Laundry Day

 It was our last full day in Porto and we had planned on doing laundry when we arrived 4 days ago.  It’s funny how  clean clothes become very important when walking the Camino.  Pulling out clean clothes become very exciting - they smell so good.  

The laundry was down a cobblestone street.  As usual we stuffed all our dirty clothes into a suitcase and rolled them down to the laundry.  It was a nice clean place and a little busy but the people were great and they helped us figure out how to run all the machines.  We did two loads of wash and two loads of dry and it took 3 hours.  The machines do a great job and the washer includes soap and the dryer does anti static.  We loaded everything back into the suitcase and trudged back uphill to our hotel.  

Lunch was at the waterfront and we took a 1 hour boat ride starting at 1:30 to go under all 6 bridges in main Porto.  We had a front row seat and the trip was windy and fun.  The boat was full and people were having a good time.  The bridges were old and new - one from the mid 1800’s made of iron up to sparkling new spans made of concrete.  We saw a lot of Porto we would never see any other way.  

We went back to the cafe for a pitcher of sangria while we watched the performers and all the tourists on the Embarcadero. The performers were varied - singers and guitar players and drummers and magicians.  All were working for tips.  The tourists were from around the world and it was fun watch all the different kinds of people.  

We headed back to take a break then went to a wonderful Italian restaurant just a block away.  It was run by a family and the food was amazing.  We will be eating Portuguese food for the next week so we wanted something different on our last evening in Porto.  We headed home home and got our suitcases ready for the following day.


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