Portugal and Galicia Trip - Day 6

 January 2nd, 2016 - Porto

Before we could leave the province of Ourense, we had to visit one more hot spring.  Now all the private hot springs were open, so we decided to stop by Termas Prexigueiro on the way to Porto.  This hot spring is about 30 minutes outside of the city of Ourense and a little bit out of the way, it was not that easy to find.  We arrived at around 10:30 in the morning and the place was pretty empty, which was great.  It was a very nice Japanese themed hot spring with pools of different temperatures, and cold pools to dunk in between hot pools.  For 5,50€ you can stay for 2 hours. By the time we left, there was a line-up to get in, so we left just in time.

Termas Prexigueiro

After soaking for two hours

After the spa we headed to Porto.  Unfortunately it was raining in Porto when we arrived, but the house we rented was fantastic, a huge two story house with 5 bedrooms.  The rain was intermittent so we ventured out into the city.  I thought it might be nice to visit Parque da Cidade, which is the largest urban park in Portugal.  First we stumbled on the Pavilhão da Agua, which was built for Expo '98 in Lisbon. We arrived just before they were closing, but they allowed us to go in and explore for a little while.  It was like visiting a mini-science museum.  We were the only people there, so the staff was very attentive.  Definitely worth a visit if you are strolling around Parque da Cidade. 

Pavilhão da Agua

Unfortunately by the time we finished visiting the Water Pavilion, it was getting dark and starting to rain again, so we didn't really get to see much of the enormous park.  Our host told us that there were lots of nice restaurants near the beaches of Matosinhos and that we should try the famous Francesinha sandwich, so we headed over to find something to eat.  First we walked along the beach, and looked at some restaurants, but it was around 7pm and still too early to eat dinner.  So we found a grocery store and bought food for the next day, which would be Sunday. 

I really hate wondering around a city that I don't know to look for a restaurant, but I guess it's all part of the travel experience.  You win some and you lose some.  This time, I think we lost.  We ended up at a huge sports bar type restaurant.  We had trouble communicating with the waiter, they were out of most things, including the bread for the Francesinha, so they made our sandwiches with hotdog buns.  I don't know if we just got a really bad one, but I couldn't even eat mine.  My Francesinha was a hotdog bun with ham and wiener slices inside, covered in melted processed cheese, sitting in a pool of tomato-beer sauce.   I'm sure there are better ones out there, but it's not something I will try to make at home. 

"Tragedy of the Sea" statue on the beach commemorating the 152 sailors that died in a shipwreck in 1947

This was my Francesinha