Day 16: Travel day
Welcome
Yesterday was a travel day. We flew to Porto in anticipation of our next performance at Primavera Sounds.
We assembled at 7am and boarded the van for the drive to Köln Bonn Airport. Mathias dropped us outside the terminal and set course for Brussels, the home base of our backline and van rental company. It was another Ryanair flight, and we were filled with trepidation at the idea of a repeat of our Dublin experience. A blessed sight awaited us at the check-in counter in the form of a large queueing area completely devoid of customers. We approached the counter, with Jonathan in the lead, ready to deal with anything they might throw at us. The Ryanair check-in operator had a strong negotiating position and began with a resolute “no” before we could say anything. She directed us to check in one at a time at, everyone at separate counters. Jonathan’s counter-offer was simple: we check in together, this is how we always do it and it works fine. She took Jonathan’s passport. There was a pause for about fifteen seconds and then she handed over five boarding passes and began the process of weighing and tagging our luggage. The entire check-in was completed in ten minutes, easily the fastest airport experience we have ever had; and she didn’t charge us a cent for the extra bags. The budget airline experience is a perplexing one. We can never truly understand what goes on inside the check-in computers, or inside the minds of the bean counters and strategists of businesses like Ryanair.
Teamwork is what keeps eaves clean at Köln Bonn Airport.
While we were unloading the van Liz suffered an injury, getting her hand pinched by a handle belonging to one of the heavy pelican cases.
We had two and a half hours to kill before our flight. I bought a sandwich and sat down, taking my time to eat breakfast. The sandwich was on a pumpkin-studded wholemeal roll filled with mozzarella, tomato, lettuce, and a sundried tomato pesto.
Köln Bonn Airport had the most efficient security screening process I have ever witnessed. You lined up behind a clearly marked line. There was an easy-to-understand diagram explaining what needed to be removed from your bag (usually at TSA there is a person who sporadically yells this information at you).
One person at a time was called up to the conveyer belt where a very pleasant security employee laid out as many trays as you needed and helped you to get your arranged properly in each tray. You passed through a quick body scan and by that point your belongings were already on the way out the other side; I only had to wait ten seconds for my trays to appear. The Achilles heel of so many airport security x-ray systems is the system for returning trays to the beginning of the line. Some places like you to stack the trays as you exit. Some places don’t like you to stack the trays as you exit. Some places have an employee whose entire responsibility is stacking and ferrying trays back and forth. Köln Bonn airport had a system with redundancy: in front of you there is a narrow flume with rollers along the bottom that runs down the entire length of the conveyor belt, and is just wide enough to fit a tray inserted vertically. This system is for travellers with initiative who want to make sure they are doing their bit to keep things operating smoothly. You insert your tray and it gently rolls back towards the other end, thanks to the slight downhill slope that the flume is installed on. The other system looks like a fancy oven, or perhaps one of those buffet toasters, and features a conveyor belt mounted below the main belt that sends trays directly back to the security staff member at the other end.
This was easily the fastest and least stressful airport security experience I have had in my time traveling.
Our flight took off on time and the journey was smooth. We landed in Porto just after midday and were discharged onto the tarmac for a short walk into the terminal. A van from the festival picked us up and took us straight to the hotel in Matosinhos, in the northern district of the city. It was a Holiday Inn Express, built in the iconic ‘Laundromat Floor Tiles’ style that was so heavily influential in the 1990s. After checking in we walked a few blocks to find a spot for lunch. The streets are old and cobbled in this area and many of the houses have facades of beautiful azujelo mosaic tiles, with colourful patterns and usually an image of the Virgin Mary. We enjoyed a delicious and cheap lunch and then headed back to the hotel for an afternoon nap. I had a bath and finished reading Ulysses.
Azujelo tiles clad the tall centre house.
That evening we caught a taxi into the city centre to have dinner with a group of very good friends. Liz’s sister Novita, her partner Daniel, Jonathan’s brother Chris, and his partner Garyun have found a good enough excuse to visit this side of the world and that is coming to see us perform at Primavera. I would like to take a small moment to mention and thank Chris and Garyun who as well as being treasured friends and family members are also the web developers for breakfastandtravelupdates.com and have spent long hours getting the website and email updates to look and function the way they do.
Our friends arriving.
We were in the Bolhão district at a traditional Portuguese restaurant, a spot that had an enjoyable atmosphere and brought us out a generous amount of food to share. After dinner we walked down to the waterfront where the Douro River flows past on its way out into the North Atlantic Ocean. On the way we took a look inside the entrance to the São Bento railway station, with its walls covered in azulejo tile murals displaying famous historical scenes.
Immediately post-diner selfie.
The murals inside São Bento station.
The end of the evening saw us sat down at a restaurant next to the river which we had chosen because it enjoyed a splendid view of the very spectacular Dom Luís I Bridge. This structure took five years to build and was completed in 1886. It stands a triumphant 45 metres tall and has a longest span of 395 metres at the top, and a second span of 172 metres down below. This double-deck metal arch bridge connects the Cathedral of Porto and the Serra do Pilar, carrying pedestrians and the metro system between the steep granite escarpments on both sides. We all sipped at tall glasses of beer while we watched the cabin lights of the light rail that crawled across the bridge, silhouetted against the grey sky.
