Day 3 - Monday

Feeling much better today :)

Had a good nights sleep, a hot shower and breakfast and feeling human. Still sneezing a bit but much less congested.

First order of business, need to find a grocery store. The dodgy part about maps is they don't always give you a scale. So something that looks far away could be just a 10 min walk, or a 3 hour hike. Its all relative. Lucky for us the grocery store ended up just being a quick 15 min walk so not too bad.

I love exploring food shops in a different country, its one of those ways to see life as a local. Of course it's always a bit of a challenge purchasing items when you don't know the language. Some times its easy. For example, how to tell semi-skim from whole milk? Look at the calorie content. However, telling a dark roast coffee from mild proves to be a bit more difficult. I think Dad and I stood looking a the different packages for about 10 minutes before just grabbing one and hoping for the best (I hate weak coffee).

The meat and seafood counters are always entertaining. I saw some massive prawns or perhaps they were crayfish, it's difficult to tell.



A large stack of dry salted cod



and in the meat counter,how about a pigs head to wet your appetite?



The wine corner was another area where there was much deliberation. I'm not familiar with the various regions in Portugal so don't know what varieties of grapes are produced in each. Sometimes the labels have English but even so its a tough call. Today's rule of thumb is nothing over 5 Euro. Dad and I ponder over the importance of a good price vs. a cool looking label. Its a scientific equation don't you know. We grab 2 bottles and hope for the best.

Last stop is the bakery. I'm just LOVING the rolls here, nice and firm, tough and chewy but not too heavy. They are fabulous with some smoked pork loin and cheese for a mid afternoon snack. Oh and a package of pane chocolate pastries for later.