Porto & Lisbon

---

Portugal.

Oporto
As the name suggests, Porto has a lot to do with Port. In fact this is where the first Port was created and the wineries line the Douro River that runs through the city. The second biggest city after Lisbon Porto is mountain goat territory and dates back to the 5th century. There are extremely steep hills and valleys throughout the city and you think twice about heading out to the shops and double check once down there that you’ve not forgotten anything as the steep climb back up to the hostel is devastating on the legs.

There is a lot to see and do around Porto so we decided to take it easy and just wonder around and do stuff as we come across it. Unfortunately we are sort of “monumented and museumed out” at the moment so soaking up the city atmosphere is the main agenda for here, that and drinking some port of course.

We climbed up 225 steps of the Torre dos Clerigos (a big tower off a church) that has great views over the city and it is from here you realise just how steep the hills are. Built mid 1700’s it has a mix of Baroque and Romanesque stonework. It is from the view here that our chilled out lazy approach is amended slightly and we pick out what we want to look at closer then it was off back down the steps and into the heat.

During the journey so far we have had a mix of weather, warm and humid in India, mild to moderate through Egypt, Jordan, Greece and Spain to downright freezing through Syria and Turkey. Portugal decided to turn on the heat for us and we’ve traded the jumper for tank tops and struggled through the day thinking it was only 25 or so to find out it was 35. No wonder we felt so hot!

Back to what I was talking about, yes, sightseeing. After the tower we cruised downhill to the main square for sticky beak and went past one of the flashiest McDonalds ever - check out facebook photos - and then onto The Cathedral. As it was shut we sat in the shade for a while and took in the majestic view of the city and some more pictures from here and then trundled across one of the 5 bridges of Porto to go up to the Convent.

The Convent isn’t open to visitors however there is a nice viewing area looking back over the river to the city and down the ocean. There was plenty of shade and a nice cool breeze so we sat and re-charged before finding some lunch and then spend the afternoon of climbing steep hills for port tasting.

Jay being the more educated of us in the appreciation of alcohol in general had made the decision on visiting Croft and Taylors. At the winery they offer you free samples of their Ruby Ports and you can purchase a tasting of an older port after that. Jay treated himself to a nice old port (can't remember how old it was 20 years?) glass at Crofts and then we went to compare with what Taylors had to offer.

Taylors ports rule! We were given samples again of their ruby port and this was really nice. Not as sharp as the Croft one and quite easy to drink. Jay purchased a beautiful 20 year old sample of port and yummy, can’t really describe how nice it was but if you want a nice port would recommend Taylors. We also joined in on a tour (in French) of the winery just to have a look at the process of the maturing of the port was quite interesting.

Last day in Porto and we didn’t have a lot on the agenda, go to the port museum and maybe to a big park at the top of the hill above it, sounds easy doesn’t it. Well after we trudged around with a very poor map and turning around slightly defeated just before we made it to the museum we tracked back for another go after a rest out of the sun. Found it but alas it was not open. I can only assume that opening hours are just a rough guide and not to be taken as fact. The guy opened the door told us to come back and when we did he was closed again. So it was stuff it lets go to the park.

The park is straight up but the view was worth it. With about an hour or so taking in the gardens and ambience of the park it was time to head back to the hostel. This time when returning and going past the museum it was open so we ducked in for a look around and back to the hostel and pack for the trip to Lisbon.

Lisbon

Our hostel here is rated 2nd best in Europe at the moment and wow. Very nice, modern spacious and it has totally ruined our expectations on hostelling from this point forward. We’ve eaten at the hostel every night for dinner, a 3 course meal with red wine, bread and salad for 8 euro’s...can’t beat that for value!

You could easily spent a good 8 days here if you were to do all the sights and attractions but as mentioned before we are having a break from that and being a bit choosy with what we are seeing. Arriving on a Sunday afternoon our first day out and about was Monday and everything is pretty well shut anyway. We went out t Belem (bel-eye) and sampled some of the “world's best custard tarts” and looked around before heading back to Lisbon central and going to the Oceanarium because it was something different to do.

The oceanarium was pretty cool. It’s got a massive sun fish in the main aquarium and I’ve not seen one of these before and I couldn’t stop looking at it. Not only was it an ugly looking fish but it was so big and white. Anyway took lots of photos and spent about 2 hours wondering through the different displays.

Tuesday was a chance to head 40 minutes out of town to a place called Sintra. There is a lot to do here but we just went thru the main palace as we couldn’t be bothered walking up the hill to the castle above so instead we enjoyed the atmosphere and had a coffee and headed back to Lisbon

Our final day in Lisbon had us motivated early and back out to Belem to go through the Monastery there, Mosterio Dos Jeronimos. Built around 1496 it has amazing stone carvings and it is huge. There is a lot of old artwork here and ceramics as well. There was also an interesting room that had a history of the World/Belem and Portugal time dated alongside each other up to 2006. Information overload but I did my best to take it all in.

The final destination for Lisbon was to go the Castelo de sao Jorge that overlooks the old Lisbon district. Castelo de sao Jorge was once a fortress that was conquered from the Moors early in the 1100th century and then added onto to make the castle more secure. As you walk thru the maze of arches and courtyards and then up to the top of the walls to look around the city you appreciate the layout of the castle/fortress and how hard it would have been to attack. Whilst we were going through main part of the fortress in the courtyard a guitarist was playing traditional Spanish music.

---