Blogs from Porto, Northern, Portugal, Europe - page 12

Well, it's been a while scinceI last updates this lovely blog. The reason being an insanely busy week!! My week was filled with my new Spanish classes---which at first had me screaming but now are my new challenge! The kids (of course), gym time, coffee with the other au pairs and lots of Skype calls from my best friends at home. That--the calls--are amazing, to know they're taking their time and spending it on the phone to me...it's amazing and makes me feel so loved. Feeling a bit exhausted and a little short tempered, I left the kids on Friday morning for a little trip to...(drum roll please) PORTO, PORTUGAL!!!!!! Jen and I caught the 11:30 bus from Vigo to Porto on Friday morning. Once there we ate a delicious lunch. And then Went on a ... read more

What a great day so far, Porto is quickly becoming my fav city I've seen in this country! It's still a big city, but had a great 'old town' a neat UNECSO residential area and some truly magnificent buildings. Starting off the day with a 09:00 start helped my mood I'm sure, despite the fact I woke up around 06:30! Had a lazy lie in, got one blog done, then breakfast and away we went with our local guide Fatima. We went to the former stock exchange building, nothing I would have gone to on my own and I would have so missed out. No photos allowed inside, but what a truly spectacular building. Each room had a different in laid wood flooring pattern, different materials for the roof and walls, and stunning. I am not ... read more

Oporto translates to "the port" in English, which is fitting for a city that lives and dies by the water, where everything and everyone comes and goes by the Douro River. This valley is regarded as the capital of port wine, a deep, pungent, yet sweet wine suitable for a heavy meal; port wine originated in this country when the British were at war with France in the 17th century and couldn't gain access to the full-bodied French wine. The Brits managed by brewing their own version, which combined brandy and Portuguese wine, giving birth to what is now considered by many as the most complex and richest wine in the world. With that brief history, it's fair to say that one cannot leave Porto without having tasted or bringing back some of this vino. To ... read more

Now that we are overwintering in Lagos, Portugal we have decided to take advantage of the time and do some overland traveling. We choose to use public transportation for our travels to both Oporto (more commonly referred to as Porto) and to Lisboa (Lisbon). Conveniently the bus station is very close to the marina in Lagos and took us to Porto with only a half-hour layover in Lisbon on the way north. This was a great way to see some of the interior of the country as we traveled past fields of corn, rice, orchards of olive trees, cork trees and vineyards. We past open pit gravel mines, a large number of modern wind turbines and rolling hills covered with trees and scrub. Pigs, sheep and goats were grazing among the many orchards and many hills ... read more

Porto is a busy industrial and commercial center. The city itself isn't very populous (about 240,000 inhabitants), but the Porto metropolitan area (Greater Porto) has some 1,500,000 inhabitants in a 50 km radius, with cities like Gaia, Matosinhos, Maia, Gondomar, and Espinho. The city was built along the hills overlooking the Douro river estuary, and its historical center was awarded World Heritage status by UNESCO in 1996. It has been continuously inhabited since at least the 4th Century, when the Romans referred to it as Portus Calle Porto has a semi-Mediterranean climate, although it's strongly affected by the Atlantic ocean, which makes it cooler than other cities with this climate. However, temperatures can rise as high as 40ºC in August during occasional heat waves. Winters are mild and humid, with occasional cold nights where temperatures can ... read more