Portugal

 

Porto from the air.

Excited arrival at the airport in Porto.
We used the metro and trains extensively to get around the city and Northern Portugal.
I was so excited to see all the signage in Portuguese. However, at first I found it very difficult to understand speech. After a while I started to get an ear for the accent, a little bit. Jen also studied Portuguese extensively prior to the trip, but Duolingo is nothing like the real experience. Fortunately, many of the things we were interested in cater to international visitors and almost always there is someone who speaks English, so Jen really did fine when she'd venture out on her own.

Our hotel was right on the bank of the Douro River. There were so many things about Porto that seemed magical.

Everywhere around there is Old World charm.

The first place we wanted to visit was the Clerigos Church, to climb the tall tower and take in the whole city.

The next spot we went to was The Church of Carmelo and Carmelitas. This church is quirky because it is actually two churches separated by the world's narrowest house. There is a law in Porto that two churches could not be built adjacent to one another. So these two churches have a 3 meter house between them. One church was for Nuns and the other for the Monks. 

Jen sitting along the side of the church. These blue tiles (azulejos) are a common style in Porto and very beautiful. We bought a souvenir tile from a demolished building, to take a little piece of Porto home with us.

We spent some time wandering around town. This is the Liberdade Square.

Just about everywhere we turn, something fun was going on. This was a folk music and dance performance we stumbled into. What a fun time.
There was just about always some music going on. The first night we arrived, we could hear music from our hotel from a nearby festivity. That seemed pretty neat, but they kept it going until 3 AM.

The Capela das Almas is covered in Azulejos

This is the first of many food pictures. If Porto had nothing else going on and only the food, it would still be worth a visit.
This is the most classic "sandwich" to come out of Porto- the Francesinha.  It is an enormous sandwich stuffed with ham and pork and two kinds of sausage, covered in cheese, topped with a fried egg and all of that is smothered in gravy and buried in fried potatoes.

Next we went to the Train Station to pick up tickets later in the week. But like just about everything else, the train station was worthy of a visit just to see the place.
We were so stoked to figure out how the transit system works. It was very affordable and gave us so many options to explore, not just Porto, but all over Northern Portugal.

On Sunday, we went to Church. We took the scenic way over the Dom Luis I Bridge, an absolutely iconic Porto structure.

This bridge was designed by T Seyrig a student of Eiffel 

On the holiday of Sao Joao, it is a tradition after the fireworks for the people to walk across this lower suspension bridge and everyone walks in step, left, right, left right, to get the whole bridge swinging from side to side. 

We made it to church with plenty of time to chat with the locals. I really got to use my Portuguese here. But there was still at least one Brother who spoke perfect English to help up out if we needed. We stayed for the Sacrament meeting. I'd say I picked up 10-50% of what was going on depending on who was speaking. Jen said she got two words out of the meeting.

Crepes and ice cream for brunch. Man those were good!

On the way to church we crossed the lower level of the bridge. On the way back we crossed the upper level and that landed us in a totally different part of town. The city is super hilly.

Seeing how it was Sunday, we wanted to concentrate on visiting some churches. This place was a favorite of mine. The Se or Cathedral of Porto. 

We arrived just as the bells were chiming noon. It was captivating.

This plaza is part of the Cathedral.

The inner courtyard of the Cathedral. We arrived during the Mass and heard the singing and chanting. The acoustics were amazing. I was very impressed with it all.

They have a lot of Festivals in Porto. This was Trinity Sunday. Later that week saw Corpus Christi and The day after we left was Sao Joao.

The Church of Sao Francisco

We went into the Catacombs beneath the church.

There are lots and lots of human remains down there.

The train station for our first trip out of town.

We took the train to Miramar to visit the beach. This was such a fun beach with sand and rocks and of course another chapel.

This chapel was all lit up for a special festival for the Trinity.
It says on the church that this is the oldest known place of worship in Portugal. Long before Christianity came to Portugal, there were pagan rituals on this site. Once the people converted to Christianity, they built this chapel on the same spot to show their conversion.

The sun setting over the Atlantic?

There is a Starfish in there

When we arrived in the daylight, we were disappointed about all the "Christmas lights" for the festival, because we thought it looked kind of tacky, but once the sun started to go down, we could appreciate how festive it all became.

Just about everywhere you go, there is a little chapel.

Portugal is pretty much covered in graffiti, most people have accepted it or even embraced it. There is a section of town in Porto, which they repaint every couple of months to give the graffiti artists a controlled place to do their thing.

Back to the Hotel again. This plaza commemorates Henry the Navigator who patronized all the exploration that the Portuguese are so famous for in world history.

See, I did actually attend a conference in Porto. I learned some new things and am excited to get back to work to see if we can implement them here.

Did I already say lots of hills?
Once upon a time, this was the wall of the city, but now incorporated into the middle of town.

An old prison, turned museum

This place was legit. It was like sitting in their living room and having a family dinner. No menus here. Meat or Fish?

We decided to just go for a walk and see where we ended up. We went way out of the typical tourist zones.
I love how the old and the new are blended together

We really got off the beaten path, with no idea where this might lead. 

Still not sure where we ended up. Maybe some sort of laundry facility? What do you think?

We successfully made it back to familiar routes.
The streets are all decorated for Sao Joao. It sounds like a crazy fun festival.
One of the oddities is a tradition of squeaky toy hammers. Apparently everyone goes around bonking people on their heads that day.

This area has layers and layers of history. This is a floor Mosaic from the Roman times.

Crystal Palace Gardens

The Palacio da Bolsa

Wow!

We took a cooking class to get to know the food better. We made caldo verde and Braz Codfish, pictured here. It is a concoction of salted cod, fried potatoes, onions, olives and eggs. Another fantastic, roll me out the door, kind of meal.

The view from our room.

Our next trip out of town: Guimaraes.

We traveled by Gondola to a mountain top park.

This place was like a fantasy. Green and rocky and always another turn to explore.

Yup, there is a chapel up here, too.

Back down into town and we could explore the medieval history of Portugal. This town is considered the "Birthplace of Portugal."

How about that for a medieval castle?

I'm sitting in the ramparts of the castle with the Palace in the background and you can see in the middle ground, some preparations for a medieval style festival.

The keep of the castle.

The Palace of the Dukes of Braganza 

Can you imagine the banquets?

And another chapel inside the palace.

This is Guimaraes most famous son, Afonso Henriques I, first king of Portugal.

"Here Portugal Was Born"

We made it back to Porto, just in time for the Corpus Christ Procession. (We had no idea, just another happy accident.)

The crowds came out to see or walk in the procession. The Holy Day is a celebration of the Body of Christ. There is a special vessel to carry the Eucharist in a procession around town and back to the Cathedral. There was a truck with loudspeakers and many of the participants singing along, almost a chant about Corpus Christi. 

We had the cutest room.

This night we went to a dinner with a musical performance. I ordered octopus, which was delicious. But after appetizers, soup and salad, and sampling Jen's steak, I couldn't manage to stomach two entire octopus tentacles. This was the only meal that week, which was left unfinished.

The show was a unique Portuguese style called Fado. This is a very soulful sounding folk music. They use the classic Portuguese guitar, shown here.

The next day we went to view the natural beauty of the country. 

Portugal is the worlds leading producer of cork, which comes from trees like this one. They were abundant. We bought a few cork souvenirs, Jen got a necklace and I got a belt made from cork.

There is an 8 km boardwalk along the River Paiva, with gorgeous scenery. 

Again, lots of stairs.
Despite all the food we ate on this trip, we didn't gain any weight on this vacation.

Again, we ate a lot of good food, but Jen and I agree that this roast veal in a small country town of Arouca was easily the best thing we had. And we ate with wonderful appetite after the hike.

Aveiro was next.  With their canals, they style themselves the Venice of Portugal.

Tie on a ribbon at the friendship bridge.

We toured the city by boat on this Moliceiro.

The nearby beach is called Costa Nova

The fishermen would spend months at sea. As they returned home they would pass by this shore on the way into the harbor. Everyone wanted to recognize their own home from a distance, so they painted their houses in these bright colors, to make them easier to recognize.

Porto is purported to have the most elegant McDonald's in the world. No, we didn't eat here, but I did look at the menu.
McRoyal Cheese for those who were wondering.

I loved this place.