Vila Nova de Gaia

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Today we got up a but before 9 and headed downstairs for breakfast, which was a drastic improvement from the other place. There was basically a station of just cakes and cookies, yogurt, cereal, cold cuts, and breads. You can guess which one Chris went to. After breakfast we showered and headed out for the (rainy) day. Since 10am was a bit abrasive for port tastings (not at all, just trying to keep up appearances), we headed northeast to Rua Santa Catarina to check out the main commercial strip. We first stumbled upon the Mercado Bolhão, a giant wrought iron marketplace. The stalls were awesome - fresh fish, live chickens, flowers and herbs, fruits and vegetables, you name it. We even chatted with a little old lady at a linens stall and ended up with a table cloth and matching napkins to use on the deck this summer.

Heading down Santa Catarina, we popped into a few shops and then the Igreja do Santo Ildefonso. Affixed with a beautiful azulejo facade, the inside wasn't quite as nice, but it did have those creepy glass-enclosed life-sized figures. I liked A Nossa Senhora da Boa Morte - Our Lady of Good Death - such a nice name! Today it was actually rainy, so we scurried back up the shopping street to Café Majestic, a beautiful coffee house from the 1920s. We had coffees and took the time to write a few postcards before heading back into the on-and-off elements. It was almost noon, aka Port-O'Clock, so we made our way toward the bridge to Vila Nova da Gaia.

Ponte Dom Luís I, which straddles the river Douro and connects Porto to Vila Nova da Gaia, was constructed in 1886 and designed by a student of Gustave Eiffel. The upper-most level is accessible only to the metro and pedestrians and offers amazing views of both sides of the river. Once across, we took a somewhat scary funicular/cable car that takes you down to the riverfront by all of the port cellars. At this point it started to downpour so it was perfect timing to run into the Ramos Pinto cellars. We figured we would do a few tastings and only tour one of the cellars, so a 5-port tasting it was! We did a white, Lágrima Branco, Ruby, Adriano Reserve, and a 10-year Tawny. Next!

We didn't want to go overboard too early so we decided to grab lunch at a little diner-like place called Casa Adão. Our soup of the day, bread, and Alentejan pork with clams came out to €6 each and were pretty tasty. Then it was back on the sauce at the Sandeman Port Cave. The company has been operating out of the same cellars since 1811, which is pretty cool, and we learned that the iconic logo of the cloaked figure comes from the combination of the Spanish sombrero, representing the sherry wines from Spain, and the Portuguese university cloak, representing the port wines of Portugal, both of which George Sandeman began producing. All of the port grapes are grown to the east in the Douro valley, and once harvested they are put into vats and shipped to the caves in Porto where they are matured in wooden barrels. We are also now versed in the differences between rubies, tawnies, reserves, vintages and the like - que bom!

The last port house was Ferreira, established in 1751 by a wealthy Portuguese woman. It seemed you couldn't do a tasting without a tour, so we went ahead and paid the €5 euro for the next tour, which was in Spanish. We actually learned some interesting things, like why Portuguese wine has all of these English names - Ruby, Tawny, etc. England was at war with France in the 18th century and as a result could not import French wine. It instead looked to Portugal, but because of the long distance involved in transporting the wine, it would spoil and the fermentation process would be ruined. Brandy was added to halt the fermentation process and preserve the quality of the wine, hence port was born. It was wealthy British men who developed the port houses, and Portuguese workers that labored, so the different types were named by those who controlled the business. Later on the Portuguese would establish their own houses, but to this day many of the great port houses have British names - Sandeman, Cockburn, Yeatman, etc.

We then headed back to the cable car to get back to Porto and relax a bit in the hotel before dinner. For dinner we chose Casinha São Joāo, which offered a number of petiscos (tapas). We had octopus salad, which we apparently can't get enough of, grilled prawns, these mushroom and cheese roll-up things, and an assortment of montaditos - various combinations of things on little toasts like cured ham with fried egg, and tuna with green olives. For whatever reason on the day we did hardly any walking or climbing we felt totally beat and headed back for the night. Tomorrow we're likely off to Guimarães by train and then meeting a friend for drinks in the evening. Boa noite!

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