Unplanned "Power" Sidetrip

We had a choice today driving south from Inverness, either take the motorway through

Walking across the dam

Perth, or go through the mountains cross country. I was rested so I though I’d be fine on the secondary roads for another day, so we took the scenic route, “The Tourist Route” according to the signs.

We stopped at the town of Pitlochry for lunch and I saw a sign for a dam and dam visitor’s

The fish ladder

center. We had enough time on the parking so we wandered down to the dam. This was one of Hydro Scotland’s power generating plants and had been opened to the public as a tourist attraction. It is on a beautiful location, and the dam has created a lake behind it adding to the attraction.

Footpath across river

Although the actual hydro plant is not open to the public, you can walk across the dam and look down into the plant through windows, although you can’t actually see much. There are interpretive signs explaining everything however. Once across the dam, there is a long fish ladder to allow salmon to get up the river past the dam. They have built an observation area where you can look into the ladder to see the fish climbing up. Although we did not see any fish, there is a digital counter that keeps track of how many fish swim up and the how large

Back to town

they are. This season, 4,091 salmon have used the fish ladder.

Lunch time

Walking over the dam we saw a footbridge downstream which would lead us back into the town, so we walked down along the river and crossed the bridge to a trail through the woods back to the town where we stopped to eat lunch.

On this part of the trip we have the time to do things like this. We only had a drive of about three hours, so it was nice to be able to see attractions like this which were not in our plans and fit them into the adventure.

Restaurant Day

 We are enjoying learning how to cook the local produce and seafood from the fabulous markets here in Olhão, but the best way to experience the local flavours is to go to the good restaurants and sample food cooked by the local expert chefs.

Via e Volta

Pete & Linda went to Tavira; a town up the coast towards Spain on April 25^th to meet us with some portuguese Bridge players (they are pretty serious bridge fans . . . . although they ended up playing with another couple from BC . . . . ) so Regis and I decided to make this a 'Restaurant Day'.

We wandered down to a little place called Via e Volta that was highly recommended by Colin & Suzanne. A little Family restaurant, it serves only seafood and only at lunch. They have a menu, but it lists only two items; “Adult 8.50 Є” and “Child 5.00 Є”, along with prices for various drinks. They do not give you a choice of fish; you get whatever fish was abundant at the market that day.

The restaurant is located two blocks off the main Avenida da Republica, but the neighbourhood is not especially inviting, There is a whole row of deserted, run-down buildings at the end of the street and you have to weave your way through a couple of bins full of construction debris to get to the restaurant. Now as you may have noticed by my pictures and descriptions of Olhão, this is not that unusual, and part of the charm of the place, so we were not put off and upon arriving we were greeted by a friendly waiter who gave us the only vacant seat (in itself a VERY good sign). We were asked what we wanted to drink, and a beer and glass 1/4 lt. of white wine was ordered, but we were not even asked if we wanted to order food – obviously everyone who comes here of course wants the fish.

Keep those fish coming

The restaurant is in a very tiny building, and there are very few seats in the actual restaurant, the main seating is outside under a large canvas room with roll up plastic windows. We have not seen anything except sunshine, but I suppose they might need these windows one or two days out of the year. To one side, against the actual building there is a large charcoal grill where someone is constantly grilling the fish. I could watch the fish being flipped back and forth until they reached 'grilled perfection' and then four of five were put on metal trays and taken to the next table waiting. Watching the fish being grilled and waiting for your's to arrive , you were provided with a delicious bowl of marinated olives and pickled carrots, a lovely tomato, onion and cucumber salad, and a basket of bread to hold you until your plate of fish arrived.

Once your first plate arrived, it never stopped. The waiters kept a constant watch over your table, and when you reduced one plate to fish heads, bones and skin, another was promptly placed on the table to replace it. After three plates, we had had enough, but they kept returning, looking positively heartbroken that you couldn't eat another five hot-off-the-grill fish.

GIANT Scrimp Kabob !

The evening meal did not start out so good. Linda had gone down the evening before to scout out the possible spots to eat. I told her to go down when it was busy at 7:30 and find the spots full of locals enjoying their meals. She not only used this criteria, she also asked about making things without tomato, and came back with news of Ria Formosa which not only was popular with lots of locals, but she was assured the kitchen could make their famous Seafood Cataplanas without tomato. When we arrived however, the waiter wasn't sure about the wine Pete wanted, they did not have white sangria Regis could share with Linda, and the red which Linda couldn't drink only came in a BIG pitcher, which would have meant we would have had to carry Regis home. Then when Linda tried to order the tomato free Cataplanas she was told “No, of course it couldn't be made without tomatoes, they were part of the base.”

Steak on a Stone

Now the evening turned out great actually. Pete & I found a delicious bottle of wine to share, Linda ordered a Tuna with Onions dish, Pete got to personally meet his fish dish before it was cooked, Regis had the most amazing giant Shrimp Kabob, and I got to try Steak on a stone. They should have given us the meal, because people were stopping to stare at Regis' giant shrimp, and the smell and sound of my steak sizzling on the stone started bringing passing folks into the restaurant. The Kabob was truly amazing, and I was served a square, inch thick, lava-hot stone with a piece of almost raw steak sizzling and smoking on it. I kept flipping it and cutting pieces off as it cooked to how I liked it. A really spectacular meal.

Regis did have to settle for a Coke, but she always enjoys that anyways.

The Market

The Market Building

 Back home we have the Halifax Farmer's Market over in Halifax, but it is not a 'real' market by the definition the rest of the world uses. . . . . more 'craft' market with a few food vendors. Regis says I can find a market where ever I travel, and have managed to find them in most locations I have visited.

Now Olhao has a real market, and it operates almost every day. There are grocery stores here, but they are mostly small corner operations where you can get canned goods, wine, or speciality items. The market contains the majority of the food you need. You can but meat or vegetables at the corner 'supermarket' in a emergency, but really, why go there when the market is available six days a week.

Farm Fresh Food

Sobeys, Superstore, Loblaws, and the other huge supermarkets have not taken over Olhao yet. If you need bread or rolls you go to the bakery, and will probably pick up some delicious pastries with your 'fresh from the oven' rolls or bread. For most everything else you go to the market.

Selling her Produce

Olhao's market is in two beautiful large brick buildings down on the waterfront. One contains fresh fruit, vegetables, spices, grains and other things. The other building is the fish market, and you can also find fresh meat, cheeses, but Olhao is the main fishing town in southern Portugal, so the building is mostly seafood. Around the outside of the building are the Portuguese 'Snack Bars' – mostly I think these sell beer for the husbands to sit and drink with their friends while wives are inside the market stocking up for the evening meal.

Saturday Market Day

The fruit & vegetable buildings contains stall after stall of people selling lovely fresh produce. Tomatoes that actually taste like tomatoes grown in a garden, piles of fava beans waiting to be shelled, red green & yellow peppers, crisp lettuce, onions, leeks and garlic. You can buy strawberries, raspberries, bananas, lemons and oranges. A couple of euros will buy you a 4 kilo bag of slightly smaller oranges to make into juice (And we wondered why you couldn't get good juice in the store . . . . .) In between you will find stalls selling a wonderful selection of honey, delicious almonds and other specialities. Other vendors sell spices, vast buckets of olives, cages full of live snails, or bins of dried beans and rices. At one end of this building there are also butchers selling chickens, pork, and rabbit, as well as a variety of delicious portuguese sausages and cured meats. There are also a couple of stalls selling a large selection of cheese, and as in Spain, they make a large percentage of their cheese from goat or sheep milk, so I am very happy.

Walk outside the middle door of the vegetable building and you know you are headed to the fish market. Inside are tables of melting ice loaded with fresh fish and seafood. Don't bother going on Monday however, because the fleet is tied up Sunday, so there won't be any seafood until the boats return later that day. You know everything is fresh. There are eels, octopus, squid, and so many kinds of fish I cannot identify. Of course the names are all in Portuguese, so we rely on what is recommended. On our first visit we wanted sardines, to fry up for supper (no sardines do not come in a can here), but were told it is a bit early for good sardines, we should wait for june to get the best fresh sardines. We elected to take our chances with the available ones, and Pete cooked them up with some local port. Wow, I can't imagine how the 'good' ones in June would be.

Selling on the Seafront

On Saturday this wonderful market actually expands with stalls spilling out onto the sidewalks and the waterfront malecon, and it seems that the entire town comes to the market to not only shop but more important to socialize and catch up with friends and relatives or find out the local gossip. Off to one side a gypsy market sells clothes, crafts, and everything else you didn't know you needed.

We do need to go to the grocery store for coffee and dried pasta, but our grocery bag will not be very heavy.