Day 4 - Adiós España, Olá Portugal!

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After a great breakfast in the hotel, today we say adios to Spain and head out to Portugal. Fortunately, Spain and Portugal have a passport agreement between them that allows for easy transfer between then, so when we crossed the border, we didn’t even slow down to interact with the Border Police. According to Dominic, they have the authority to stop us and check our passports, but they don’t usually, and they didn’t this time.

As you enter Portugal, there’s about a couple of kilometer stretch of various run down shops. Evidently, before the EU was formed, this was a “no man’s land” which offered tax-free goods as it was neither Spain or Portugal. Since the EU was formed, there are no tax-free zones, so the shops are just a remnant of a bygone era.

Once in Portugal, the geography changed quickly. Spain was generally flat with some rolling hills. Portugal is definitely more mountainous with deep valleys. We are heading to Porto on the Atlantic coast, the second largest city of about 250,000. It is second only to Lisbon which we will visit tomorrow. Any houses we have seen are much more modern stucco single family homes resembling suburban USA. Our first “comfort” stop is at a small hotel, the Hotel Mira-Serra. As part of our introduction to Portugal, we visited the hotel bar for a cup of Portuguese coffee and a “Pasteis de Nata” – a Portuguese custard tart. Both were delicious!

As we began approaching Porto, the beginnings of an urban environment began to appear. Single family homes gave way to apartment buildings, and highrise buildings became visible in the skyline. From a distance Porto began to take on the appearance of a beautiful modern city with white stucco buildings with terra-cotta tile roofs. As we got closer, the age of some of the older buildings became apparent, but overall the city is modern with lots of new construction either completed or under way. There were several construction cranes visible in the sky.

Before dropping us at the shorefront for lunch and our 1:20 tour, we took a brief tour of the city. Porto is on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean where the Douro River empties into the Atlantic. While there are certainly some 13^th or 14^th century buildings, most of the early buildings are 17^th or 18^th century. The architecture is notably Moorish, with ceramic tiles attached on the outside façade of the older buildings. The roads are very narrow and winding and the steep hills make tour bus drivings difficult. But there are many modern structures in the city, giving the city the charm of modern buildings with an medieval road layout. It’s very reminiscent of San Francisco and is in fact becoming the high technology hub of Portugal.

The bus dropped us at the shore so that we could check out the various street vendors and grab some lunch at one of the many seaside restaurants, of a quick bite at the marketplace. After a little t-shirt shopping, we headed over to the marketplace and found a Portuguese flatbread pizzeria. A small peperoni pizza and a couple of Diet-Pepsi were just perfect! While waiting for our pizza to cook, we ran into Steve and Jackie from the tour who joined us for lunch.

At 1:20, we met at the Sandeman Cellars Winery. Porto is famous for its Port Wine (go figure) since the late 18^th century. Port wine is made by taking regular wine and interrupting the fermentation process by adding brandy or some other alcohol to stop the fermentation. This results in a sweeter wine, with an increased alcohol content that lasts longer when bottled. It is fermented in either small or large oak barrels, and the unique flavor is usually derived from blending various harvests together. The tour was great, and included a guided tour of the facility along with a brief history of the company and its unique logo, and the process of making the wine. There was also a short film. In the end there was a wine tasting that included both a white and a red version of their port wine. Of course, this presented a dilemma for both Jody and me as we don’t drink. Fortunately, we were provided with orange juice instead, so we could at least participate. It was all a great time, but I don’t think anyone was a big fan of the port wine.

After leaving Sandeman, we were back on the coach are headed for the hotel. This hotel, Thw Infante Sagres, is really nice. It’s an older building, but completely restored with a beautiful stained glass staircase. We headed up to the room for a brief siesta, before heading out for a little exploration to work up an appetite for dinner. We wandered around the local area, visited the central square, and hit a few of the souvenir shops to find the perfect t-shirt. On the block behind our hotel, there was still a long line coming out of what turned out to be the Lello Bookstore. Evidently, this is the worlds most beautiful bookstore, with the staircase being the inspiration for J.K.Rowlings and the Harry Potter book store. I guess it’s a thing to visit the bookstore and have a picture taken on the famous staircase. Not being a Harry Potter fan, I’m not sure the attraction, but in any case the line was far too long to satisfy our curiosity.

The other interesting store we saw was a place called “American Vintage” which evidently sold what the Portuguese think is styish Amaercan Vintage clothing. What we saw in the window was sweat pants and an old t-shirt, and a few other less than stylish items. It looked like someone had visited a Goodwill Store in the USA and grabbed a bunch of donated old clothes and was now selling them as American Vintage clothing. I should check my closet for some of these gems!

The more we explored, the more we liked Porto. There were all kinds of interesting nooks and crannies on the side streets. Clubs, bars, shops, all kinds of interesting and sometimes scary places were along these streets. There were mostly young people in the streets, and you could tell this would be an interesting city.

After our exploration, we headed back to the room to rest up and get ready for dinner. Tonight was an oceanfront restaurant, overlooking the sunset on the Atlantic. The food was delicious with pork medallions over mashed potatoes. There was even delicious chocolate cake and Portuguese coffee for dessert. Tonight we were able to chat with Caren, who turned out to be a diplomat for the State Department currently working in Beirut, Lebanon. Also we finally got to meet the Indian family, who are from San Francisco, with a twin daughter and son who are on this trip as a high school graduation gift and an eighth grade daughter, who is much older than her years. It was a great evening but by the end, we were all ready to head back to the hotel and get ready for bed.

Tomorrow will begin a couple of busy days in Lisbon, the capitol, and we can hardly wait to see the next adventure!

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