Hamburger Heaven in Porto, or I Came All This Way for a Burger?

We came to spend the night with the grandchildren and their parents before we started our explorations. They suggested a hamburger festival.It was amazing to see so many burgers, but some were over the top. The grandkids and their mother are vegetarians, so they found burgers they could eat, and each of their buns were covered in gold dust. Douglas and I settled on sharing a West Coast burger, as close to regular as we could get, as we have old bodies that don’t like surprises.

The burger had sweet bacon, regular bacon, Angus beef, a special sauce, and a brioche bun. The ingredients could not fit in the bun. I ate less than half, as I knew Douglas needed more than a half to be sated. It was good, but I don’t think we will attend the festival when it comes to Braga where we are staying. It was packed, though, with families of three and four generations. I love that about Europe.

We are adjusting to the time change and new ways of doing things, like taking a shower in our Airbnb requires a quick one, as you can run out of hot water quickly. We were advised not to flush the toilet just before showering. We are in the historic center of the city, where no cars are allowed, so we are racking up the step counts. I hope to take photos soon, but, with travel fog, I forgot to take pictures of the hamburgers.

There are church bells here every hour, but thankfully, they do not ring between 10 PM and 7:00 in the morning. They ring the number of the hour, but also at 15 minutes intervals. I can’t sleep until after the last bells at 10. We will start our sightseeing today, and we have found an English-speaking church. Douglas met the pastor yesterday as he went to the store for supplies. He never meets a stranger!

It is so good to be here. As always, we forgot to do something important before leaving the United States. This time, we didn’t remember to arrange with our carrier for international roaming, so I can’t call my daughter whom I speak with every Sunday, no matter where one of us may be in the world. That also means no texts. It has become quite annoying, but I find peace in remembering that once we could not do any of this, so what you can’t change, you accept and move on.

So, hamburgers got the vacation started! What more could you ask for than family and burgers on a Friday night in Portugal?