Friday, September 18, 2009
Porto and Coimbra!
The past few days have been super busy, but lots of fun. We drove from Braganca across to Porto through the Douro valley, one of the biggest grape growing regions in Portugal (home to all the grapes grown for Port wine). This has to rank among the top 5 drives of my life, easily comparing to the Rockies in terms of beauty. Crazy mountains and valleys, all with terraces carved into the sides of them, for miles and miles, growing grapes and olive trees. Nutty beautiful.
We stopped in Regua, one of the main towns along the river, and visited two wineries. We did a tour at one of them, and saw them stomping the grapes by foot - we even could have done some stomping ourselves, but were behind schedule.
The drive into Porto was...an adventure. The road systems here are very different from back home, especially in towns. Roundabouts and 5 way intersections are the norm, and there´s no notion of a grid-based road network...everything just winds and twists...roads are all very narrow, and people drive at breakneck speed(150-160 on the highway is pretty normal, as the speed limit is 120). We´ve been navigating via a combination of google maps directions and a GPS, to mixed results. The GPS is fantastic for getting us through the mazes of tiny streets in town, but has led us astray a few times getting IN to town. Porto was the worst. By far. We ended up very very lost on these extremely tiny streets, with stone walls on both sides, that were "two way" streets, but barely wide enough for one car, going up and down steep hills, and crazy windy....as the sun was setting. We FINALLY made it into Porto by around 10pm, totally exhausted.
Our hotel room in Porto was very tiny, but in a great location. We managed to get out and see most of the big sights by early afternoon, including lunch right down on the river. The afternoon was spent doing Port wine tours/tastings across the river...we only actually visited 5 of the 16 or so Port Houses, but probably had an average of 5 large samples per place. Port is fortified red wine, so pulls in at 20% alcohol, so by the end of the day we´d each had probably the equivalent of 10 plus shots of booze. We stumbled home along the super hilly, cobbled streets, sobered up a bit and had a really nice dinner at a place called Cafe Majestic.
Yesterday we drove from Porto down to Coimbra, home of the oldest university in Portugal (started around 1350). They´ve got a GORGEOUS library and chapel, and strangely all their students dress in uniform, which includes a cape. Seriously.
Last night was our second night staying at a Pousada, this time we stayed in an old convent high up in the mountains, with an AMAZING view, miles and miles in every direction. Played some tennis, went for a swim, and had a fantastic dinner (I had veal and portuguese sausage, followed with a sweets/pastry buffet!)
Off to Lisbon today!
We stopped in Regua, one of the main towns along the river, and visited two wineries. We did a tour at one of them, and saw them stomping the grapes by foot - we even could have done some stomping ourselves, but were behind schedule.
The drive into Porto was...an adventure. The road systems here are very different from back home, especially in towns. Roundabouts and 5 way intersections are the norm, and there´s no notion of a grid-based road network...everything just winds and twists...roads are all very narrow, and people drive at breakneck speed(150-160 on the highway is pretty normal, as the speed limit is 120). We´ve been navigating via a combination of google maps directions and a GPS, to mixed results. The GPS is fantastic for getting us through the mazes of tiny streets in town, but has led us astray a few times getting IN to town. Porto was the worst. By far. We ended up very very lost on these extremely tiny streets, with stone walls on both sides, that were "two way" streets, but barely wide enough for one car, going up and down steep hills, and crazy windy....as the sun was setting. We FINALLY made it into Porto by around 10pm, totally exhausted.
Our hotel room in Porto was very tiny, but in a great location. We managed to get out and see most of the big sights by early afternoon, including lunch right down on the river. The afternoon was spent doing Port wine tours/tastings across the river...we only actually visited 5 of the 16 or so Port Houses, but probably had an average of 5 large samples per place. Port is fortified red wine, so pulls in at 20% alcohol, so by the end of the day we´d each had probably the equivalent of 10 plus shots of booze. We stumbled home along the super hilly, cobbled streets, sobered up a bit and had a really nice dinner at a place called Cafe Majestic.
Yesterday we drove from Porto down to Coimbra, home of the oldest university in Portugal (started around 1350). They´ve got a GORGEOUS library and chapel, and strangely all their students dress in uniform, which includes a cape. Seriously.
Last night was our second night staying at a Pousada, this time we stayed in an old convent high up in the mountains, with an AMAZING view, miles and miles in every direction. Played some tennis, went for a swim, and had a fantastic dinner (I had veal and portuguese sausage, followed with a sweets/pastry buffet!)
Off to Lisbon today!
Labels: Honeymoon
# posted by Greg @ 2:14 AM 
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Have fun in Lisbon! If you decide to go off the beaten track... I'm sure Caroline already told you to go, but definitely try and check out the 'Chinese Pavillion'! And if you end up in the mall near where all the world's fair was, go into the bathrooms... the counter tops were VERY cool!
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