We try the real stuff: Porto (2 Sep 2013)

After yesterday’s mammoth post, we’ll try to keep this a bit shorter. The travel gods frowned slightly on us for the trip to Porto when a highway accident slowed our exit from Lisbon. Hopefully it wasn’t a bad one … And in the end we didn’t arrive too late into Porto.

As our rooms weren’t ready, and it was lunchtime, Cyra suggested we eat at a local neighbourhood eatery, one definitely off the tourist track and frequented by the local workers. No picture menus here! Their Prato do dia dishes cost €3.70 and were very traditional, such as Grilled chicken with potato (with peri peri sauce on the tables) and Grilled sardines with rice and beans. Len had the former and Sue had the latter, washed down with some Vinho Verde. Nothing posh but a real sense of eating what the locals eat, and we like that.

The main game

Of course, the main reason for going to Porto was to taste port. As port tasting is one of the few “inclusions” on the tour, no-one was going to miss that! But first, a little orientation. Porto is Portugal’s second largest city and, apparently, one of the oldest European cities. It was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996.

Having had lunch and all checked in by 2.30 or so, we met in our hotel foyer to set off for the tasting, taking a long “orientation” route to get there. Despite some urban sprawl Porto is a pretty small city … It is also a very hilly one. Anyone who’s a gym junkie needn’t worry about missing their workouts when they’re in Portugal (from our experience). So, we walked through the town having various churches, squares, statues (you know, men on horses) and other buildings shown to us, until we reached the river.

The river bank – the Douro River – was busy with people eating and drinking at bars and cafes, and young people (mostly teen boys) jumping from scarifying heights on the bridge into the river, competing with all sorts of mostly pleasure and tourist craft. We guessed they knew what they were doing. There are several bridges in Porto, but this one was the Ponte Luís I or Luiz I,  a metal arch bridge which joins the cities of Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia.  It was designed by Téophile Seyrig who had worked on Porto’s Dona Maria Pia Bridge with Gustav Eiffel. It opened in 1886.

We walked across the bridge to Villa Nova de Gaia, which is, really, where Porto’s ports are made and had a short tour and tasting at Offley. We tried White, Tawny, Ruby and Rose port. The first and last can be served chilled, straight or with mixers, as a nice summer drink … And so a group plan was hatched for a picnic the next day. More on that anon…

We were told that this port wine area was the first regulated “appellation” wine region, having been defined in 1756. Wikipedia says that Chianti (1716) and Tokaj (1730) are older demarcations, but they weren’t regulated.

That evening we all decided to join the vegetarian in our group at a vegetarian restaurant called Essencia. We are very glad we did. We dined stylishly in their courtyard on some really tasty food, such as Baked Goat’s Cheese (Sue’s entrée) and Mango and Bocconcini Salad (Len’s main course). It was a little more formal than our previous places but nice for a change. And the evening was gorgeous – we felt like we were living the talk-eat-live-laugh-share Yalumba life! Essencia was a little way from the city centre, which brings us to …

Portuguese taxi drivers

… Who are truly scary. At least those in Lisbon and Porto were. We had some very interesting rides through narrow lanes at speeds rather beyond our normal comfort level. Len was sure it was Michael Schumacher who drove us from the bus station to our hotel, but the ones who drove us to and from the restaurant must have been his brothers as they were equally fast and furious. We don’t think we’re the first tourists to comment … And we probably won’t be the last.

Three-words

SUE: Slurp, Yum, Yikes
LEN: Sticky, Sweet, Hilly

and the stills…

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