Europe

With a big day of driving ahead of us, we were downstairs for breakfast just after 8:00 am. Even though hotel breakfasts are very nice, after nearly seven weeks away, we decided this morning to bring a jar of Vegemite with us to smear on some toast. Yum!

It was about 9:40 am by the time we finally left the hotel. We navigated our way out of Madrid and onto the highway, where we drove for about two hours before pulling off for a quick stop, just outside the town of Salamanca.

From Salamanca, we drove on to the town of Ciudad Rodrigo, a historic walled town, not far from the Portuguese border. Squeezing the big BMW X7 through the tiny streets of the old town was a bit tricky. We eventually found a place to park, although we needed coins for the parking meter and we only had notes. Luckily, a very nice local main paid for our parking.

We set off on a walk around the town, which was buzzing with people. Ciudad Rodrigo is famous for its impressive medieval walls (with gates and bastions still intact), the Cathedral of Santa María, the Castle of Enrique II of Trastámara, and its narrow historical streets with pretty houses.

We left Ciudad Rodrigo around 2:00 pm, for the remaining 265 km of the drive to Porto. We arrived at the lovely Hotel le Monumental Palace in Porto just after 4:30 pm.

After a big day in the car, we decided that we’d have room service for dinner. It wasn’t quite the big dinner that we’d planned for the night of our 40th Wedding Anniversary (the reason for the trip), but the fact that we were having dinner together in Portugal 40 years to the day that we married was more important to us than what we were eating. ❤️

Content after a nice day, we had an early night, in preparation for a bit of exploring tomorrow in the hilly streets of Porto.