Three Weeks of Splendor in the Ancient Nation of Portugal
Wednesday, November 13, 2024
Maggie and I are departing this morning for our first-ever visit to Portugal. We will enjoy a three-week tour of the most beautiful, historic (read: charming, romantic, human-scaled) towns and cities in this ancient nation.
To prepare this morning, we use Google Translate to learn the Portuguese words for "wine bar," "community walk," "bathroom," "thank you," "good morning," "cheese," "train station," "free water," and "old." So that Dom can ask for directions to the old town...
Unfortunately, I am starting this relatively long, over-the-pond trip with an emerging chest cold—hoping it does not worsen…
Something I’ve noticed in recent times: Why is it that airport terminals and the inside of jet planes are kept at a shivering cold temperature? On this trip to Portugal, for example, I am obligated to wear a coat on the plane and in the terminal. But even that is not enough. I feel as if I need to wear gloves and hat in temperatures that could not be higher than 40 degrees. Temperatures are so frigid on the plane that I am surprised not to see a layer of frost on my seat. Does it not strike the stewardesses odd that nearly all passengers on their plane are wearing winter coats, gloves, and hats while in their seats?
Thursday, November 14, 2024
The Lisbon 24 de Agosto train station is undoubtedly the most butt-ugly train station ever built in the history of mankind. I’m sure it won all of the awards in the painfully out-of-touch architecture magazines—magazines that are now simply cheerleaders for unlovable modernism that no one loves.
One shopping mall we encounter is not only butt ugly in its modernist design, but adds insult to injury by assaulting customers with exceptionally high-decibel music that is offensively bad in quality – even at normal volumes.
My first taste of Porto is magical. The route I walk is full of medieval, old-world charm. Most streets are tiny, cute, and cobblestoned.
Many streets are romantically crooked and twisting, and wonderfully narrow. I often stumble upon long, twisting, masonry concrete steps that were just begging me to ascend—so I do!
I find a number of grand panoramic views of the city skyline, which is filled with towers and terra cotta roofs. In front of one particularly tall cathedral steeple in Porto, I am fortunate to encounter a group of young women singing and playing acoustic guitar. See the vid I shot here. I videotape their final song and turn off my camera.
Bad idea to turn off my camera, as they then proceed to entertain us with an extended “thank you” performance, as they spend several minutes engaging in a chanting, dancing, synchronized routine that also includes waving their black capes and shouting for joy.
Just wonderful.
Friday, November 15, 2024
Our day starts with a stroll into the heart of Old Town Porto, where we encounter a travel shop. After booking at the shop, we have reservations for the “6 Bridge” boat trip on the Douro River, which we enjoy just after booking it on this day.
We enjoy strolling more of the beautiful Old Town Porto, including a walk along the lovely, splendid Liberdade Square (Liberty Square). We stop for lattes at the wonderful, understandably highly-rated C’alma Specialty Coffee Room.
Next, we are signed up to see the famous “Fado” show, which is a folk music performance that originated in Lisbon's rustic neighborhoods. Since the mid-1800s, it's been the Lisbon blues — mournfully beautiful and haunting ballads about lost sailors, broken hearts, and bittersweet romance. Fado means "fate" — how fate deals with Portugal's adventurers...and the families they leave behind.
The fado singing and acoustic guitar show we enjoy tonight is far better than expected. Superb guitar, and the singing was soulful, spirited, and proud! See the vid I shot here and here.
We experience an unforgettable event on our way to the show (“unforgettable,” in my view, is a required ingredient for any worthwhile trip). Unbeknownst to us, our directions to the show are way off. We arrive at the place circled on our map by the tourist guide who sold us the show, but are then told by another tourist office (after we could not find the address and went into a tourist office in a panic) that we were nowhere near the show.
Dread sets in as we see the show is to start in five minutes and we are told by the office that we are 6-10 minutes from the show. We begin a near sprint to what we are told by the office our actual show location can be found. We arrive, huffing and puffing a few minutes after the show starts. The address we are directed to is also wrong!
Two wrong directions by two different tourism guides!
Now we realize that assuming we can find the actual venue, we need to hope we can be let into a later show. We return to a fado show venue we have passed earlier. The host quite graciously and generously informs us we can watch the show starting in 30 minutes, even though she is with a different fado company. Not only that, but she informs us she will be happy to serve us two complimentary glasses of port wine before the show starts, rather than the customary one glass. We are so fortunate. Maggie ends up calling our little (and frantic) adventure our Wild Goose Chase.
We will, as Jack promised as he floated on the ice-cold Atlantic after the Titanic sank, write a “stern” letter to management about this!
The architecture in Old Town Porto is splendid, especially along the Praça da Liberdade square in old town Porto -- a square that dates back to the start of the 18th Century. Nearly all buildings along this square are spectacular in their proud ornamentation. Lovely statues stand along the way.
In the winter, rain and fog and clouds are nearly non-stop. After our second day, we realize that this time of year in Porto, a cloudy day means “sunny” day, as it nearly always rains or drizzles. The weather is so rarely dry that cloudy days are sunny for those living in Porto.
We have the best ever sardines, liver pate and shrimp/squid stew at a Porto restaurant (Restaurante Cantina 32) this evening. Exactly the way I like those things prepared!
Unforgettably delicious!
We sign up for two glasses of Porto wine in the Porto wine district south of the Douro River—an experience we can enjoy whenever we have time in the coming days. On Sunday, we are signed up for an all-day boat and bus tour that includes wine tastings at wineries in the famous Douro Valley wine region, as well as a self-guided walk in the lovely little medieval town of Amarante.
Saturday, November 16, 2024
Our day starts with surprisingly pleasant (and deserved!) weather as we depart from our apartment this morning and walk to the train station—a Porto station with a beautiful lobby.
Our train, we wrongly believe, will be about 25 minutes to the medieval town of Braga. Turns out that our train is a “local” train (i.e., a train that stops at a station every 5 or so minutes). Total trip time ends up being about an hour and 25 minutes.
Braga, according to Wikipedia, has a two-thousand-year history that began in Ancient Rome, when it was founded between 15 and 13 BC as Bracara Augusta in honor of the Roman Emperor Augustus (27 BC–14 AD).
The town is noticeably tranquil due to its many walking (car-free) streets. We occasionally encounter impressively ancient architecture, but I find the city to be rather “spotty” in Old World charm. The Cathedral turns out to be worthy of the 5 euro admission charge we pay.
Despite our looking diligently for over an hour, we are unable to find a restaurant that was sufficiently “local” rather than touristy, so we opt to train back to Porta. We are told we could catch a “faster” (non-local) train departing every hour, but are disappointed to realize we are again on the slow train.
Back in Porto, we make a bee-line for the charming little narrow street we had discovered the day before—a street filled with impossibly charming interior ambiance ristorantes. I point out to Maggie that I have never been to a city with such a large abundance of restaurants that are so cool, hip, and charming in interior ambiance that there seems to be hundreds of them—which makes choosing one so difficult (what if, after we select one, we had chosen that other place! It would have been so much better!). The food, again, is delightful. We dine on a tiny street on an outdoor table. A large and quite buttery octopus and quite large sardines. Both were delicious.
Next, we walk through a highly festive promenade along the river (both sides of the river are filled with festive people enjoying food, drink, and street performances by buskers) and then over the extremely imposing steel bridge crossing the mighty Douro River to the south side of the city. I have previously assumed the south side would be relatively mediocre, as I expect an industrial character to this place of large port wine manufacturing.
But I was wrong.
This is a lovely, ancient part of the city with many tiny walkways and masonry stairs, and a medieval wine cellar (cave) everywhere we look. Wine seems to be everywhere—so much so that it seemed to be running in the streets, and probably coming out of drinking water fountains.
We do a very nice little tour of a wine museum, which ends with tastings of a red and white port wine. We have never previously tried a white port. It is sweet and pleasant.
We enjoy a lengthy question and answer period with a host working at the museum. We then happily walk to our next destination: Porto Cruz, where we will enjoy a flight of port wines. But upon arriving, we are unhappily surprised to learn that it is not a flight. Instead, it is one glass for each of us. And a tiny pour at that. We realize that once again, the tourism agent who had sold us our tours had given us another big fat lie, as she had assured us that we would get a flight of wines. I again inform Maggie that as Jack had promised Rose while they were floating in the sea after Titanic sank, I’m going to write that tourism company a stern letter.
Fortunately, we have a Plan B. Along the promenade are a number of bars that offer 5 glasses of a full range of port wines for 5 euros. A screaming deal. As the outdoor seating is taken up by others, we opt to sit in a second-floor seating. To get there, we were required to climb a very narrow, twisting staircase. I realize that this is probably to test how drunk you are when you go back done after your tasting. If you cannot descend, you are too drunk to drive. Our sample of five ports surprises us, as while we both prefer red wines, our favorite ports in the sample were white and rose.
Next, we cross the bridge back to the north part of the city and find a brewpub so that we can sample the profusely advertised stout specialty in the area: a “Super Bock,” as a nightcap. But we are not finished. I had found a recommended spot for a charcuterie board. We walk and walk and walk. The more we walk, the further our cell phone navigation informs us we have to walk to find our pub. We arrive at a bustling place full of happy people and dine on a very nice board full of sliced meats and three thick slabs of cheese.
Sunday, November 17, 2024
Today we set out on our first clear skies day for an all-day wine tour of the Douro Valley. Our first stop is the ancient town of Amarante, with its lovely masonry-arched bridge and monastery, the site of a battle featuring Amarante soldiers holding off French troops. The Battle of the Bridge of Amarante (18 April 18 to May 2, 1809) was fought during the Peninsular War between Portuguese regular troops and militia regiments under the command of Francisco da Silveira, on the one hand, and a force of French troops under Loison.
Amarante is also famous for its notorious pastry, which is a fertility symbol in the shape of a penis and testicles. Maggie, of course, just had to sample this delicacy.
Next, we bus out of the Green Wine region of Portugal and into the famed Douro Valley, which is picturesquely blanketed with a soft fog over the Douro River. Green wine is not called green because of its color. This typically white fortified wine is a wine that has its fermentation interrupted early on by the addition of a strong alcohol, and is a sparkling wine.
We stop at an impressive Douro Valley winery for a tasting of three wines—all were good.
Once we enter the Douro Valley—a region that has been producing wines (mostly port wines) for 2,000 years—we board a boat for a one-hour tour of the river and valley. Our last stop is a lunch at Quinta da Pitarrela, where we also enjoy our meal being amply supplemented by bottles of Douro Valley red wine.
Upon returning to Porto later in the day, we enjoy two street performances shown here and here in video I shot.
Monday, November 18, 2024
Today is exceptional.
We train from Porto to Guimarães, not knowing that Guimarães is a stunning, romantic, medieval wonderland. This city is clearly a big highlight for our trip to Portugal. Do not miss visiting this town when in Portugal!
Walking north from the train station, we first tour the highly impressive Palace Duques de Bragança. We then walk the Guimarães Castle next door. Never have I been inside a castle that is so strongly fortified to stop anything brought against it. The solid rock walls are at least six feet thick and I’m certain cannon balls fired against it would harmlessly bounce off like ping-pong balls.
We then walk south back into the city center, where we enter one of the most well-preserved medieval street and square and building assemblages I’ve ever had the pleasure to encounter. I could not stop shooting photos. Shooting a street several times—each time shooting then turning to shoot in the opposite direction, over and over and over. It goes without saying, but there is a strong direct correlation between how many photos I shoot while in a city and how much I love the city. And I love Guimarães. Love at first sight.
Even though it is typically inadvisable to eat at restaurants found at or near major tourist attractions (because they almost invariably are too touristy and not local authentic), we opt for Buxa Ristorante within the main square. The menu looks outstanding and the reviews online are quite good. Our decision is a good one, as we order a dish of large Sautéed Prawns with Buxa, Tripe with White Beans, Shredded Codfish Salad, and thick slices of cheese with pumpkin jam.
Powerful, delicious flavors.
Having seen the menu previously, we then move to the Ristorante next door in the square to enjoy a specialty we had not yet sampled for the region: Vino Verde, a lightly carbonated, chilled wine. Vino Verde means 'green wine', but translates as "young wine," with wine being released three to six months after the grapes are harvested. They may be red, white or rosé, and they are usually consumed soon after bottling. We had a glass of red and a glass of white.
We have resigned ourselves to having to always take slow, local trains for our daytrips to outlying picturesque towns. Today is no different for our trip out to and back from Guimarães. At the end of our train trip to Porto, we head straight to what we had planned now for many days in Porto: Ascending the 240 steps of the Clérigos (Clerics) Tower—built in 1763—we reach the top at 249 feet above the street to a breathtaking 360-degree view of the striking terra cotta skyline that is Porto.
After the tower, we seek out dinner, but are stymied by the fact that most Porto restaurants are closed on Mondays. But once again today, we somehow stumble upon an unforgettably delicious ristorante—Cozinha Dos Lios. Again, we opt for diversity by ordering small dishes. This time, it is salmon ceviche (a first for us!), a sliced cheese and meat charcuterie board, and a roasted chorizo (sausage) board. We also opt for a delicious glass of red tinto wine from the Douro Valley. And I could not resist finishing our wine by moving from our outdoor street seating to the basement of the restaurant, where there are tables and chairs for dining in what used to be a wine cellar.
We have already sampled a number of wines in Portugal, and each of them have been very good. We have not found a Portuguese wine we do not like. My assessment of Portuguese wines is now much greater.
I can say the same about the food. Each of our meals has been quite good.
Finally, for a nightcap, we sample a very nice Portuguese stout beer (flavored with figs and oak).
Tuesday, November 19, 2024
We start our day with a latte at a “locals” coffee and pastry shop on our way to the train station. I'm tempted to try the dangerously titled coffee that is said to contain "firewater" until we learn from the staff that the "fire" is due to the added whiskey.
I’ll pass on that, obrigado! Little did I know at the time that I would in the coming days drink a first-of-the-morning firewater drink unknowingly.
Our train takes us to what turns out to be a beach town known as Aveiro along the Atlantic Coast of Portugal. Aveiro was founded in 1515. Many of the walking streets and sidewalks in Old Town consist of attractively designed black and white tiles. Indeed, we are to learn at the end of our three weeks of travels around Portugal that a Portuguese trademark seems to be the decoratively tiled sidewalks and walking streets.
Like in Braga, Aveiro has spotty, fragmented urbanism.
Aveiro has placed bridges over their canal. I Googled the meaning of the brightly colored ribbons on the bridge railing and learn the following: Many people attach these ribbons to the bridge railings as couples or friends, to symbolize their union. The names of the two people must be written on the ribbon before being tied around the bridge. The ribbons are a nice alternative to padlocks, as they are more colorful and less heavy for the [railing].
Once again, our lack of advance planning to find online a highly rated ristorante is unnecessary, as we opt for what turns out to be strongly and pleasantly flavored dishes, including poached eggs with smoked salmon, smoked sardines over red peppers in olive oil, mussels in poached tomatoes, and an octopus salad.
One thing we have learned on this trip is that foods in Portugal are often quite strongly flavored, which means a meal has one leave the table with rather strong breath. Big mistake for us was to not pack breath mints with us for the trip.
We enjoy big, delicious fun at the highly impressive Mercado do Bolhão, which is full of a dizzying array of fresh cheeses, meats, wines, and breads. We sample a number of wines and cheeses.
We then take an interesting one-hour guided historic walking tour of Old Town Porto. Later we meet a former friend from Boulder CO who just happens to be in Porto on the same day we are there. We have Carolyn join us for our second visit of the day to the mercado, after which we enjoy a wonderful selection of small dishes at Trigo de Cantos Ristorante.
Wednesday, November 20, 2024
We train to Coimbra on this Wednesday at noonish. We enter Old Town Coimbra and immediately realize we have scored romantic, ancient, charming paydirt. Coimbra’s delightfully narrow, cobblestoned streets are extraordinary. My camera almost starts shooting non-stop photos on its own. Every time we turn down a new street, we see a postcard view in front of us. A bit grimy, with buildings a bit more contemporary than I find ideal, but the narrowness of the streets overcomes that.
Coimbra is not quite as spectacular as Guimaraes to the north, but it is a close second.
Coimbra is a walking treasure. I could walk the streets here endlessly.
Many clearly “local” ristorantes, shoe stores, sewing shops, and key duplication services, in combination with the grittiness and “locally dressed” people show us this is a “living” town rather than a “tourist” town. I’m sure, however, that the medieval churches and achingly cobblestone streets will eventually make this a “discovered” town for tourism.
Our hotel is a delight. Elegant, old-world lobby, and a wonderful rooftop sitting area that provides a lovely panoramic view of the city skyline. Before and after our evening walk and dinner, we leisurely sit on the rooftop with a glass of wine.
Our search for dinner is a long one, as many ristorantes are closed for the week – or possibly for the season. We finally spot a tiny little place with an entry door that is open. Below us is an unkempt, slightly potbellied, poorly dressed, unshaven man sitting at a bench peeling potatoes. The kitchen behind him is a disordered array of pots and pans. The “menu” is written in only Portuguese (no English) on a blackboard.
In other words, it is exactly what we are looking for.
We have clearly found a “local” ristorante—fortunately with outdoor seating, as we love enjoying nightlife and passersby as we dine. Maggie orders a goat meat dish—first time she’s ever had this fatty meat, and I opt for a chopped pork dish in gravy. Our potato-peeling proprietor—someone who shows no interest in putting on an attractive appearance of himself or his eatery for customers—is also the waiter and the cook. He insists that we include a glass of red Portuguese wine (served in a cute little carafe) with our meal, even though we indicate we had enough wine for the day.
We have the good fortune to be in Coimbra for the start of the Christmas season, as the charming streets are made much more festive with overhead Christmas lighting and a lighted Christmas tree. Also a delight is a band of musicians singing and playing instruments along the main walking and shopping street. I shot this short vid of their performance.
After dinner, we discover another “locals” shop for an obligatory cherry liqueur in chocolate cups. Yummy-ville!
Thursday, November 21, 2024
After walking medieval streets in the Coimbra morning, we stop at Paco Do Conde, which looks superbly local in character: Not close to tourist sightseeing, menu with no words written in English, staff that does not speak any English. We even have to wait at a table for 30 minutes because the entire staff had assembled to eat family-styled for lunch.
What can be more authentically local?
When you step outside your comfort zone—in this case, sitting down at a restaurant where no one speaks your language—that is where the magic and memories are found.
Our food, of course, is delicious.
We visit a number of highly ornamental churches on both sides of the river.
Once back at our hotel, the lobby staff offers us a taste of a liqueur said to offer medicinal benefits. Probably a big, fat lie, but we play along.
I then moved to the rooftop to finish off a bottle of red Portuguese wine.
Friday, November 22, 2024
We train to Lisbon. Lisbon is overwhelming in its size. An extremely large, intense city that reminds us of Paris. But the ancient city neighborhood of Alfama is a cobblestone delight – full of local restaurants, exceptional churches, fun bars, and an extremely active number of pedestrians on its relatively narrow sidewalks and walking streets (soon, we are told, to be expanded in the number of streets that will become walking streets).
Praça do Comércio is a staggeringly monumental public square.
Overwhelming.
We opt to get a ride from a motorized golf cart-like vehicle (called a “Tuk Tuk”). Our driver is, like me, a fellow Calabrese. We instruct the driver to take us to a “local,” non-touristy, authentic restaurant. He does that perfectly. Our meals are ample in size and modest in price (black swordfish, steak, pork with clams). After that, we take our driver's advice and amble to the nearby Vino Vero wine bar, which is crowded with happy wine drinkers. We enjoy being served by another fellow Italian (from Bologna), who offers us a taste of three delicious red wines. We like two of them enough to order both.
Saturday, November 23, 2024
We walk many miles this morning until we find a coffee shop that is sufficiently patronized by locals and has an appearance of a “locals” café. Fueled with caffeine, we head for famous squares, markets, and churches in the ancient Alfama neighborhood near our apartment. Today our meal plan is a big lunch and a small dinner. The big lunch consists of steak and a wide assortment of seafood, including cod, salmon, shrimp, octopus tentacles, and sardines.
Our holiday timing is exquisite, as tonight our treat is to watch the annual Lisbon Christmas tree lighting at the main city square.
Astounding!
Never in my life have I been in the middle of such a massive sea of humanity. I’ve never seen a lighting in a large city. There must be 100,000 people in attendance. I’ve never seen fireworks exploding out of the Christmas tree, nor had I seen a Christmas tree lighting laser light show that concludes the lighting portion of the event. See this vid I shot of the lighting. We are then serenaded by nationally famous singers.
We depart at what we think would be early (to avoid the crush of departing masses), but faced a bone crushing, suffocating humanity squeeze on our way out of the square. We actually are so terrifyingly crushed and stuck that we opt to change our exit direction in a desperate hope of avoiding being crushed to death. For several minutes, I am so smashed to near suffocation that I literally move forward for several feet without touching the ground.
Scary. I now know what it is like to die when someone shouts fire in a crowded theatre.
An unforgettable, hair-raising experience.
Our day ends with our enjoying a lovely tinto red Italian wine at the exceptionally lively Vino Vero wine bar in northern Lisbon. Our “small” meal of the day at this wine bar is their tasty charcuterie board. On the way there, we walk through “Pink Street,” which is a rocking, 24/7 Marti Gras vibe in the Lisbon town center. We also pass through “Time Out,” which is a large, upscale food court experience.
Sunday, November 24, 2024
We start the day early so that we would avoid the long line for a ride on the old-timey Lisbon tram. We have a fun time riding the tram throughout the city. We then train from Lisbon to Sintra. Once at Sintra, we board a historic, fun, old and loud tram that runs regularly from Sintra to the beach town of Praia das Macas. The tram is called “carro electrico saloio” (literally, “country yokel tram”). We then walk north to Azenhas do Mar, which is another beach town. Both feature impressive beaches and large, rocky cliffs along the Atlantic Coast.
Upon returning to Sintra, I at first opt for us not to walk uphill to “centro historico,” which is rather surprising, as the historic old town is where the magic is found. But I soon change my mind, and what a fortunate change of mind. Old town Sintra is stupendous! Lots of tiny, tiled commercial streets packed with impossibly charming, fun, popular restaurants and bars. Such a lovely old town that we very much regret not lodging here for a night or two.
Monday, November 25, 2024
We are picked up in a small van in Lisbon for an all-day tour we’ve signed up this Monday morning. Our first stop is the Catholic shrine of Fatima. The civil parish has been permanently associated with Our Lady of Fátima, a series of 1917 Marian apparitions that were purportedly witnessed by three local shepherd children at the Cova da Iria. The Catholic Church later recognized these events as "worthy of belief." I opt to walk a few feet on my knees along the designated knee-walk marble to show reverence. Or to seek the full effect of this exceptionally Catholic shrine. It is quite eye-opening to see the overwhelming number of “Our Lady” figurines in the tourist shops nearby.
After Fatima, we are dropped off at Mosteiro de Santa Maria da Vitoria in Matalha.
Our van then takes us to Nazare, said to have the largest waves in the world. The town is a rather active, crowded beach town even in our off-season time of visit.
After Navare, we are taken to the magical, walled medieval town of Obidos. What a charming, lovely, ancient town. Just oozing with romance. Of course, the town is perfect for being festooned with “Christmas Town” lighting and decorations this time of year.
Serenading us at the medieval Obidos entry portal was a guitarist who I videotaped here.
Just lovely.
To wind down and enjoy our final (smaller) meal of the day, we stop at the highly rated Maria Palato wine bar for a few glasses of ‘tinto” (red) Portuguese wine and a charcuterie board of local sliced meats and cheeses.
As an aside, I should point out that during our travels in Portugal, I notice that when we order steaks, the cuts of steak, in my experience, are served too thin and dry in Portugal.
Tuesday, November 26, 2024
We start our day, as we did yesterday, by drinking coffee at an exceptionally “local” café patronized by unfashionably-dressed people who didn’t look anything at all like tourists.
Our first tour stop is the famed Pena Palace (Portuguese: Palácio da Pena). This stunning, brightly colored and ornate palace is a Romanticist castle in São Pedro de Penaferrim, in the municipality of Sintra, on the Portuguese Riviera. The castle stands on the top of a hill in the Sintra Mountains above the town of Sintra, and on a clear day it can be easily seen from Lisbon and much of its metropolitan area. It is a national monument and constitutes one of the major expressions of 19th-century Romanticism in the world. The palace is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the Seven Wonders of Portugal. It is also used for state occasions by the President of the Portuguese Republic and other government officials.
But wait, there’s more.
We then visit Cabo da Roca (Cape Roca), the western most point in the European continent. It is a place of BIG waves and BIG surfing on a magnificent coastline.
From there, we walk Cascais, after dining on four highly delicious, strongly and delightfully flavorful tapas dishes of seafood and pork. Fortress Nossa Senhora da Luz de Cascais in Cascais was built in 1594 and now contains a luxury hotel.
Upon returning to Lisbon, we absolutely cannot resist sampling something that just begged us to sample since we arrive in Lisbon a number of days ago. Each day, we observe people waiting in extremely long lines for a sandwich that must surely be irresistible. Why else the long line each day? The Portuguese, you see, love a sandwich known as “As Bifania do Afonso.” The sandwich consists of slices of grilled pork served in a roll. As noted by one online source, and as I suggest above, “you don’t need Google Maps to know if you’ve arrived at As Bifanas do Afonso; look for the perpetual line or simply follow the aroma of porky broth that extends down the block.” As was the case in our experience today, “Your destination is essentially a stall, which specializes in one dish: thin slices of pork, braised in a mix of white wine, garlic, bay leaf, and lard, stuffed in a chewy Portuguese-style roll.” I opt to douse my sandwich with the typical house-made chili oil, which was the hottest, fire-breathing hot sauce I had for several years.
OUCH!
Our day ends at Madame Bacchus, which is next door to the sandwich shop we have just departed from. Here we are treated like royalty, as this is the off-season, and patrons are scarce. We are given samples of several red Portuguese wines before we both settle on our favorites. This is accompanied by a lovely charcuterie board.
As of today, I would say that the top three most lovable towns we have visited while in Portugal are Obidos, Guimarães, and Sintra.
One thing we notice and enjoy while in Lisbon is that even though Lisbon’s metro population is nearly 3 million people (3 times the population of within Lisbon city limits), we hear almost no sirens and not a single leaf blower. By comparison, our home city of much smaller Greenville (and nearly every other city in North America) bombards its population with nearly 24/7 deafening emergency vehicle sirens and leaf blowers, thereby causing deafness, stress, high blood pressure, anger, and various other chronic ailments.
Wednesday, November 27, 2024
After our morning routine of enjoying a café latte at a local, non-touristy café in Lisbon, we ferry across the Tagus Bay to Barreiro. We then train 30 minutes to Setubal. We enter the tiled old town streets and it is love at first sight.
We probably need to add Setubal to our “best towns we visited in Portugal list.” Obidos, Guimarães, Sintra, and Setubal.
First stop is the incomparable Mercado do Livramento seafood market. Said to be the best seafood market in the world. We buy a selection of local cheeses, including goat and sheep, and the most famous cheese in the region: Queijo de Azeitao cheese. We sample what Dom believes is the freshest raw oyster on a half shell ever.
For lunch, we opt for the highly rated Peixoco Seafood Restaurant. We select four dishes and each dish is the most delicious seafood dish we ever tasted.
Magnificent.
Thursday, November 28, 2024
Today we celebrate Maggie's birthday! Like high-quality wine, Maggie gets better and better with age. Today she is more wise and beautiful than ever. I love you more and more each year, Maggie!
After seeing a few sights in town, including the Church of the former Monastery of Jesus and the Arco São Sebastião, we go back to the immense Mercado do Livramento and have fun chatting with various vendors as we ask for dried sausage and cheese, then enjoy a cup of coffee.
For lunch, we opt for the Restaurante a tasquinha, an exceptionally well-rated eatery in town. We fully agree with the ratings, as the seafood we order was exceptional.
We then board a city bus for a trip to Jose Maria da Fonseca Winery, the oldest winery in Portugal. The family-owned company was founded in 1834 and is based in the village of Azeitão on the Setúbal Peninsula. It is now in its 7th generation and most of its production is exported internationally.
We sample four of their delicious wines, and then walk to the nearby Bacalhoa Winery. Both produce an enormous amount of world-famous Muscatel wine (my father, coincidentally, made Muscatel wine in his wine cellar in the upstate NY home I grew up in).
Both wineries engage in the extremely interesting and charming wine-making method of playing Georgian chants. Both wineries have learned from the Italians to keep the wine agitating while it ages in their ancient wine cellar oak barrels, where hundreds of thousands of liters of wine are aged. We are told that the chants are the most effective music in agitating the wine as it ages, and creates the highest quality wine.
Bacalhoa has growing in front of its front door an olive tree of the winery that is ancient. It has reached the astonishing age of 2,600 years old.
With the damp, musty cellar ambiance, the soaring high ceilings, and the chanting, the wine cellars seemed like catacombs—or perhaps more appropriately, given the sacredness of the wine in Portugal (and the chanting), a Cathedral.
In all, we sample seven excellent wines, and happily stumble back to town afterwards.
Instead of our routine of finishing the day at a lovely and delicious and festive local wine bar or tasca or ristorante, we opt to prepare a sumptuous seafood feast back at our apartment. Maggie cooks a superb seafood dish consisting of two delightful stuffed squid, swordfish steaks, salmon steaks, and large prawns in a tomato and olive oil sauce. I prepare an oversized charcuterie plate of sliced local meats and cheeses.
Portuguese tinto wine joined our most Portuguese dining.
Friday, November 29, 2024
We know our morning cafe today for our ritualistic morning coffee (at Capri Café in Setubal) is good because every seat is taken within a minute of their opening for the day.
Our train ride this morning takes us to the ancient town of Evora, which is considered one of the prettiest towns in Portugal. Evora is a medieval town dating back to Celtic times, and is surrounded by Roman city walls. The largest medieval cathedral in Portugal is found here.
It does not take long for me, once we start walking “centro historico,” to realize that this town is quite special in its medieval charm. My assessment is that this place, considering its ancient cobblestoned streets and monumental buildings, is one of the best towns we have visited in Portugal. Perhaps a close second to Guimarães as my favorite town to walk in our Portugal travels.
The Chapel of Bones is likely the most memorable monument we encounter. The Chapel was built in the 17th century on the initiative of three Franciscan monks who, in the spirit of the time (religious counter-reformation, in accordance with the norms of the Council of Trent), wanted to convey the message of the transience of life, as can be seen from the famous notice at the entrance: "We bones who are here await yours". In addition to the spiritual issue, there was also a physical issue, namely: there were 42 monastic cemeteries in the Évora region that were taking up too much space and strategic locations that many wanted to use for other purposes. So they decided to remove the skeletons from the ground and use them to build and decorate the chapel.
After walking miles of lovely medieval streets in Evora, we opt for a late first-of-the-day meal. We do not realize that the feast we are about to experience will be not only one of the best meals we have ever experienced in Europe, but also more than enough as our only meal of the day.
We hit paydirt when we opt for this place, which calls itself Taberna Típica Quarta-Feira. Upon entering, our waiter informs us of how things operate at the ristorante. Customers are not given a menu. We are to eat whatever the ristorante chefs are cooking on this particular day. Music to my ears, I respond! This sort of no-menu, family-style eatery is precisely the kind of “local,” authentic experience I dream of finding when I am traveling. The only instructions we are given are that the lady at our table is to select our wine, and the gentleman is to pay for the meal and drinks.
Other signs that we are in the correct place include the fact that we only saw locals at the other tables (we were the only tourists!), all tables were occupied by customers (no vacant tables!), and signs on the wall that had wonderful sayings: “Vinho is poetry in a bottle” and “A meal without wine is called ‘breakfast.’”
We are overwhelmed by the succulent food dishes brought out to us during what turns out to be a Portuguese-style Thanksgiving feast consisting of exceptionally traditional Portuguese foods. Indeed, our waitress informs me that the eatery only serves what they, the staff of the place, eat themselves.
After we happily dine on several dishes brought out to us, I pull out my wallet to pay the bill. The wait staff chuckles, as even though they had already brought out several dishes for us, we were not even halfway into our meal!
The following is what we are served. Each is out-of-this-world delectable…
Beef tongue slider.
Rabbit and pig ear salad.
Chopped and marinated pork.
Sauteed mushrooms.
Fried pork belly honey and chili sauce.
Bacon-wrapped dates.
Watercress soup with pureed pumpkin.
Creamed cod, breaded spinach puree.
Pork shank.
Sauteed squash salad.
Beef marinaded in wine.
Deserts including lemon sorbet, flan, a pudding of creamed spinach mixed with bread, pecan pie, and fruit salad.
Tinto vinho Portuguese wine made in the region, served in the largest glass I’ve ever drank wine out of. We were poured a quantity that must have been close to a carafe in size.
I inform our waitress that we enjoyed the meal so thoroughly that if their establishment provided a place for us to sleep that night, we would be more than happy to stay for dinner as well.
We enjoy the meal so thoroughly that we are weeping with tears of joy.
What an unforgettably lovely adventure!
Again, when you step out of your comfort zone and into the unknown, that’s when the magic starts. What an enchanting dining experience.
So delightful is our experience that I would be so bold as to say if you only have time to do one thing in your trip to Portugal, eating a meal at Taberna Típica Quarta-Feira in Evora is the one thing you must do.
After our peak feast, we walk along the impressive Aqueduto da Agua de Prata, an aqueduct built in the 16th century.
Saturday, November 30, 2024
Our morning starts—as do all our mornings in Portugal—by seeking out a place where locals obtain their morning coffee to start their day. We opt for the main fresh food market in Setubal: Mercado do Livramento seafood market.
There, we encounter a large group of café customers who are apparently fishermen just after dropping off their daily catch of seafood and are now relaxing with espresso. We assume they are fishermen as they are roughly dressed and unshaven and burly and weathered. As I await my order of espresso, I notice that one of the fishermen has a shot glass filled with a brown liquid from a large glass bottle that appears to be black olives. Odd, I think, to want to drink olive juice.
But I notice several of the fishermen have the shot glass of brown liquid. “When in Rome, do as the Romans!” So I must try the olive water myself!
One little sip and I suddenly realize my mistake. Something I will look back and laugh at someday in the future. This, to my amused surprise, is the first time I am drinking hard liqueur at 7:30 am. We had been told by one of the fishermen, when we asked, that his “olive water” was what he called “ginja.” I figured that was just the name they gave their odd olive juice drink. But then after the startling discovery that I was not drinking olive juice but a liqueur, I looked up ginja online. Here is what I was drinking: “Ginjinha, or simply ginja, is a Portuguese liqueur made by infusing ginja berries (sour cherry, Prunus cerasus austera, the Morello cherry) in alcohol (aguardente) and adding sugar together with other ingredients, with cloves and/or cinnamon sticks being the most common.”
So it turned out that the “olives” I thought I saw in the large serving bottle were actually sour cherries.
Oops.
I end up drinking two cups of espresso to try to compensate for the sedative effect that I expect I’ll get from the early morning liqueur.
Our train arrives to pick us up an hour after it was scheduled. We never learn why it was late. We train to Faro and the southern Portugal coast.
As we enter the beach town of Faro, I’m feeling as if I will be disappointed by this place, as a great many of the buildings are from the 50s and 60s, an era that specializes in producing unlovable, dated architecture.
But as we pass through the historic town arch at the old medieval fortification wall, we enter the ancient, lovable, charming ambiance that I so intently strive to find. As night arrives, the street lights and Christmas lights emerge from their daytime slumber. The ambiance is now utter, stupendous magic. Characters are dressed in fancy holiday costumes and small bands of musicians are wandering the streets playing holiday music. The cobblestone streets and medieval buildings are like gold to my eyes. Faro, my dear reader, is a pure magical wonderland. I adore this town. The streets this time of year, even outside of tourist season, are alive and festive. Do yourself a favor and visit. Particularly during the winter holiday season. While your first impression, if it is like mine, will suggest that this is not special enough to visit, you will eventually see—when nighttime arrives during the holiday season—why it is a popular destination for tourists.
We conclude our day with a glass of tinto (red) Portuguese wine at a lovely outdoor bar appropriately called “Aperitif” after eating our delicious lunch of “tomahawk steak” that Maggie recommended we try. After that, we enjoy snacking on famous Portuguese cheese on our outdoor balcony above one of the walking streets at our apartment.
Here is my photo journal of the day.
Several streets in Faro are the home of many dilapidated houses crying to be flipped and restored to their former glory. And asphalt to be removed to unveil the glorious cobblestone underneath.
To be gentrified.
It would mainly involve simply removing the plaster from the building facades, and removing the asphalt that criminally covers the glorious cobblestone streets underneath. We were extremely tempted to buy a neglected building and do just that.
Sunday, December 1, 2024
Lagos is one of the most visited cities in the Algarve and Portugal, due to its variety of tourist-friendly beaches, rock formations (Ponta da Piedade), bars, restaurants, and hotels. The town is famed, in part, for its vibrant summer nightlife and parties. Yet, Lagos is also a historic center of the Portuguese Age of Discovery, frequent home of Henry the Navigator, historical shipyard and, at one time, center of the European slave trade. In 2012, travel website TripAdvisor, classified Lagos as the number one travel destination, on a list of "15 destinations on the rise" worldwide.
Lagos is an ancient maritime town with more than 2,000 years of history. The name Lagos comes from a Celtic settlement, derived from the Latin Lacobriga, the name of the settlement that was established during the pre-Punic civilizations.
Despite its reputation as a wonderous medieval town—so wonderous that its reputation attracts high levels of tourists—we were not overly impressed. A nice place to walk during the Christmas holidays, but too touristy, and not an authentic town.
However, we were more than thrilled to visit Lagos as the marque attraction that draws nearly all tourists is the rocky, cave-filled coastline.
We thoroughly enjoy a coastal tour on a small boat.
Protruding south of Lagos, Ponta da Piedade is a dramatic, spectacular wedge of headland with contorted, polychrome sandstone cliffs and towers, and a network of dark coastal caves, complete with a lighthouse and, in spring, hundreds of nesting egrets, with crystal-clear turquoise water below.
Our small motorboat was up against big wave seas, which disconcertingly tossed us violently up and down like a wine bottle cork in a hurricane. On the tour, one finds many coastal cliffs, caves, and outcrops. The caves and scuba opportunities were so enticing to me that we vow to return someday to kayak into the caves and dive the waters.
Intriguingly, there are many romantic, secret, hidden beaches along this coastline, one of which is notoriously a nude beach called “The Little Banana,” a reference to the effect that the cold seawater has on men.
As we pass by the many cave networks that line the coastal cliffs, I feel a lot of worry about our bad timing, as I am certain the seas are far too rough for our pilot guide to navigate our boat into the tiny cave entrances and then on into hidden little pools of water. Surely, if he did that, we’d quickly be smashed instantly against the jagged rocks, killing us all—frighteningly, one of the rock formations we pass is called, appropriately, “Titanic.” But despite my pessimism, I am thrilled when, after passing one small opening he called “The Kitchen,” and passed up because he said today it was “The Washing Machine,” he then proceeds to pilot us into two tiny pools inside a network of rocked caves. I consider myself brave, but I must admit that I was rather nervous as our boat was thrown up and down and sideways within inches of angry rocks.
Other rock formation names on our tour: Love Grotto, Arch of Triumph, Heart Grotto, King Kong, Garage, Living Room, Chimney, Cathedral, Hallway, Fine Arts, Skull, and Camel.
See this video of our tour.
Upon returning to Faro, we opt for a charcuterie board at The Old Tavern in the middle of the lovely medieval historic center of Faro. We are also talked into ordering a half liter of tinto red Portuguese wine served in a beautiful ceramic jug. After that, we could not resist stopping into Casa Ginja for a nightcap of that strong “firewater” liqueur. Maggie and I then stumble home holding each other up in our rather drunken state.
Monday, December 2, 2024
We start our day serendipitously discovering being able to walk on top of the fortification wall of Centro Historico in Faro—a hidden gem we hope Faro will activate in the future. We then train from Faro to Tavira.
Tavira's origins date back to the late Bronze Age (1,000-800 BC). In the 8th century BC it became one of the first Phoenician settlements in the Iberian West. The Phoenicians created a colonial urban center here with massive walls, at least one sanctuary, two harbors and a regular urban structure which lasted until the end of 6th century BC.
We lunch at Tasquinha da paula. We stop here as the tiny eatery seems quite local. It is run by a friendly wife (cook) and husband (waiter) who explain to us our four food options today. No seafood, as today is Monday and there has been no fresh catch brought in on Sunday.
Tavira has spotty medieval charm, but too many streets are asphalt over cobblestone. This town therefore has potential. But not there yet.
We finish our day by enjoying a tour of The Olive Factory Tavira, Helder Madeira. They produce delicious olives—but only olives for eating. They do not make olive oil, but we sample a local olive oil from a neighbor during our tour-ending feast lunch they have provided for us. No preservatives are used in their olive making, which is extremely unusual for a Portuguese olive factory.
Back in Faro, we sit out on our apartment balcony for a day-ending nighttime cup of tea and a glass of tinto Portuguese wine.
This is the photo journal I shot in Tavira.
Tuesday, December 3, 2024
A lovely romantic Christmas lights walk in Old Town Lisbon concludes our stay in Portugal. Streets are alive with many active, festive holiday shoppers, and street performers at many street intersections. It appears as if Lisbon celebrates nearly every day of the year.
This is the photo journal I shot on this day of walking in Lisbon.
Lisbon (“Lisboa” for the Portuguese) is the capital and largest city of Portugal.
Lisbon is one of the oldest cities in the world and the second-oldest European capital city (after Athens), predating other modern European capitals by centuries. Settled by pre-Celtic tribes and later founded and civilized by the Phoenicians, Julius Caesar made it a municipium called Felicitas Julia, adding the term to the name Olissipo. After the fall of the Roman Empire, it was ruled by a series of Germanic tribes from the 5th century, most notably the Visigoths. Later it was captured by the Moors in the 8th century.
When it comes to working and employment conditions, Lisbon has some of the lowest wages and purchasing power among European capitals. Energy (electricity, gas and fuel), along with supermarkets, housing, and various government taxes, rank among the most expensive, even compared to the richest EU countries. The gap between the highest and lowest wages is, again, the largest inside the "Euro Zone". The lowest wages can offer a value per hour as little as 6-7 euros. Due to these reasons Lisbon has had a high level of "youth emigration" mostly to other European cities of countries as France, UK, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Belgium.
Overall for our 20 days in Portugal, we walk about 160 miles in our wanderings through 20 Portuguese cities and towns. After three weeks of eating an enormous amount of meat and cheese in Portugal, when I weighed myself upon returning home, I had lost two pounds.
Significant quality of life amenities we noticed and greatly appreciated in the 20 Portuguese cities we visited is that compared to nearly all American cities, Portuguese cities impressively have almost no noise pollution from emergency vehicle sirens, train whistles, leaf blowers, or burglar alarms. Indeed, regarding leaf blowers, in each city we visited, rather than seeing hordes of gas-powered maintenance vehicles and maintenance staff (wearing sound reduction headphones, of course) as one always sees throughout America, in Portuguese cities we only saw maintenance staff using push carts and bicycles to tote around their hand-held rakes and brooms. Remember those tools??
Tellingly, on the afternoon after we returned to our Greenville SC home, I was assaulted by more leaf-blowing noise pollution in a few hours than during my three weeks in Portugal.
The peace and tranquility the lack of blowers and sirens brings to Portugal is astonishing. And noticed by us.
Portugal is a nation worthy of returning to.