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Published: November 9th 2009
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Leaving Salamanca for Portugal, we had good 4-lane roads most of the way. Crossing the border into Portugal, we drove over the mountains toward Lisbon, then headed North toward our destination, Porto, famous as the home of Port wine, and second largest city in the country. It was a fairly long drive (around 5 hours), but as we entered Porto, things went a little sideways for us. The city is bigger than we expected, and our knowledge of Portuguese is more limited than our understanding of Spanish, so we had more trouble reading signs. We crossed the Douro River, then became quickly confused as to where to go. Eventually we saw a sign reading "Centro Comercial." We assumed that meant the road would take us to the center of the city, which is essentially where we wanted to go. Wrong. It was just a suburban shopping center.
We decided we had gone too far North and West, so we headed South and East as best we could. The streets and roads were incredibly complex, and signage was virtually nonexistent. It didn't help that we were starting to encounter heavy evening traffic. After at least an hour of grinding our way
One of the blue churches
Some Portuguese churches have a unique style of exterior decoration. through the city, we finally found the city center. Our struggles were not over, however. We started looking for likely places to stay, but parking was virtually nonexistent, and somehow every time we saw a public garage/car park, it contrived to be on the opposite side of the road. There is no such thing as going around the block here, since there are numerous narrow, one-way streets that wind around the hillsides. When we saw a likely-looking lodging, it proved impossible to even find it again. Finally, we drove into a parking garage, just to get rid of the car. We emerged on the streets, only to find that we were completely disoriented. Our street map didn't seem to have any of the streets we were seeing.
We wandered around for at least another hour (it seemed like four), until, finally, we found a landmark that was on our map. Once we were oriented, it was only a matter of another few minutes to identify and check into a pleasant hotel. I guess we were overconfident after the ease of navigation and accommodations in Toledo and Salamanca, and taken by surprise by the complicated streets of Porto.
It
The Porto riverfront
New wine was traditionally brought to Porto using the boats at the bottom of the picture. was around 8 o'clock by now, but the good news was that in Portugal, that is just the start of the dinner hour. We took a few minutes to get our heads on straight after our arrival ordeal, then set out to find a meal that we very much needed. We quickly located an excellent restaurant close to our hotel. We had an enjoyable meal, ordered dessert and coffee, and then enjoyed a superb performance of
fado, traditional Portuguese music. We then headed back to the hotel for a nightcap, then off to bed after a pretty tiring day.
I woke the next morning to find it dark and rainy. After a continental breakfast, I walked around the streets a bit and took some photos. The rain was very light drizzle, so it wasn't too bad. Returning to the hotel, I woke the boys up so that we could set off on the primary objective of our visit to Porto, tours of the "caves" or wine cellars where the most famous product of the city are produced. It was a long, but manageable walk to the river. We stopped along the way for lunch, then crossed over the bridge
to the caves in Gaia, on the South side of the Douro.
Since it was Sunday, some of the wineries were closed, but we were able to take a couple of tours, including samples of the products, and we walked all around the area. We gained a lot of knowledge about how port is made, the many different types of port, and how they taste. It was a really fascinating look at a product we all enjoy, and the atmosphere surrounding the caves, many of which are three or four hundred years old, was highly evocative. We purchased a few bottles to bring home, then started our walk back to the hotel as the sun set.
Porto is a very interesting city. It isn't the easiest to understand or navigate, but is well worth a visit. There are many remarkable buildings and sights that are unique to Porto, and although we made our visit more difficult than it might have been if we had been better prepared, it was still a memorable stop and a place that I would not hesitate to recommend to travellers. Tomorrow, we head South to Sines, a small coastal town where we hope
Andrew on the tour
He listens attentively to the information concerning one of his favorite beverages. to capture some of the flavor of traditional Portuguese coastal culture.
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Ursula
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Porto
I can't wait to talk to you about Port. My Mother loved good Port but I have never had her pallate for it. The photo of the hill top castle is lovely, Again thanks