Portugal

We flew from Paris to Porto, Portugal. Several people have asked me why I wanted to go to Portugal, and all I can say, is that I felt drawn there and thought if I didn't go now, I would probably never go. And I can say that it was certainly one of the highlights of the trip.

Porto was warm and sunny and gorgeous. It is very hilly and filled with windy cobblestone streets crowded by old buildings with laundry suspended on the lines above. Despite the feeling of age in the city, they had an extremely modern metro line that ran from the airport right into the city. Reynald had booked a hotel for us, and because Portugal is so much cheaper than France or Britain, we splurged and stayed in a 5 star hotel. The rooms were lovely, but there was quite a bit of construction around, so it was not as tranquil as it might have been. But the breakfast was one of the most beautiful I've ever seen, with fresh fruit, croissants, meats, cheeses, eggs, bacon, yoghurt, and wonderful coffee, tea and juices. It was completely luxurious, especially after staying in hostels where you were lucky to get toast.

We realized quickly that not understanding any Portuguese at all, would be a bit of a problem. Luckily English is relatively common in the tourist areas and we managed to get a good map and some recommendations. I wanted to see the local market, which was full of stalls selling vegetables, flowers and meats. The Portuguese diet is also very meat heavy, but emphasizes fish and seafood far more than France. After that we walked down to the river Douro, which was sunny and beautiful. It was so warm (mid 20's Celcius), that we regretted not bringing more lighter clothes. On the other side of the river were all the Port cellars that we decided to tour in the afternoon.

But before we did that, we decided to have lunch. Eating, when you don't know the language, can be a very daunting task. We finally found a small cafe to have lunch that had English translations on the menu but Reynald decided to be brave and ordered a mysterious daily special that was only listed in Portuguese. We were a bit shocked when it arrived, and turned out to be two whole small fish, deep fried, and presented on a plate. Reynald, ever the brave eater, dove in, and found the fish very tender and tasty (we never did find out what they were), as long as you didn't look them in the eye, or stare at their mouth full of teeth. Alcohol in Portugal is also very inexpensive, and a regional specialty is Vinho Verdes, a light sparkling white wine, which is really refreshing.

After lunch, we crossed the river to go tour some of the Port cellars. There are about a dozen cellars that offer tours that describe the process of making Port, and offer samples at the end. It was getting late in the afternoon, but we managed to buy tickets for one tour that didn't start for 45 minutes, and decided to go to another one while we waited. The first tour we did was of one of the smaller independent cellars. They gave an interesting tour describing how Port was made of grapes specific to the Douro region, and was different than wine because Brandy was added only 3 days after the fermentation process starts, which stops the fermentation and makes it sweeter with a higher alcohol content. After the tour, we were given a generous amount of samples, before we headed off to our next tour. The second tour was of the Sandeman Port Cellars, which is a well known brand and one that is even sold in Canada. Their tour was very polished and even included a short film describing the port making process with some wonderful footage of the Douro region which is famous for its man-made terraces used for growing grapes.

We stayed only two nights in Porto, before taking the train to Lisbon. Again we were impressed with their modern and quick metro system.

Lisbon

There were several times on this trip, when I questioned the value of taking a backpack instead of a nice little rolling suitcase...but then I came to Lisbon and it all became clear. Lisbon is one of the hilliest cities I have ever seen, even more so than Porto. Our hotel was pretty much at the top of the hill, and required walking up several flights of stairs and hills. It was a tough trip, but very rewarding when you got to the top. Our hotel had an absolutely incredible view of the red roof-studded city. We got there late afternoon, and went in search of food only to find that the custom was to eat dinner late, around 8 or 9pm. We walked around and saw a bit of the city before we finally found a restaurant that was open.

One of the customs of restaurants in Portugal is to serve plates of appetizers to you when you sit down, but everything costs extra (though you are only supposed to be charged if you actually eat it). We had learned this in Porto, and were careful during our first meal in Lisbon not to eat from the plates of ham, cheese, and shrimp that they set down, and eventually took away. We had a good dinner of fish, but were frustrated when the bill came and they had charged us for all the appetizers that we had been so careful not to eat. Luckily one of the waiters spoke English and eventually corrected the bill.

The next day, we decided to buy all day transit tickets and spent much of the day riding up and down Lisbon's hilly streets in their wonderful little street cars. Much like San Francisco, these little trams ran on tracks all through the city. We had a wonderful tour around the city for a fraction of the price of the tourist buses.

One last thing about Portugal, they had amazing pastries. There were little cafes everywhere, and each of them had long bars filled with a huge assortment of pastries. Everyone that we tried was excellent, and they were so cheap. After a day or so, we realized that you were supposed to eat at the bar standing up, as they charged more to eat at the tables. We made sure we brought some to go when we left for Madrid.