http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/Porto/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Europe , Portugal , Northern , Porto en-us Thu, 24 Jul 2008 09:20:55 BST Thu, 24 Jul 2008 09:20:55 BST June 29 30 2008PORTO PortugalThis was a bit of a long drive 5 hours from Santander through a couple of small mountain ranges to the north coast of Portugal. Our ldquoGPS Ladyrdquo sometimes referred to as something not so polite took us a little off course with some new roads that have been opened that obviously were not on our GPS maps yet. We are getting spoiled and canrsquot e http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/Porto/blog-299259.html Poco antes de dormirnos el dia de ayer prendimos la TV para ver el resmen del dia en la Eurocopa. De pronto sali un reportaje sobre la ciudad de Porto y cmo miles de aficionados holandeses y alemanes invadieron la ciudad desde un par de das antes del juego entre sus dos selecciones que sera el de 15. Osea maana... Sin pensarlo demasiado Tavo y yo decidimos que cmo estbamos tan cerca d http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/Porto/blog-283853.html It was clear as soon as we entered Portugal that even by European standards their drivers are complete lunatics. Every car journey seems to be treated as if itrsquos a Formula One GP and the fact that wersquore travelling on a British plate makes us a target for ldquospecial treatmentrdquo. Some of the manoeuvres wersquove seen have been outrageous and speed limits appear to be of as m http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/Porto/blog-282079.html Buena noiteHello everyone So sorry to only be getting on here now to let you know how all is going We have just been having way too much funAll was good with the flight..it didnt seem as long as overseas flights Ive taken before...maybe cuz I had someone to get giddy with on the plane. we were separated on the long leg mom and dad got to sit together at least while I enjoyed my speci http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/Porto/blog-273185.html Friday 8 February 2008Our bus arrived at Porto bus station early afternoon. The lsquobus stationrsquo was basically a big shed which was half way through being renovated. There being no signs in sight to direct us anywhere probably because of the renovation so we enquired at the information desk. The instructions from our hostel advised catching a Metro to it. In Barbararsquos best attempt http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/Porto/blog-271443.html We were not in Porto for long before we fell in love with it. Not only did we score a cheap room in a nice hotel a huge step up from camping in army rows but there were hills Not something we get to see much of in London or Europe but very much apart of our daily live back in NZ.We headed down to the Ribeira district on the edge of the River Douro. The area was so beautiful full of old colo http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/Porto/blog-262511.html Our 11week trip is ending in Porto a very different city than weve visited before. It is huge 1.2 million in the Greater Porto area. It is built on loads of small unless youre trying to walk up them hills so that getting geographically oriented is tough. We were warned not to attempt driving in the city so we left our rental car at the airport and took a taxi in.Our first day we bought http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/Porto/blog-258654.html Porto WeekendTravelled out early morning Friday 15th February with Ryanair after getting 1p flights 20 return after tax. Was supposed to stay in the Grande Hotel de Paris but upon arriving was told that there were problems and going by the fire alarms lights looking like a Xmas tree in the background that would seem to be an understatement and that they were going to have to move us to th http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/Porto/blog-251317.html Just a few pictures of our time in Portugal in November 2007. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/Porto/blog-241227.html MOTOTOUR 2007Day 910 La Carridad to PortoDistance 455 km of 8667 km totalIt was difficult to wake up with damp and rain. Slugs left their slimy trails all over our new tent. We skipped breakfast did what we had to do to leave and were off to Santiago de Compostelle There the skies turned sunny again. We found our way through winding cobblestoned streets in the old city and parked the mo http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/Porto/blog-237984.html TervehdysMatka edennyt Madridista Lissabonin kautta Portoon. Kaupunki taynna portviinikellareita ja mukavia ihmisia. Kieli tosin kuulostaa enemman venajalta kuin espanjalta joten siita ei mitaan ymmarra.Turistikohteita en ole paljon kierrellyt enemminkin keskittynyt tutustumaan uusiin ihmisiin ja hostelleissahan se onnistuu mainiosti. Laskin tossa yksi yo etta olen ehtinyt jo tutustua ihmisiin http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/Porto/blog-229271.html Woke up so damn early to catch a late ate flight to PortoHad to repack my backpack and everything coz taking that Ryanair flight....and wah...after that still 17kg at the end ended up with 15.5 kg..passed haaaaaabut my handluggage was so heavy haa..thank god they didnt check that...The plane was delayed for almost 1.5 hours coz it was foggy in Madrid this morning...anyways got to http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/Porto/blog-225993.html Hullo well firstly i have to admit to the fallacy of pretending to still be in portugal this is being written whilst in a warm little cafe in Beirritz France surfie town cool cigarette smoke exhaling cold hot frenchies... So portugal is just a memory for me now but let me represent in the true style of impressionism that has come to set the standard for my Blogs.. with a touch of surreali http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/Porto/blog-223457.html . http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/Porto/blog-214216.html Bom Dia Bo DudWeek 10 and we are ending the week in Portugal. On Tuesday we had 2 new experiences. Our first was catching a bus into Santiago de Compostela and getting back without a hitch our second was finding a Spanish Post Office and buying a stamp to post a letter to Torre del Mar success on both counts.So Santiago de Compostela the end of the pilgrim route Irsquove heard it sai http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/Porto/blog-207320.html After our huge day the day before we opted for a lazy morning and Mick and I wandered along the beach and found a local bakery. We met up with Bern and Shaun for lunch at a beachfront caf before heading into Porto for a look around. Porto is a city of cobbled streets old terraced houses with decorative tiles and statues lots of them. We saw a police chase with 5 or 6 cop cars chasing a tiny http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/Porto/blog-205761.html Time for our next adventure. We got up early and drove up to Preston in the rain again. We met up with Shaun and got out to ldquoJohn Lennonrdquo airport in Liverpool where we met Bernie with plenty hours of time before our flight to Porto in Portugal. We got off the flight and picked up our hire car only to go in the wrong direction and get completely lost We ended up hailing a taxi http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/Porto/blog-202969.html Hey guys Well firstly apologies for the lag in entries the last month has been busy. After San Fermin we headed to Valladelavilla to take part in Pueblo Ingles a week long english school for spanish business people. We had heard a little about the experience which involved talking onetoone to Spanish people group activities and lots of food. And it turned out to be an intensive week of eng http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/Porto/blog-194668.html If I had to advise people whether to travel to Portugal or Spain I would be a very tough choice. Despite the reputation of being Spain's less attractive cousin Portugal was just as beautiful and about 14 the price. Our first stop was Porto right on the river which made for some gorgeous views thanks to the perfect weather we had throughout Portugal. After hitting the hostel and getting rid http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/Porto/blog-182310.html Portugal Porto Day 2Hi EveryoneThis entry is about our 2nd day in Porto.We started off the day with a open top bus tour around Porto and managed to see heaps of the major sights about a million chruchs and momuments there seems to be one on every second corner there. Our bus trip ended down by the Douro river where the grapes are grown to make authentic Portugese Port it is a beautiful set http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/Porto/blog-175477.html Hi EveryoneI know we have been super slack with staying in touch but we have hardly had a chance to catch our breath so farAt the moment we are in Porto Portugal we had our frist day here today but I should start from the beginning....Our flight to London went well and we only arrived about half an hour later than expected. Adam and I both had about 6 hours sleep over the 24 hour flight so o http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/Porto/blog-174294.html Weekend trip to Portugal thanks Michelle We were thinking of you wish you could have made it http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/Porto/blog-168349.html It was with some excitement that we woke up early and went to work on Friday 25 May. The sound of the luggage bag wheels rattling over the street pavement was music to our ears and it brought a smile to our face in the knowledge that we would leave work early at 3.30pm and head straight to Stanstead airport to fly to Porto that afternoon. Porto is not a place we knew an awful lot about I lik http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/Porto/blog-164024.html My brilliant friend old Dave Bowman decided to pay me a visit for my birthday and to run the London Marathon. So good seeing the old geezer again top class guy. On a bit of a whim we decided to go to Portugal and Spain the next morning at 7am. Seemed like a good idea at the time and it probably would have been if we had not had a bender the night before till 3 in the AM and then raced to Stans http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/Porto/blog-151470.html 42007 LisbongtPorto After arriving in Porto via bus and obtaining a map from a nearby hotel we then proceeded to stand around for a while trying to figure out which way we needed to go to get to or hostel. Eventually we managed to orientate ourselves and make our way to our hostel. After checking in and dropping off our bags we went out to see Porto. We only had the remainder of the day and http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/Porto/blog-151448.html Thursday we visited Sonae Industria Sonae Sierra and Fortis. Sonae Industria is a manufacturer of laminated wood and we got to tour their production and warehouse facilities. Sonae Sierra was an interesting company to hear about because they design shopping and leisure spaces. Having an interest in marketing and especially how shelf displays and store layouts affect purchasing behaviors it http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/Porto/blog-148303.html Portugal PhotosnbspEurope raquonbspPortugal raquonbspporto By Amanda MApril 11th 2007Here are some more pictures from Porto ... enjoy http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/Porto/blog-147689.html Tuesday we visited the Agencia Portuguesa para o Investimento API a government organization responsible for investment promotion and ICEP Portugal a government organization responsible for export promotion. Wednesday we visited MotaEngil a construction company had lunch with MBA students from the University of Porto and had two lectures at the university acquisition strategies by Portu http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/Porto/blog-147686.html Not much going on today. Walked around to shops and bought some souvenirs. Then spent most of the afternoon working as much as I could make myself work on one of the 7page singlespaced papers due at the end of this class. grrrrr... This wraps up our long weekend and most of our free time in Porto and class starts back up tomorrow. We are supposed to be getting our Portugal introductio http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/Porto/blog-146940.html Dublin PhotosnbspEurope raquonbspPortugal raquonbspporto By Amanda MApril 9th 2007 Here are some photos I took in Dublin that I didn't get a chance to post. Enjoy Also some interesting notes from the Guinness tour Nigeria drinks more Guinness than the US and Canada combined Because of the levels of iron magnesium etc. in Guinness it used to be advertised as good for you http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/Porto/blog-146818.html