Portugal

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19, 20 & 21 March 2017

Arrived in Porto at around 4pm. There is a time difference of an hour between here and Spain, so we were able to get out and wander. What an amazing city. It is a Sunday afternoon and it seems everyone is out enjoying the beautiful weather and the markets on the banks of the Duoro river.

The area of Porto is known mainly for being the original Port Wine developers. We went into a “cave” (we might call it a wine store) and there I discovered that Port wine comes in white, ruby and tawny. It all tasted pretty good to me. There are many Port Wine caves and we are told some are better than others. In Porto the people really enjoy cod I am told, so that evening I tried some cod fish that was caught in Norway, made into Stockfish, rehydrated in Porto, and cooked beautifully. Very good taste!

Another thing about Porto is that JK Rowling taught at the University there. We were told that a library close to where she taught was her inspiration for the interior of Hogwarts. We pad 4 Euro each to get inside and we could see how she might have used the staircase and other things to base Hogwarts on. We wandered around Porto looking at the various old buildings and so on. We spent some time in the Post Office trying to purchase a toll card for Portugal. We had driven through an automatic “tag” toll gate instead of the ticket one. Just trying to head off penalty fees when the car rego is found to be attached to us – and end up paying 5 times the cost of the toll fee for purely being unfamiliar with the system. Not sure if it will work but we are hoping it might pay off for us.

We took a 6 bridge cruise one afternoon. There are 6 bridges that cross the Duoro river. One of them was designed by the same fellow who did the Eiffel Tower – Gustav Eiffel. Interestingly the most famous bridge – an iron bridge called Pont Luis I (Louis 1 bridge) was designed by a Belgian engineer and constructed by Gustav Eiffels company! The Pont Luis I has two platforms making up the bridge. The upper platform carries both pedestrians and the metro and the lower one has cars and pedestrians. There is also a cable car here. We did not use it though.

A dish called Francesinha tempted me. This term is translated to “little frenchie” – seriously! Every café will prepare it for you and some will cost 3 Euro and others 10 Euro for the same thing. I think it must be mainly for tourists as I can’t imagine anyone eating this very often. It is basically 2 pieces of white bread – with a piece steak or roast beef, a piece of chorizo, and a piece of ham or cured meat in between the slices. Then they put cheese over it and cover it will a beer and tomato sauce and heat it until the cheese melts. Sometimes a fried egg is added on top. I only managed half of it – it was very rich!

We also got a chance to eat the Portuguese egg tarts (very yummy), codfish cakes (delicious)and tasted green wine (I would not recommend it!). Overall Porto is fantastic. I like mostly that everything to look at is basically in the city area and you can walk everywhere.

21 March 2017

We decided to spend the morning in Porto and travel to Lisbon after lunch – it took us about 3 hrs. Lisbon is a very large city but we had little time to really see it. Maybe next time!

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Photos

Pont Luis I
This bridge is made of iron

View to an old Fortress
We stayed in a unit just below this structure. The cable car entry was just a few steps away - vertically!

A bridge with 2 platforms
The upper platform carries the metro and people, the lower one carries cars and people

Our accommodation
We stayed in the first white building to the left of the cable car entrance

Sao Bento Railway Station
Murals tell the story of Porto