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Published: October 14th 2018
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The Arab room For the third day of my travels, I had booked a street art tour. The tour started at 2:30 so I had time in the morning to get a quick visit into the Palácio da Bolsa. The only way to visit the palace is to take a guided tour. The only English tour was starting at the same time as my other tour so I took the French tour instead. I pretty much understood everything except for one word that kept coming up over and over again. I’ll have to ask my French teacher. The palace was impressive, especially the Arab room. Apparently the building is also available to be rented out. At an impressive rate I’m sure.
Onto the street art tour. Met up with Miguel ( another Miguel ) at the São Bento train station. Our crew consisted of a kiwi couple, a couple from Los Angeles, and another lone traveller from New York Karin. The street art tour would have to be by far one of my most favourite experiences of Porto. Street art is more than just graffiti, it’s a way to express thru shapes and drawings and colour. A lot of the art also
Crypts under church Sao Francisco holds Political messages expressing the frustrations of the people of Porto and the influence of the growing Tourism. Some asked the Porto people who they were? And questioned their roots. There was also the odd here and there “ fuck tourists” as expected. But Miguel got us to see it in a way where we could appreciate the personal meaning behind each piece, and get to know who the artists were. Street art became legal in Porto after a battle between the street artists and the municipalities. Once the city realized that the art was as much a part of the Porto culture as anything else, they began to regulate it, and set up a licensing process for street artists. Now you can see it everywhere and recognize different pieces by the artist trade mark. Whether it be the faceless Madonna, or a girafe head or a cow.. doing one of these art walks is the best way to get to know it all and get to know the city layout at the same time. Highly recommended.
After making new friends with Karin from New York, we decided to do a port wine tour the next day. A lot
Who am I walking on?of the port wineries are across the river from Porto in Gaia, which is technically a different city. We met up with our group in the late afternoon under the famed ponte de Dom luis bridge, and as a group we set out across the bridge into Gaia. We went to the first winery, Ramos Pinto, where they showed us the difference between making ruby, tawny and white port wine. They showed us around the old offices and then took us down stairs where barrels and barrels of port wine were stacked upon each other and a dark cellar room. We also learned, ( which everywhere you go in Porto someone will tell you ) the origins of port wine. The British would usually get their wine from France, but during the war the British boycotted French wine. So they looked to Portugal. The Portuguese would ship the wine to England for consumption. But upon arriving there, the travels on the sea and the constant motion from the water had turned the wine not drinkable. So two brothers decided to fortify the wine with a brandy, giving it higher alcohol content and in the end a sweeter product. The English
liked it so much they kept ordering it.
Now they have tawny port and ruby. The tawny is aged longer and had more time in the oak barrels so it’s flavour is more complex and the wine is brownish Amber in colour. Ruby port spends less time aging , and ages in bigger barrels so less contact with wood , therefore producing a sweet, fruitier wine. And then the white, or rose I guess, is a newer version that they’ve been trying out. In that winery we tried the tawny and the white . Both delicious. Very sweet and very rich. They gave us a good sampling of both , so needless to say I could feel it in my blood when we left. The next stop we went to a cellar house that served ruby port. We all sat down at the table, everyone from all over the world, sharing in this interest in wine. We also picked up a friend, Clare from Los Angeles, by way of Australia. We clinked glasses and took a sip, relishing in the more fruity and robust port we were tasting. This one was delicious as well, very sweet. I can see how
Porto street art
Who are you Porto? this is the a better “after dinner” drink.
Last stop we went to a more trendy wine cellar, and went up to their media room where we watched a brief movie on the origins of this particular cellar. They also gave us a sampling of their rose to sip on while we sat. I’ll be honest with you, i have no idea what that movie said. I was too busy drinking my rose and imagining how delicious a sangria would taste with it. I imagined hot summer days on a roof top patio , sipping refreshing rose port. Things were starting to warm up in my body. After the movie, we were ushered into a very modern tasting room. Three glasses laid out before us with more port to try, this next one was a vintage port. Aged in the bottle. With hints of sediment. It tasted great, it all tasted great. What can I say, on my 7th taste test everything was great. We all sat back and laughed and drank. Introduced ourselves and our countries. Talked about politics and Trump, and our experience so far in Portugal. It was a great end to this segment it the trip.
We closed out the tasting room and decided to call it a night. Me and Karin stopped for a later dinner at a very traditional Portuguese restaurant, grabbed a glass of the green wine, and enjoyed our last meal in Porto. I had to get up early to get to the train station. We said our good byes and retired for the night. Perfect ending to a great city. Next up was beach and sun in Lagos...
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