Dachs Thoughts

My second international trip of the year was my first time ever visiting Portugal. Like many trips lately this one was built around attending a Femme Nue photography retreat followed up by a few weeks of tourism. This trip was complicated by the fact that I was in the process of recovering from a bad case of sciatica. It wasn’t a fresh injury, but I was still in the midst of recovery so walking and getting around was painful.

Before the Retreat

My flight out was on Air Canada, which had recently suffered a shutdown due to a strike that had only been resolved a few days before I left. I had no issues, but they were still coming back up to normal operations. Traveling via Montreal I eventually arrived in Porto Portugal a few days before my photo retreat began. I stayed in a comfortable artistic hotel and spent a few days trying to acclimate to the time change and walking around (gingerly) in the city of many hills and doing a bit of sightseeing. I had several nice long meals in street cafes that gave me plenty of time to relax and engage in people watching.

Femme Nue — Portugal

After a few days of relaxing I went to the kickoff meeting for our photo retreat. After a nice Portuguese style lunch we traveled to our country estate which was a little over an hour north of Porto, not too far from the Spanish border. It was located in the heart of the Ribeira Lima valley, in the village of Fontão, in one of the most picturesque villages in Minho. It was a spacious older house that was owned by an aristocratic family. It had a lot of space surrounded by corn fields with lots of places to shoot. The only minor downside was that it was pretty cloudy while we were there, so during the sunrise/sunset times it was very dark inside the house. Nonetheless, this provided for some moody shots. Femme Nue was doing two retreats in the area over a couple of weeks, the other one being in a castle. This one that I was on was led by Sienna Hayes (with the help of her boyfriend Carlos), and we were able to work with some awesome models: Hérodiade from Italy (who I had worked with before), Regina Piil from Denmark, and Anastasia Arteyeva from Ukraine (living in Spain). Anastasia was a last minute replacement for a model I had worked with before. I had never worked with her before, but it was a pleasurable surprise as I had followed her work for a long time and thought she had left modeling for sculpture.

[More pictures on my Photo Blog]

At the end of the retreat we returned to the same restaurant in Porto for our farewell lunch. After lunch I went to the train station and caught a train to Lisbon to begin the next phase of the trip.

After the Retreat

After the retreat I remained in Portugal for another two weeks doing some low-key tourist activities. Immediately after the retreat I took a 3-hour train down to Lisbon as that was the city Maddy was flying into. I had planned to start the tourist part of the trip there. I took an Uber to the Airbnb which got me close. The apartment was in a building in what turned out to be a short narrow street (too narrow for cars) that was somewhat of a hipster tourist attraction. The apartment was in an old narrow building squeezed in between many street level restaurants and shops. It was on the 3rd floor up a steep windy staircase that was a bit of a challenge to climb, particularly with luggage. The street noise was significant, but it was a high-energy ‘happening’ place, which made it tolerable. The stairway smelled a little funky, which Maddy attributed to mold, and was ultimately a source of irritation to her. Maddy arrived a day after I did, and seemed to develop some flu which she though had been caused by getting sweaty then chilled by A/C in the airport. So during the trip we were a bit low-key with my sciatica and her flu and the symptoms of her treatment. Nonetheless, we managed to have some fun eating at some nice restaurants, visiting some tourist locations, and walking around a bit. The apartment had a washer, which I took advantage of, but drying was on a traditional line outside the window. It made me a bit nervous leaning out to hang my clothes on the line and worrying about dropping them onto the restaurant below.

While in Lisbon we walked around the local neighborhood including down to the water of the Tagus River at Urban Beach. We had some nice meals including a dinner at a Pokémon themed Ramman restaurant, Raman Shifu. We also took Ubers to some points of interest including Miradouro de Santa Luzia (Largo de Santa Luzia), which had a beautiful scenic overlook and walked a bit around the neighborhood of Alfama. Tiled buildings and facades are prominent in Portugal, and we also visited the National Tile Museum. Due to our health and low-key approach, we also spent a lot of time just relaxing and catching up on some Netflix series.

After almost a full relaxing week in Lisbon, we caught the train back north to Porto. Maddy’s illness gave her a little motion sickness on the train, but it was a nice trip. We stayed in a different area than when I first arrived for my photo retreat. The Airbnb was in a beautifully restored older building in the central historic area of Porto. The family owned the entire building and each apartment was a separate rental space. Porto seemed to have even more hills than Lisbon, and there were many steps up to the apartment. The surrounding area was very eclectic. Out the front were buildings from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, while behind was a neighborhood from the middle ages. The had a “magic door” that opened up into the middle age area. Walking back led through cobble stoned pathways, and up a stairway which passed through castle walls up to an ancient cathedral. We spent all of our time in the general area of where we were staying. It was kind of a tourist zone so there were plenty of restaurants and shops as well as historic things to see.

One day we discovered that there were a couple of “immersive experiences” presented within walking distance, so we decided to see “Legends of Porto” and “Impressive Monet and Brilliant Klimt.” These were interesting multimedia experiences presented in an underground area in the Alfândega do Porto, the former customs building located on the banks of the Douro River that has been converted into a bit of a museum. We walked down there, found out there were only a few shows available this day, so we saw the first one, walked back partially and had some lunch and a drink the walked back for the second one. Lots of steps with lots of hills on my sciatica, but I made it. A nice day out sightseeing. As painful as the walking was, I think it was probably good therapy for my sciatica pain.

Another day we went walking in the middle ages area. We climbed up the hill by some ancient churches and other structures ending up at the top of the hill. There were beautiful views overlooking the river. We managed to find our way to the São Bento train station which is known by being decorated with beautiful tiles. We then had some food at Time Out Market, an upscale food court that had been recommended to Maddy. Later we had dinner at Japanese Raman place with Anime decor and a robot which delivered some of the food. I don’t know if Japanese Anime themed restaurants is a Portugal thing, but we managed to end up in two.

The remaining days we took it easy walking around some of the other local neighborhoods, and watching some more Netflix while Maddy recuperated. After almost 5 days in Porto we took the train back to Lisbon for Maddy’s final bit of time. We had a nice seafood dinner at a local restaurant and then the next day we got Maddy out to the airport for her flight home. My flight didn’t leave until early the next morning, so I headed back to try and get a little rest before a very early trip to the airport.

I enjoyed the trip to Portugal despite my mobility challenges. It was a nice and relaxed place and we explored it at a very relaxed pace. It was also nice to return home as healthy as I left with no flu or other illnesses. It might be nice to revisit Portugal again sometime when time and mobility enable traveling to some other places further afield.