Well today we got up, had breakfast, packed our bags, did the triple room sweep to check that we had everything in order. “Ready to go…” mentally prepping myself to be hiking tomorrow after a 2 hour car drive up north. We go downstairs, start the checkout process, handing in our keys, say our goodbyes and then sit in the lobby to wait for our car to take us on our next leg of the journey…

About 15 minutes later, our gracious hotel host (sort of laughing) says “sir, you are not to check out until tomorrow?” – I, of course, stare over to Cindy and ask “are we checking out today or tomorrow?” – which then creates the “hmm, not sure expression from Cindy”. We then check our paperwork and to our excitement we don’t leave until tomorrow! So today is hanging by the pool day and really just relaxing. Sort of a nice win really, as the opposite is that we were supposed to leave yesterday…

Last night we journeyed up to the local vantage spot in Gaia that overlooks Porto and the river. Lots of people hanging, sangria being poured, with vendors walking by with beer for sale. We hung out there until the sun set and then went to a Fado (guitar & singing) show that was near our hotel. Very unique experience with great guitar playing and singing. Got back at midnight. Then let’s see… sangria, red wine with dinner, glass or port for dessert, and an espresso… my brain wasn’t sure where it was. So we watched an episode of Suits (sort of our series for the trip) and fell asleep at some point. Screen casting with Netflix is awesome – sure beats watching the Big Bang theory everywhere we went in South America – as it was the only English show we could get on one channel…

Today at the pool there is a woman with a hawk – tied to the door at the pool. Of course I have to go investigate to see what the heck is happening. They use hawks here at the hotels in Porto to keep seagulls away – and at the airport as well. This one is six years old and they fly them when they need to move other critters along. Hawks traditionally hunt for things on the ground, so they teach them to hunt in the air. They just scare the other birds away – don’t actually kill them. Pretty unique and cool. So there are people in the world who’s job it is to train hawks, then others that basically take them to places and hang out with them – ours is a vet student – interesting stuff!

With that, back to my book – and tomorrow we will depart for sure!

Oh, we also found Barbie selling stuff at the overlook…