Day 3 Get settled, get groceries!

Today was a mix of sun and cloud, high of 16 but felt a bit cool and in the 10-13C range most of the day.

We started the day with a fancy coffee at a local cafe in Sao Martinho.

We then went to the nearby town of Caldas da Rainha. Caldas is a bigger town than Sao Martinho, and Caldas is inland with major supermarkets and businesses, population about 27k. We first went to the local fruit and vegetable market in a square near the center of town. The market takes place outdoors, 365 days a year. They setup and take down outdoor stands every day for it. It has lots of fresh produce from the local area. Gale bought various fresh fruits and vegetables. They also sell flowers at the market.

After the market we went to two supermarkets to get a few other things. We really only needed to go to one but we spotted a brand of store we had not been in before called Mercadona, so we thought we would give it a look. Very impressed. It is actually a Spanish based chain brand and the store had an extensive array of groceries. We also went to our fav, the Pingo Doce, also a local Portugal brand store. It has all the groceries you would normally need. Maybe not as large as a Continente (European brand store in Portugal that has a lot of things other than groceries) in terms of other items like you see at like Walmart. But the Pingo has lots of items in its own branded products at very good prices and value. In the larger Pingo Doce supermarkets they also have a great cafe/cafeteria. Here are some pics of things at the two supermarkets…….note that the two wine bottles are ones available in Nfld NLC stores, at a considerably higher price.

Of course, after shopping for all those groceries, we were hungry and it was lunch time. The best place for a tasty and good value lunch is at the Pingo Doce cafeteria. You can get all kinds of great food there, from grilled fish, chicken, steak, salads, and other dishes, fresh made. We went for a fav, fresh made from scratch, while you wait, pizza. It was 4.79euro for the pizza, which was plenty big for two of us. See below…..

So after the pizza lunch we made our way back to Sao Martinho do Porto to unpack groceries. Then we went outside by our condo and had a walk around the seaside cliffs, all within a couple minutes (some across the street) walk from our condo…we met some sheepish looking locals while walking around. The cliffs directly across from our condo are about 115 feet from top to sea level, according to iphone compass.

In the first pic, our condo complex is on the lower right, and angles up the hill, our unit at the far end, overlooking a road roundabout and the coast across the street.