Portugal: Highlights Part II

June 2017

Amarante
From its description, I expected to fall in love with this town. I didn't, but it was very pretty. The São Gonçalo bridge spans the river to the town, and is one of the famous views of this area. The bridge held off the marauding French in 1809, and the locals are rather smug about it. (I mean, who wouldn't be!)

Crossing the bridge, we stopped off at Confeitaria da Ponte, a bakery overlooking the river, and tried three desserts. Again, they were just too eggy for my liking, but the views were great!

Having had a long day, we managed to find the best campsite ever, in the vines with only one or two other people staying there, and had an excellent evening cooking by our tents.

Lamego 

Lamego had an impressive baroque staircase leading up to a church, something we were beginning to realize was rather common in Portugal. We attempted to visit the castle and the cistern, but both were unfortunately closed. 

Duoro Region

This was one of my favourite areas in Portugal (two guesses why!) and home to Port. We had decided therefore that we would be remiss to not do a Port tasting, and picked Quinta da Roeda. It was smaller than many of the other vineyards, and we were able to choose ourselves what to taste rather than a set menu. 

We chose a rosé, a late harvest bottled vintage, and a ten year tawny, and it was only 12 euro each which I thought was very reasonable. We were lucky enough that a tour bus had just left when we arrived, so we had the place almost to ourselves, and were able to sit very privately around a wine barrel with beautiful views!

The whole area was extremely scenic, and actually reminded me somewhat of the Rhine Valley in Germany. It's definitely worth having a car to explore the area, and I wish we had done more port tastings to compare other brands. Next time!!

Casa de Mateus

One of the things we had developed a taste for in Portugal was a cheap rosé wine called Mateus. We discovered that the Palace of Mateus was open to the public, and thus decided to check it out! Sadly no wine tastings seemed to be on offer, and one could only see the palace by guided tour, so we paid to wander the lavish gardens instead. It's expensive, but worth it!

Trancoso

This walled city was amazing to walk around at night, lit up and atmospheric. Of course, night shots are much more difficult to take than day ones, so we did return for photos the next morning. Its medieval past was clear from the fortified walls and old buildings, and in fact Trancoso was once of great strategic importance to the country. A small word of warning though, for fear of sounding like Professor Trelawney, Beware the Grim! (By which I mean, massive stray black dogs crouched over rubbish bins scaring the crap out of unsuspecting tourists at night). But never mind that, look, pretty flowers!

Monsanto 

This unique village is built into boulders in the mountains, and it's amazing to wander around! Apparently in 1938, it was named the most Portuguese town in Portugal, whatever that may mean. It's a bit of a clamber, but it's worth going to the top where a Templar castle sits, though unfortunately was partially destroyed in the 19th century when the munitions storeroom exploded (why do they always keep explosives in beautiful old buildings!??)

After an amusing stop at a campsite where everyone but us wanted to know where the Bean festival was (it turned out they were looking for the Boom festival, a Rastafarian music festival, not a farmers paradise as I had imagined), we headed for more history.

Idanha-a Velha

This village was awesome, as it had layers of different ruins, and was very scenic. There were no other tourists there, and we had a local man run up to us and ask if we liked cheese! On saying but of course, we were then convinced to buy a sheep cheese which keeps for two weeks at room temperature! It was stinky, but delicious (though it got ever stinkier as time went by). After a good wander along the walls (My brother's favourite pastime) we headed off for the next town on our list.

Castelo de Vide

This lovely town of white-washed walls and red roofs is brilliant for a relaxed day of exploring, slowly making your way up the hill to the castle that dominates the view. The area was settled by the Romans, destroyed by the Vandals, and then conquered by the Moors, before becoming Portuguese in medieval times, with its name changing from Vide, to Castelo de Vide with the construction of the castle in the 1300s. 

All the walking made us hungry, so we made a little stop at Toca do Chocolate, an excellent shop within the town, where we sampled chocolate cake, chocolate mousse, white hot chocolate, and caramel milk hot chocolate... so it was more than a little stop. But it was a great one!

Vila Vicosa

Quite unlike humble Castelo de Vide, this was a town of important buildings, impressive squares, and of course, statues of men on horses. It reminded me a little of Vienna, at least in the central square. Very grand, worth a wander, and full of fancy marble. 

Monoliths on the Outskirts of Evora

Taking a small break from towns, we went in hunt of something far older. The Almendres megalithic settlement (known as Cromlech) is one of the oldest in the world, which is pretty crazy when you're just wandering around it as you like (a far removal from Stonehenge, which you can't really get close to at all). About 100 menhirs stand, and were in use for a very long period of time, from about the 6th century BC. It was very hard to see, but there were also carvings on some of the stones, with lines and circles. Weathering has of course, faded many of these beyond what the human eye is capable of seeing. 

Portugal: Highlights

June 2017

Before leaving Porto, we first sampled the famous Pastel de nata. It's a very eggy mini custard tart, and sort of reminds me of overdone french toast, somehow in a good way. There's a popularity of eggy custard in many desserts in Portugal which I thought was interesting (though often not to my liking). Supposedly, in medieval times nuns used egg whites to starch their habits, and then had to find a use for all those unused egg yolks; hello many eggy desserts. (In reality, they probably just had too much time on their hands, and many eggs. If bored, bake?) 

Eggs were also used as a currency by the poor, which may also explain their egg-treme popularity. (Or maybe the Portuguese just really really like eggs?) 

Penha

Our first location out of Porto, the views are amazing and the landscape dramatic, with forests and huge boulders covered in moss and ferns, not unlike something from Middle Earth. It's a scenic drive, and worth going to the top to see the church. It was so great I forgot to take photos, so you will just have to go there yourself! 

Bom Jesus do Monte

Another worthy stop, I found this name hilarious, and the views spectacular. It was free which is another bonus, and surprisingly quiet. Maybe other tourists don't like bom jesus, but we thought it was the bomb. Heh.

Guimaraes

This was one of my absolute favourite places in all of Portugal, a medieval town with beautiful architecture, and a festival going on when we arrived! This was the capital of Portugal in the 12th century, and it is commonly said that this is where Portugal was 'born'.

 

The festival 'Fiera Alfonsina', is a four day event occurring in June, and probably helped me fall in love with the town, considering the atmosphere it gave it. Everyone is dressed in medieval garb, there's stalls selling food, sword fights, music...the town is transformed. My favourite thing was that it wasn't just people walking around, they were acting out little scenes, like women washing their clothes, prostitutes talking to soldiers, and beggars getting shooed away! 

We picked up a local specialty as we left called Toucinho do céu, an almond cake with variations across Portugal, but famous from this town in particular. Amusingly, it translates to Bacon from Heaven, a reference to when it used to be made with a dash of pork fat (nowadays its made with a ridiculous number of eggs instead. No really, sometimes up to 20! I told you they were egg-static for eggs).  

 

Citania de Briteiros

This archaeological site holds the remains of an Iron Age hill fort, with charming round houses. The site is a lot bigger than I expected, and you could spend ages wandering around if you were so inclined. Interestingly, its history of excavation is also long, dating back to 1874, with on-going digs until 2006. 

Peneda Geres National Park

We decided to head south, to take a break from towns, and make for the beautiful nature instead. Armed with camping supplies from trusty Decathlon, we drove into the huge national park, which is also Portugal's only national park!

We found a ruined castle and climbed to the top. I became momentarily lost on the way back, and realized how terrible my sense of direction was, and my non-existent survival skills. Luckily we then found the car and all was well.

The regional park was amazingly scenic, full of wild goats and horses, and definitely requiring walking shoes and picnics. However we soon discovered supermarkets are very far and few between, so best to bring supplies with you if possible! We ended up having to eat melon filled with port for lunch, because we didn't have anything else to eat. What a shame. *Hic*

Santuário da Senhora da Peneda

This mouthful of a name was an impressively large religious complex, full of interesting architecture and much too enormous for the tiny town around it. (And by around I mean off on one side, because it really was that small). One TripAdvisor review simply said 'very fancy stairway architecture', which, well, I can't really argue with. 

Lindoso 

A peculiarity of this area were stone granaries, that at first I thought were creepy tombs, because of the crosses. They, and a castle were the highlight of this little town. Known as Espigueiros, these granaries were mainly used in the 18th and 19th centuries to store corn. They were built off the ground to keep the food safe from rats, and some are still in use today.

Portugal: Porto

June 2017

Portugal was a country I had never really considered going to, until my brother said hey why not Portugal?
Well, why not?
I didn't know very much about the country, except that tourists often think they speak Spanish, which is probably very offensive, considering they have their own language, complex history, and are in fact considered one of the oldest states in the entirety of Europe, having been constantly settled (without shifting borders) since prehistory.
We decided to rent a car, to see as much of this varied country as we could, considering it's known for everything from city life, to beaches, to mountains. The landscape is varied depending on which of the seven main regions you are in, and although we unfortunately didn't end up having enough time to see much of the coast, we covered a lot of other beautiful areas!

Porto
We landed in Porto, home to the famous alcoholic beverage port, and a historic city in its own right. The architecture is very particular, with brightly colored houses and terracotta roofs. The Duoro river intersects the town, and is forded by dramatic bridges. Strangely enough, I didn't love Porto, even though I really wanted to. It would be the rest of Portugal that I would really fall in love with. In saying that, there were a number of things in this city that I really did enjoy!















Porto is Portugal's second largest city (Lisbon being the largest, which would be our last stop on our trip), and has a long history with records dating back to Roman times (and likely older).

One of the first places we checked out was Capela das Almas, cheerfully called the Chapel of Souls; this church is adorned with the lives of saints on blue and white tiles, a style dating to the 18th century, but in this case created in a 20th century refurbishment. It reminded me of delftware, a bright blue and white pottery from Delft in the Netherlands, and was a pleasant change from the dark stone churches one usually sees. This artistic style is dotted around the city, and super worth checking out in other locations, especially the train station!

Our next stop had my inner fan girl squealing, Livraria Lello was the bookshop that inspired J.K. Rowling's description of Flourish and Blotts, the magical bookstore from Harry Potter. You bet I got a selfie. Fair warning though, its ridiculously busy, so don't expect the usual place of tranquility and rest that bookstores offer. There is also a small fee to enter (5 euro).

We also popped into the museum of Photography, housed in an old prison, and completely free! Just watch out for the women's toilets, which have very rusty locks on the stalls, leading to me slicing open my hand and bleeding everywhere. The poor security guard then kindly disinfected and wrapped my hand up, panicking somewhat as he repeatedly told me "I don't know what I'm doing!" He seemed to do a good job though. Aside from the incident, the prison has some lovely exhibitions.

A trip to Porto wouldn't be complete without sampling its culinary delights of course, both food and drink! We stopped at a lovely little Deli called Mercearia das Flores, which also served tapas. I then proceeded to eat the best (and, alright, my first portion of) fried sheep cheese in olive oil, honey and thyme ever.  I will be back for you one day, glorious cheese.

Porto being the birthplace of Port, we were of course obligated to take a tour of one of the city's many Port Houses. We chose Calem, as it seemed to be reasonably priced (12 euro each), and had good reviews. I would highly recommend it, as it included not only an awesome tour of the factory and the process port goes through to be made, but also a tasting of a white Port, and a tawny. Both were delicious, though the tawny was my favourite! We bought a bottle of Ruby at the store however, as it was the third type we didn't get to try in the tasting.

 Before Porto, I didn't even know that there were different types of Port, so to learn about these, and also the history was very interesting. Funnily enough, its in part due to the English that Port came about at all. The Portuguese wine did not survive the sea journey to England well, therefore to combat this, the wine was fortified (initially by sailors adding brandy to try and make it taste better) and thus aged better, surviving the journey and becoming popular in its own right.