Porto, Portugal means more than Port!

I got introduced to Port when I was living in Colorado about 12 years ago. So, to be living in Europe and having a chance to go to Porto, the origin of port was an excellent opPORTunity. However, there was more to Porto than the Port.

We were meeting Rachel, a friend from our Africa trip in 2010. Since we arrived on Thursday night, we had some time to walk around in the morning, find a place for breakfast and get an idea on how to get around. We ate at the Traveller Caffe for breakfast and gave it a two thumbs up and ate breakfast there every morning.

Francesniha with chips.

We were told we had to try the traditional francesinha, so found a place to have one. It wasn't hard to figure out what the sandwich was made of with a photo on the wall.

Let's build a sandwich!

     

After this huge feed, we thought about going walking around, but the rain started to come down hard. We decided it was a good day to be inside trying some port. So over the bridge we went (the number one attraction to see in Porto, according to Tripadvisor). This bridge was built by a student of Gustave Eiffel in 1886. Quite an amazing looking bridge, especially for its time.

Ponte Dom Luis I Bridge

On to the port tasting where we learned a lot about port wines. They are sweet, stopped half way through the fermentation by adding a spirit, and the grapes come from Douro (about an hour drive away from Porto). Similar to wine tasting you start with the whites and move to a newer style called the pink (like a rose wine), then on to ruby and tawny. There are others like vintage (coming from grapes of a certain year), reserve (a premium ruby port, not of single vintage), and LBV (late bottled vintage) that are also thrown into the mix. I didn't know there were so many types, but well worth tasting to find out your favorite.

Rachel and Penny at Kopke

Kopke was our first stop and we had a tasting of 5 different ports between the three of us. We all had a bit of each of them, and each had our favorites. The best part of this tasting was they had chocolates to accompany the port. With the nice size pours and chocolates, we were there for a while before moving.

Next stop Sandeman. Here we had a tasting and a look at the museum before we went on a tour. On the tour we saw the warehouse, which stores the port, and learned most of the information we needed about port. We all found the Sandeman branding to be excellent with the Spanish hat (sherry is produced in Spain and is part of Sandeman's product), the black cape (actually a Portuguese student's cape, which they still wear today), and port/sherry glass in hand. We had a tasting of the white and tawny ports after the tour as well.

Our tour guide and a lot of port!

Deciding we had enough port for one day we went back to our hotel, making sure to pass by another one of the best attractions in Porto - the Sao Bento Train Station. The main hall of this building has a bunch of murals made with mostly blue and white tile, which is a Portuguese tradition. We saw similar tiling on a lot of the older buildings in Porto. The tiles were not always white and blue on the houses, but many of the houses had some tiling for the siding instead of brick, wood, or panels.

Sao Bento Train Station

We ate dinner down on the river front and found a nice place to eat, which had some interesting items hanging from the ceiling. Found this one particularly perplexing on why it was among the others.

Yes, it's what you think it is!

Saturday was a clear day and much better for walking around. We went to Ingreja de Santa Clara and the Cathedral. These places were very ornate with a lot of gold paint. This would have made me ask as a parishioner, "where is the tithing money was being spent?". A bit too extravagant for my liking, but beautiful non the less.

Santa Clara

Penny and I love bell towers, so we had to ascend the 250+ stairs to the top of Torres Dos Clerigos for some great views of the city. The views were well worth the effort even in the narrow space with people going both up and down at the same time.

View from the tower

We had trouble getting around a couple who wanted to have a photo shoot up in the tower, so we were stuck up there for a bit soaking up the view.

Our next stop was the library that is considered (at least according to the lady in the tourist information center) as "the 3rd most beautiful library in the world." J. K. Rowling was so inspired by the stair case that she describes it in her Harry Potter books and they library appears in the Harry Potter movies. We were not allowed to take photos inside the library (a guy was at the top of the stairs watching for those taking photos and telling everyone "No Photos.") Sorry, you will just have to watch the movies to get a glimpse, but they were very cool. They have one entrance at the bottom, and then split part way up so there are two stairs  to the second level.

Livraria Lello

It was over to taste some port again. Porto Cruz was first on the list with a taste of the pink port. The ladies liked this one a bit more than Scott. We went for a boat cruise on River Douro to see several bridges and enjoy the sunshine.

Porto Cruz Pink

Scott, Penny, and Rachel getting ready for River Douro cruise. 

Porto view from cruise boat

Porto view from cruise boat.

Back on shore it was time to go to Offley for a tour and tasting. Next was Croft, which was one of our favorites. We had an excellent tour guide (explained about the introduction of pink port), tasted some really good port, and ended up buying two bottles of port from Croft. 

Tour guide from Croft

We stopped by Quevedo, which had live Fado music. It was nice to hear some live music, taste some port, eat some snacks, and have a little play around in the old barrels. Mostly kids were playing in the barrels, but Scott had to see if he could fit in the little opening. The girls were a bit more practical by having a seat on a bench.

Scott's big barrel, little opening

Live Fado singer

Rachel and Penny sitting inside a barrel

 Before leaving we went out to the beach for a look at the lighthouse and enjoy the busy boardwalk watching walkers, joggers, and bikers get into their exercise on Sunday. It was another gorgeous day, but time to leave Porto. We enjoyed our time here, especially since we were able to spend time with Rachel. We left with 4 bottles of port, so have plenty to remember our trip for a while, but will have to drink it all before we leave for Australia. Too expensive to bring into the country!

Our Hotel...Can you find Scott? Look up top!

Rachel and Penny at the beach

The waves come crashing in on the lighthouse! Awesome power.

Penny and Scott at the beach

Our purchases, yummy!

I LOVE Belgium - No, really, I do!!

We have been to Belgium before (2007), so why go back you might ask....

Well, the short answer is great friends (Jan, Hilde, and their girls - Marie and Anna) as well as great things to eat and drink (beer, waffles, frites, chocolate). Jan started out as just a work colleague of Penny's, but we have grown to really like these fine people and the land they live in.

Also, my (Penny's) heritage is Belgian. Both of my grandparents were born in Belgium, and I can't help but think that is why my heart soars and I feel so at home when I enter this country.  Both of my grandparents have passed, but I like to think that are looking down on me and so happy that I have managed to fall in love with their homeland.

Funny side story - Back in 2007 when we entered Belgium for the first time, I was greeted by the immigration agent. He took one look at my passport and immediately started speaking Flemish to me.  You have to understand that "Martens" in Belgium is like "Smith" or "Jones" in the USA, or "Kim" in Korea. It is a VERY common last name there. Unfortunately, I never learned Flemish - but I am slowly mastering a few words.

In 2007 we had a 2 week visit in Leuven (1 week of work for Penny, and 1 week of touring). We enjoyed our stay so much back then, that there was no question that we would go back on this trip (and we may just go again while we are here!!)

Even though the main part of the trip was to catch up with Jan and Hilde (ok, yes, there was a little bit of work talk), we did manage to find some time to squeeze in some tourist sites.  We decided to head back to Brussels, as last time we were there I (Penny) didn't feel so well, so we really didn't do that much.  This time I felt much better and was able to hit a few more of the sites.

Galeries Royales St Hubert

We started with sampling some frites - and yes, the "french fry" was actually first made in Belgium, and I have never, I mean never, had better frites than what we have had in Belgium. And don't even get me started on the sauce options!!  We did a bit of walking around (including the first indoor shopping mall in Europe - the Galeries Royales St Hubert) and several beautiful plazas. We eventually found our way to the Musee des instruments de musique (The MIM) (The museum of musical instruments).  This was a great little museum, and your "audio guide" just played samples of the music from the instruments.

Mont Des Artes Park (in the museum quarter)

Just one of the many interesting instruments in the MIM

At the Cantillon Brewery

Don't worry, we also managed to find in some time to have some waffles and beers. Seriously - I think the waffles in Belgium have to be my FAVORITE street food/afternoon snack in the whole world. I could have one every day - I LOVE these!!! On the topic of beers (have I mentioned how much we love Belgium beers??), we also managed to find our way to the Cantillon Brewery, one of last surviving places that still makes lambic beer. It was a self guided tour with a tasting at the end. The straight up lambic wasn't really to our taste, but the Rose de Gambrinus (Raspberry beer) was actually quite nice. 

Yummy Belgian Beer!

Inside the library - I felt smarter just being there!

We also managed to check out some of the sites in Leuven. Including the Library bell tower with views over the city and countryside. (yep, we timed this perfectly to be up there at noon, the loudest possible time to be right next to the enormous bell!!)

View of one of the squares in the Old Town of Leuven

View from the bell tower.

After we had worked up a thirst walking up the 289 stairs in the bell tower, we had to check out one of the biggest bars in the world - The Capital.  It has over 2000 beers, and is apparently listed in the Guinness book of world records for having the most beers. We only sampled one (each), as it was only lunch time. But fear not, we were heading out to other breweries later in the afternoon.

Gotta love any place that you have to order your beer by number!

More yummy Belgian Beer!

Overall, we had a fantastic weekend, with really great friends.  We did indulge in all our favorite foods, and had a really nice time. Thanks much to Jan and Hilde for hosting us!!   Needless to say, we love Belgium, and we will be back!!

Czech out our visit in Prague.

Prague, Czech Republic - Our second major weekend trip, and our second new country! It was also a celebration of Penny’s birthday. Prague is a bit further away (a whole 6 hrs! Required a train & plane combo), but we are still amazed and loving how easy it is to get to whole other countries! Overall, even though we were still relatively close geographically, it is very easy to see and feel the distinct differences these countries represent.  Prague felt distinctly eastern european. It looked different, the people were different, and the language was definitely different. That said, we loved it. Prague was beautiful, easy to navigate, and very interesting.  

Other thoughts about the weekend (from Penny):  Those that know me know that I LOVE celebrating my birthday. While it was great to be in a brand new country with amazing things to see on my birthday….it did not at all feel like my birthday.  Scott did his very best to make me feel special, but was just another day on holiday.  I really really missed my friends and family, and being able to celebrate with them.  Note to self - always make sure you are home for your birthday!!  

The detailed account of our weekend is below…..

Prague Castle view from hotel room

Charles Bridge

Our first night in Prague was spent walking around in Old Town a bit and then across Charles Bridge. This is a 14th century stone bridge with 75 statues on it that connects Lesser town to Old town. It wasn't too busy in the evening as we walked across, but we could instantly see the appeal. It is an amazing bridge with great views of the castle and the city and only open to pedestrians.

We walked through Old town on our way to the Prague Beer Museum, a pub with 30 Czech beers on tap. It wasn’t ideal with all the smoking inside, but we couldn’t pass it up with the choice of beers. Scott couldn't just have one, so had a five taster.

Scott's 5 taster and Penny's Wit

30 beers on tap!!

As we got back to our hotel we had a great view of Prague Castle lit up for the evening. It looks quite amazing.

Prague Castle at night.

Saturday (Happy Birthday Penny!!!) was started off with something called Mindmaze. We went into a room with a puzzle about finding the alchemist's stone. We had 60 minutes to successfully find our way out. There were clues and extra stuff in the room, which helped (or hindered) us figure out how to get out of the room. We had a walkie talkie to ask for clues if we got stuck. We had to ask for 3 clues to successfully complete the task. We had to use keys to open locks, which led to other keys or locks that opened drawers or cabinets. It was quite fun and we highly recommend it to anyone who goes to Prague.

From here we walked around Old town starting with the Powder Tower (Prasna Brana). It gets it name because it was the tower where all the gunpowder was stored in the 17th century. Next to this is the Municipal House.

Powder Tower

Municipal House

We then walked over to Old Town Square, which has the Old Town City Hall which has a viewing tower and the Astronomical Clock as part of it. We went up in the tower for the views. The last part of the climb up was a short spiral staircase and interestingly - it had a stop light, letting you know when you could safely go up or down without running into traffic from the other direction. What a great idea!

Stop Light for Spiral Stairs

Church of Tyn

Old Town Hall

Church of St. Nicholas

Astronomical Clock

There were a couple of churches in the square, a palace, and a monument. We happened to be there on the day they opened their carnival, so had some extra festivities going on as well with people wearing masks, playing music, dancing, and singing. Great atmosphere even without being able to understand the songs.

Old Town Square from above 

Band playing Czech folk music

We were told we needed to try the goulash and dumplings in Prague, so gave them a try in a Prague restaurant. Not exactly what I expected as I envisioned more of a soup for the goulash and noodles rather than bread for the dumplings. Still good!

Goulash and Dumplings

We walked around the Jewish Quarter, but didn’t go into any of the synagogues as they were all closed on Saturday. On the outside they don’t look to be spectacular buildings, but are supposed to be ornate inside.

Penny's Birthday Dinner

Sunday we went to Prague Castle. The Golden Lane actually reminded us of a castle. Basilica of St George was an old church which was not renovated, so you could see where the paintings had faded. The Old Royal Palace had a massive exhibition hall and rooms with the coat of arms for the various land and office holders of the region. St. Vitus Cathedral was quite nice and had several lovely stained glass windows.

Basilica of St. George

Window in St. Vitus Cathedral

Old Royal Palace

Gates to Prague Castle

We went to Petrin Park to go up in Petrin Tower, made in the likeness of the Eiffel Tower. Excellent views of Prague and the castle.

Petrin Park

Petrin Tower

Prague Castle view from Petrin Tower

Charles Bridge and Old Town view from Petrin Tower

Monday we took a 40 minute train ride to Karlstijn to see the awesome Castle there. It was closed, but read the inside wasn’t as nice as the outside. Penny thought we might be able to get in if she knocked on the door, but they couldn’t see her through the peep hole.

Karlstijn Castle

Penny knocks to get in!