Blogs from Northern, Portugal, Europe - page 40

Wow what a trip! Richard and I are now positive that we would win the Amazing Race hands down. We can climb stairs, navigate bus routes, and survive rain storms like troopers. I started my trip with a flight to and an evening in Dublin at Casa Smith where we repacked our belongings into two packs and prepared for the early morning flight. A quick flight the next day and we were in beautiful Porto, Portugal! We found the info booth to inquire about campgrounds but the lady was very unhelpful so we hopped the metro downtown to find the real info centre. Our first mission was to get to the campground and set up our tent so we could spend the evening wandering the city. We quickly discovered that the nearest campground was an hour ... read more

I have just arrived at Porto's airport. Little depressive feeling. Bring so many things inside me and feel so sad and empty at the same time. Feels as when you walk forward, thinking you have droped something somewhere and you keep looking behind afraid you missed something on the way. I don't know what it is...just loss. ( Xutos&Pontapes - homem do leme - "... a vida é sempre a perder..." ) Life was shown to me in the most beautiful way. I had never seen it so true and colorful. Never had so many great people sharing it with me ( and this is what i am most thankful for...)....................................................................................................................... ................................................................................................................................................ i could die right now..... read more

This weekend we took our first trip out of Spain to visit Porto, Portugal - I LOVED it! There was a 100% chance of rain for the weekend, yet somehow it didn't rain the entire 2 days we were there, and it was also off season, so there were hardly any tourists and everything was sooo cheap. This all added up to a great weekend. We had a super early flight on Friday and arrived in Porto at our gorgeous guesthouse around noon. After dropping off our stuff, we wandered around the city admiring the historic architecture and beautiful churches before having a delicious, traditional menu of the day for lunch. We stepped inside the Casa do Infante to see some recently discovered Roman ruins, then headed down to the Rio Douro to walk along the ... read more

In Porto... ... read more

We took a day trip this Saturday to visit Porto, the second biggest city in Portugal, and the home of port wine. Porto is on the coast and is a 1-hour train ride north of Coimbra. The most popular attractions in Porto are the port wine lodges which are actually across the Douro river in the city of Vila Nova de Gaia. The port wine lodges have been used as warehouses for port aging, storage, and shipping since the mid 18th century. These days most companies have updated their warehouses with tasting rooms and tours. Visiting here was almost like going to Napa or Sonoma (or other wine regions), but all of the lodges are really close together so it’s pretty easy to walk between them. We went to three lodges: a tour and tasting at ... read more