sat in some pretty gardens for a while and then walked back to the main town square where we sat and had more tasty coffee.
(
Sun setting down the shopping streets)
Dinner was great fun, with the restaurant owner running to get the chef, who spoke a little English, to get our order, huge serves of very nice food, and the chef appearing every now and then to make sure us English speaking people were ok. The owner even got the chef to come and see us out the door when we left. We also tried a Portuguese specialty, Soupe Verde... basically green cabbage soup, that you have at the end of the meal, like a digestif. Tasty and different. Tim even liked it :)