We spent today wandering and wondering on both sides of the Duoro River.  What has struck us throughout our travels has been the friendliness and helpfulness of the locals. For example when Maryanne required a trip to the doctor for medication the owner of our apartment didn’t just advise, he took time off work and accompanied Linda and Maryanne as an interpreter. This type of hospitality has been repeated in different ways over and over again. No wonder Portugal is shooting up the ranks as a travel destination.

This has only been a fairly recent thing however, it was always the poor man of Western Europe and rarely on a travel destination essentials list. Many older people are very small in stature because of the poverty and malnutrition of their childhoods. Doctors still only earn €3000 per month before tax so there has been a diaspora of the educated seeking fortunes elsewhere, (but then again the Portuguese young’ns once headed to the colonies – in particular to Brazil, Angola, and Mozambique to start a new life, only now it is France and Germany). Growth has brought its own challenges.

Portugal is a family country, it seems people by choice won’t move far from home, even moving to a new neighbourhood appears adventurous for some. We went to a wonderful wine bar this evening. Later as we were talking to the young owner and his wife – he told us he lived most of his life two floors up in the same building his bar is located. His parents still live there but now he lives 10 minutes away. The growth in tourism and the consequent increases in rent is putting pressure on the yearning to stay in your neighbourhood for life.

There seem to be no giant supermarkets, instead each neighborhood still seems to have oodles of small businesses, fruit shops, butchers, bakers, candlestick makers. There are small cafes in almost every major street where people meet for coffee, beer or wine after work. There are small bakeries everywhere. Sadly this might change here, just as it has been lost to us in Australia. 

It seems incongruous that a people so attached to place became the great explorers of Europe, that a people so attached to home exported millions of its young people to the rest of the world. We will just enjoy wandering and wondering, enjoying those that have stayed home and have been so welcoming. None of us ever expected to travel at all as children, perhaps to London at a pinch. How fortunate we have been to have spent time here as the guests of these Portuguese in their own cities, cities of which they are so proud.

Farley of Porto