Porto - Steep Hills, Port, and more Port....

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After a great day in Sintra, we hopped on a train and headed north up to Porto.... Porto is Portugal's second largest city, and in my opinion, the most beautiful... It is situated on the Douro river and known for it's picturesque bridges, Baroque churches and old school Port houses.

Our first intro to Porto was unfortunately a bit dicey lol! It had been raining when we arrived by train, it was damp, grey and misty... We used trusty Google maps to find our way from the train station to our apartment that had some rave reviews on both trip advisor and Expedia.... apparently it was only 500m from the station... yay right?? Google maps sent us up this street - aka steep cliff-like-hill who's name LITERALLY translates into 'Body Guard" in Portuguese.... We started our trek dragging our suitcases up the rough cobblestone, barley moving because we probably should have had climbing gear... Not sure if it was because we were tired, the weather looked like an old-school horror film and just the general melancholy feeling of climbing up a steep hill named body guard sent shivers up our spine, but we didn't really feel like we were in a great place lol! We finally made it up the hill and we found ourself right outside the main Cathedral and in front of our apartment. Pedro welcomed us in a fed us Port - life was good from here on in!!! 😊 Turns out - we should have gone another way around he cathedral to avoid Body Guard alley... but now we know!! Our apartment is wonderful, well equipped with a wicked view of the city... Pedro also hooked us up with some Fado for the evening... IT WAS AMAZING. If you are ever in Porto - Check out Casa Da Mariquinas... We had dinner with live Fado... It was small, intimate, food was great and the music soulful. If you are ever in Portugal - Fado is definitely something you must go see... Just one problem... We weren't told in advance that they did not take credit card... Maxine and I were a bit panicked trying to ensure we had enough Euros to pay for dinner, knowing that there is a minimum 37 Euro/per person... plus we needed tip money.. AND we had to pay for breakfast with cash early in the am... We managed to scrounge enough for dinner, but that basically left us nothing for the next day.. so it was now after midnight and we had to do a cash run... So... remember i said our apartment (and the Fado house BTW) was at the top of the hill near the Cathedral.. meaning that everything else is down... including every ATM in the city... Also, its still grey, drizzly, foggy and now that it's dark, it feels like a scene out of an Alfred Hitchcock Movie! We had had our share of wine (and port of course) so we decided to do a bank run and 12:30am... We found the closes one - which is down what we now have dubbed "sketch alley', not to be confused with Body Guard Alley... oh no.. there is another... I think we both made it there and back in record time down and up the steep hill through the narrow alleyways... Not that there was anything to be afraid of.. it was, as we would discover, all in our heads lol. Still a memorable part of our adventure lol.

The next day we wake up to fog as thick as "pea soup"... We were a bit worried as we did have a port taking tour booked for 10:30... We had breakfast delivered and we were out the door by 9:30... It was wet, grey and drizzly.. but we still decided to walk over to vila Nova de Gaia, where all the Port houses are located. Our walk over the bridges was spectacular, despite the inclement weather. The metal bridge over the Douro is architecturally interesting and the views of Porto spectacular - can't wait to see them when the fog clears lol! Our first tasting was at Ferreria - established in the mid 1700's. they are one of the oldest Port houses in the world. An interesting fact... The Douro region was actually the oldest demarcated wine region in the world - dating back to 1756... Port, made from a variety of grapes grown in the Douro region, and of course highly regulated, is one of the main products from the Douro region. We learned a lot about port production... It is a fortified wine... meaning the fermentation process is stopped early by fortifying the wine with an uncoloured unflavoured grape spirit, such as a brandy, this gives port a higher alcohol content - usually around 19-21%, and allows for the natural sugars to sweeten. Ruby ports are typically aged In stainless steel vats, or large oak casks that allow very minimal oxidation and exposure to the oak. Tawny ports on the other hand, are all aged in small oak barrels. This is why Tawnys typically have more complex flavours and are aged for longer. Vintage ports are typically Ruby ports from a single vintage... Also a small trick to distinguish a Ruby from a Tawny... If you look at a Ruby from the top, you can't see the bottom of the glass. Color is a rich red... Tawnys on the other hand, have a brown hue, and are more translucent, and you can see the bottom of the glass... Who knew??? now I do 😊 After Ferreria, we hit up Offley's and Crofts before making our way back across the river... It was a long day of hiking up hills, I think we had logged 20,000 steps each by 3pm.. Did I mention all the hills?? We were exhausted.. so we chilled back at the hotel for a bit, drank some of the port we bought, before heading out for a low-key dinner by the river... perfect end to the day 😊

The next day, we again woke up to fog, but this time it cleared up and we had a beautiful day ahead of us! Our final day in Porto we decided to see the rest of the city... Porto, is gritty, worn, eclectic, artsy, and beautiful... streets are narrow and chaotic, narrow cobblestone streets wind high up into the hills, cafes, restaurants, bars, and pastry shops pop up out of nowhere at different times of the day, neighbourhoods are never the same throughout the day... In Porto, half the fun is just getting lost and soaking up the architecture and culture (while eating and drinking Port of course 😉 We chose a different part of the city for dinner and were again not disappointed... Portugal has turned out to be a culinary gem 😊

I loved Porto, and there is so much more I could write about it... but I think for the most part you just have to experience it for yourself... But certainly this is the highlight of my trip so far. Tomorrow we head to Madrid... Obrigada Portugal!!!

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Artsy
I like this one

[cyclingdiva]

Thanks :)