Advertisement
Published: November 15th 2017
Edit Blog Post
November 9, Porto, Portugal
Today was our long drive day. Barry and I look a taxi to the Hertz rental location, and drove back to pick up the girls and say goodbye to our wonderful host, Jose. Lucky for us it was a city holiday in Madrid and traffic was minimal unlike the hustle and bustle that it usually is. We left the city about 9:30 and were immediately impressed by Portugal's...like Spain's....fantastic highway system, mostly toll roads. At 120km/hr, it doesn't take too long. I set the cruise for 130 but still got passed a lot....by Mercedes, BMWs and the like. We stopped for coffee and pastry...a recurring theme...in the quaint walled town of Ciudad Rodrigo, near the Portugal border then it was off on the last stretch, to our accommodation called Belomonte Guesthouse, right in the middle of hilly, old town Porto. We arrived about 4pm. After unloading the luggage, Barry and I parked the car at a nearby underground parking lot and shutterbug Dawn, as you would expect, snapped our picture from the balcony as we walked back. Happy hour ensued, and then at 7pm, when restaurants open for dinner, we ate at a wonderful Portuguese/Argentinian restaurant that
Dawn had researched right on our street. It was a beautiful evening for a stroll down the hill to see the lights of the buildings, restaurants and shops on the small boat-lined port...a Unesco World Heritage area like so many stops on this trip...and we returned, as always, for wine and scotch nightcaps.
November 10, Porto Portugal
Anna, our personable host, provided us with a delicious and filling breakfast. Then off on a day's exploration we went. Porto has lots of hills and uneven cobbled streets.... not for the faint (or weak) of heart. We were heading for Taylor's port winery on the other side of the river where the rich Douro valley produces many port wines. We crossed on the high Dom Luis 1 bridge and got a full view of the picturesque river and city below. The winery offered a self-guided tour and wine tasting in a beautiful garden where we sat in the sunshine beside a couple of peacocks. A sleeping rooster lay on his side under a shrub...tired, perhaps, from being the symbol of Portugul. From there we walked down the steep hill to the riverside shops before hopping the gondola cable car back up
to the bridge and our side of the Douro River. Walking through the narrow winding streets with a map in hand, we stopped at the Majestic Cafe, a famous 19th century belle epoque coffee house, on a busy pedestrian street and further on, in contrast, at a large covered market. Thankfully the tripe and smelly salt cod were gone. Eventually we wound our way back to the Belomonte, rested our tired feet and legs, while enjoying drinks. We ended our day with supper at an outdoor cafe, just around the corner, where a saxaphone player in the middle of the square provided us with the perfect dinner music in the night air.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.074s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 9; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0378s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb