For our second day in Porto we did a guided walking tour. Tour was an enormous circuit of the city., covering some areas we had already visited and some of the ‘hidden gems’ . For those places we’d already visited it was great to hear more about the history . We actually had two guides- our main guide and a ‘guide in training’ – it basically meant that David and I both got personalised treatment.

Interesting fact about statues of European men on horses (and yes, they are all men!) – the stance of the horse indicates the nature of the man’s death. For example, we know the chap above died of natural causes (disease in those days as average lifespan was 40) because his horse has all 4 hooves on the ground. One raised hoof means he died as a consequence of wounds in battle and two raised hooves (rearing) means he died on the battlefield. Except Napoleon of course who is always depicted on a rearing horse- it’s thought to make him look larger and more powerful.

Arrived back in the hotel early afternoon in time to greet Rick and Bei who had arrived up from Lisbon by train. From there the great tandem assembly race began. And the winner was………Rick by a country mile. Let’s just say there are going to be some hotel staff that are going to be a bit surprised when they service the rooms today.

We mapped ourselves out a route and set off round 9am to begin our exploration of Porto’s key sights on foot.

First on the agenda was L.ivraria Lello – or the Lello Bookshop – apparently one of the worlds most famous bookshops, most recently because it is purported to have been the inspiration for the Hogwarts Library (JK Rowling lived in Porto for a while). Google informed us we needed to be there by 9.30 with pre-purchased tickets to avoid the crowds, and this was an understatement. We managed to get tickets for the 10am entry – yes you actually have to pay for the privilege of entering this bookshop, but who wouldn’t pay for a piece of Harry Potter- so we only needed to queue for half an hour. Although crowded it was pretty impressive (and yes, quite Hogwartish). The stairs we pretty perilous, made more so by the youngsters (and not so youngsters) vying for position for the best selfie.

We staggered out in dire need of espresso and found a cute little shop serving only coffee and wine (even at 10.30am). We opted for coffee- yes, we do have a minimum standard.

From there we explored some of the amazing tiled buildings that are so characteristic of Porto – first Igreja Do Carmo – one of the many churches sporting the blue hand-painted tile murals, and then Sao Bento train station – equally impressive, and unlike its Christian counterpart didn’t charge for entry..

Did a quick trip to the Porto Cathedral to suss out the Camino starting point. No idea how we will get our bikes up there to get started, but that’s a problem for another day.

Food was all about outdoor dining today and immersing ourselves in the vibes of the city. The street musicians are amazing, so we chose our lunch and dinner spots strategically near the best ones. We were entertained by a piano accordionist (or whatever the right term is) for lunch and at dinner a guitarist who sang a mix of Pink Floyd, Beatles, Led Zepplin, and even a rendition of Adele’s ‘someone like you’ in full falsetto – and pulled it off! We finished our culinary delights with the not to be missed desserts at the historic and very posh Majestic Cafe .

Stroll through the streets and back to our hotel 17,000 steps later and exhausted.

Left our hotel in a chilly but sunny 10 degrees heading for Porto with a couple of stops planned along the way.

First (very brief) stop was for a close inspection of the loch just up the river. It was too rainy to stop yesterday. Hard to believe the difference in height between the two sides of the loch- didn’t see it in operation but it must be quite a sight ( if you’re not an engineering nerds who might be reading this).

Next stop was Amarante – one of the oldest cities in northern Portugal built on the banks of the Tamera river.  A bit hairy to get in and out of but well worth it. Wandered the quaint streets for an hour or so and then of course did the mandatory stop at the Confeitaria da Ponte – the riverfront bakery specialising in all things egg and sugar. Great atmosphere- full of small groups of old Portuguese men who obviously meet there for their morning espresso. Coffee was great- delicacies were a bit too sweet for our liking.

From here we fast tracked to Porto to avoid the peak hour traffic, arriving at the car rental place round three. After returning the car we realised our hotel was only a couple of hundred metres away – too close to get a taxi yet so far to carry 2 x 30kg bags plus 2x 8kg back packs plus miscellaneous bits and pieces we’ve accumulated (note to self to plan ahead next time). Alas, no amount of pathetic looks could solicit an offer of a lift from the car hire guy, so we opted to leave the cases at the car place, lug the rest around to the hotel with the plan for us both to go back later. I got caught up with check in (bummer) so David did the hard yards. I did manage to capture him on film from the hotel foyer though!

Set off on foot late afternoon to explore. We can tell already we’re  going to love this beautiful city.  Strolled down the promenades to the waterfront via the Mercado do Bolhao food and flower markets with a note to return there tomorrow for the makings of lunch.

Had dinner at a small restaurant sitting outside, wrapped in blankets, right on the waterfront – amazing!

Finally the long walk back- let’s just say what comes down must go up again (to the tune of over 250 steps just to get up from the waterfront). We will have glutes of steel by the end of this trip!

We started our day today with a 2 hour boat cruise up the Douro. Weather was again quite gloomy but the rain thankfully held off until we got back to dock. Hard to capture the beauty of the hillsides. All the hills are terraced with man made stone walls, with vines, olive trees and almond trees (most of them decades old) making for beautiful textures. Colours magically transformed when there was a snippet of Sun.

Because of the steep slopes tending the vines and picking is all done manually by the local communities. They carry the fruits out in baskets on their shoulders. Most winery buildings are also terraced, using gravity to move the grapes/wine through the process rather than requiring no pumps. The barrel rooms (I’m sure they have a technical name but I don’t know it ) are dug into the rock faces protecting the wine from the summer heat which gets to mid 40s here- although it was hard to imagine today when we were rugged up to the 9s.

The trip down the river was pretty smooth but the wind and the current has got up by the time we turned around which made for a rough (and slightly wet) trip back.

We had a late lunch at a local restaurant/wine bar. I ordered lamb cutlets, and for a mere 16 Euro received a plate of no less than 10 cutlets (plus salad and potatoes)- given we paid $6 a cutlet last time we bought them in Melb, I am going to be eating lamb at every opportunity here! As well as huge meals have fabulous flavours – we are fast realising it’s hard to get a bad meal , or wine, in Portugal.

By the time we dragged ourself away from our cosy lunch spot the rain had settled in for real, so we drove to Peso Da Regua (about 20K awayto visit the Douro Museum. The museum covered the complete history of the area from first establishment through to current day. Production – including some fabulous old film footage. Highly interactive with a fabulous audio tour including audio descriptions for all items – a great example of inclusion. And made it a dream for me.

It was a long drive back on the extremely narrow river hugging roads – with a few moments of breath holding as local drivers whizzed by in both directions! Hopefully it will be easier tomorrow when (if )the rain stops.

Woke to snow on the mountain tops this morning and freezing cold which soon progressed to steady rain. So we made the executive decision to have a lie in, a late breakfast and to head straight to Pinhao rather than explore side towns in the rain. Good decision!

It was a bit of a long road to Pinhao but divided roads the whole way. Because we are using the toll roads there is very little traffic- but rest assured we will pay the price later, with tolls ranging from 45 cents to 6 Euros!

The trip involved lots of long uphills (up to about 1000 meters elevation) and long steep down hills with lots of signs warning to check brakes, beware of black ice etc. The down hills all had side ramps, no doubt for trucks whose breaks get a bit hot- we were glad that being a Saturday we didn’t find ourselves in front of a truck on a long downhill.

Arrived in Pinhao early afternoon. Pinhao is a small wine making village right on the banks of the Douro River- the main wine growing region in Portugal. Our hotel is set right on the banks of the river- a bit gloomy today but still beautiful.

We had lunch at a local winery, followed by a walk (or should I say waddle)through town. Food , wine and scenery were sensational.

Left Évora just after 9.30 heading for Belmonte (about a 290km drive) but the stopover in Marvao was the absolute highlight today.

Marvao is puportedly Portugal’s most beautiful castle, and it’s certainly the most beautiful site we have visited so far (and we’ve been to a few). It’s high up in the mountains near the border of Spain – legend has it that you can see all of Portugal from the battlements. Being so high it seems to have its own microclimate – we arrived to thick fog and drizzle but once we climbed up the weather gods smiled on us, and although it was windy and cold (6 degrees) the sun emerged .

This is the area where most of the world’s cork is produced- as well as massive cork plantations, streets are lined with cork trees that are harvested. Cork trees take 45 years to generate high quality cork which builds up around the outside of the bark- hence most cork farms are multigenerational with cork farmers planting for their grandchildren

It’s quite a hike to get up to the castle but once you’re there you can walk the entire castle wall – in fact I’m amazed they let people on some areas. The views make it worth the climb. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Had lunch in a very cute cafe, with a caged parrot that offered greetings in every multiple languages and wolf whistled like a tradie from the 80s.

From Marvao we headed to Castello de Vide, supposedly the best preserved Jewish quarter. We were very glad we parked outside the city walls rather than trying to navigate the steep narrow streets.

Arrived at out hotel in Belmonte around 5, having dome the last hour of our drive in pouring rain. We are staying in a converted convent – an absolutely incredible building – warm as toast despite the stonework, largely due to roaring wood heaters in every open space.

had dinner in their restaurant – complete with award winning chef. I snuck in quickly so nobody would notice I had my very elegant hiking boots under my black pants.

Woke to much gloomier weather today- cloudy and light drizzle. We had a tour and wine tasting booked at the Joao Portugal Ramos winery in Esrremoz, about an hour away, so we headed off round 9.30.

Arrived there round 10.45 (it’s never too early for a wine tasting is it?). The winery buildings were absolutely gorgeous- with the ‘old’ building being the original winery and the ‘new’ building ,designed to complement it by the owners son who is an architect, incorporating lots environmental features (eg grass roof terrace & water channels around the barrels) designed to keep the wine cool in the summer.

After our tour we got to taste the wines. David was driving so only tasted the reds, I therefore bore responsibility of tasting them all on behalf of both of us- a tough job but someone’s got to do it! Tasting came with cheeses, pate bread and olive oil, so by the time we left we were fully replete.

Reds were beautiful and on asking if they had suppliers in Oz the answer was yes- Aldi!!

With rain settling in we made only one stop on way back at Vila Vicosa yet another small rural town with a huge medieval castle.

Back at hotel by 3.30, narrowly missing peak hour traffic which is a nightmare on these narrow streets.

Post-dinner we are in our room with the heating cranked up to the max trying to get our washing dry before we leave in the morning.

Had a fabulous day exploring Évora on foot today.  Started at 9am with a walking tour- once again a very knowledgeable guide who had done her masters in history at the Evora University- which must be one of the most beautiful (and oldest) university campuses in the world. 

Evora has an amazing history with multiple civilisations on top of one another and vestiges of each visible today – Romans, Moors (Muslims), Jews, Portuguese. 

Like many Portuguese cities there are Catholic churches, every hundred metres or so. One of the most intriguing is the Chapel of the Bones constructed from over 5000 human skeletons. Built in the 17th century the bones are supposed to encourage reflection on the fragility of life. The inscription reads “We bones are here, for yours we wait” – a bit macabre but we couldn’t resist going in.

The  120 step climb  to the roof of the Evora Cathedral gave us a Birds Eye view of the city. We arrived at the top right on midday so were met by a cacophony of bells. The bells on the cathedral ring twice on the hour (two minutes apart). Legend has it that this is to confuse the devil- arriving at noon therefore meant 24 bells gonging in our ears.

We had lunch at an amazing local restaurant recommended by an American couple we met in Lisbon who seem to be travelling much the same route as us only one day ahead. 

The restaurant (Taberna Tipica Quarta-Feira) has been run by the same family for 27 years. They don’t have a menu, they simply sit you down and bring you numerous small dishes until you can eat no more. Very traditional dishes- for some they told us what we were eating in advance, for others we had to guess what we had eaten after.  David focused on the vegetarian dishes and I focused on the meat dishes so between us we managed to polish it all off. Some (that I can remember) were: a melon muse bouche (or Portuguese equivalent), the mandatory olive/bread starter, sautéed mushrooms, dates wrapped in bacon, a gorgeous raw vegetable salad, sweet breads/gizzards  (eaten by me largely to be polite but actually quite tasty), codfish, beef tongue sliders (described retrospectively), pumpkin terrine, potato fries, ricotta tart and apple crumble. Needless to say we returned to our hotel in a food and wine coma for a late afternoon nap.

Early evening walk to finish our day.

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Leisurely breakfast in the sunshine on the patio this morning- accompanied by the hotel cat meowing loudly- obviously they are used to tourists slipping them rashers of bacon.  Little did they know that hard as nails Hax was impenetrable. 

Set off towards Evora round 10 with a 350km drive ahead of us. First was back tracking to Lagos through the endless parade of roundabouts- after that it was divided highway pretty much the whole way- uninteresting but fast. Countryside mostly farmland- olive groves and some sort of fruit orchards which were in full pink blossom. There were vast green paddocks but no animals in sight so not sure what was being farmed.

Reached the outskirts of Evora round 1pm marvelling at what an easy drive it had been – then we arrived at the city gates…….

Evora is a UNESCO world heritage city in west Portugal not too far from the Spanish border.  It is considered the most in tact UNESCO site in the world. The city remains surrounded by the high city wall inside of which is a labyrinth of extremely narrow cobblestone streets,- and therein laid the rub! Our GPS sent us on a circuitous route (we later concluded this was probably due to poor signal between the stone buildings).  The narrow streets put David’s spatial skills to the absolute test. We literally crawled along holding our breath hoping it would make the car thinner. In a couple of streets if we’d stopped we wouldn’t have been able to open outlet doors. None the less we arrived at the hotel unscathed and very glad to park the car knowing we’d be on foot the next couple of days.

some snippets from our first walk…..

Our hotel, Albergaria do Calvara is just beautiful, built inside a 16th century olive oil mill.  It only has 20 rooms and lots of beautiful shared spaces. It’s the perfect  place to relax and slow down  our pace for a couple of days. 

We have a walking tour tomorrow and can’t wait to learn more about the history. 

Late night addendum: just got back from dinner followed by an evening walk. Streets surprisingly quiet but even more ambiance in the night lights.

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Slept like logs last night – nothing like the sea air- woke to gorgeous blue skies (not sure what time the sun cames up but it’s beaten us out of bed every day so far).

We were in the car by about 9.30 as soon as we’d had breakfast and done our washing.  After sending a very small bag of clothes (6 items) to hotel laundry and getting it back with a $95AUD bill- we are now strictly on hand washing – jeans will need to be worn until they stand up and walk to the laundry themselves!

Destination was a day trip to Lagos. About 30kn south east of Sagres, Lagos is a large seaside town, right on the southern coast of Portugal. Historically it’s a fishing town but now it’s also the summer holiday destination for the rich and trendy. It sports a huge marina with enormous yachts of every kind ,  but still has the charm of traditional buildings and cobbled streets.  A key attraction of this coast are the large cliff faces, caves and beaches (a bit reminiscent of the great ocean road).

We spent a little time in town but focused on exploring the cliffs. We started with a 1.5 hour boat tour which went right along the bottom of the cliffs – swells were high so they couldn’t go as close as usual, but it was magnificent none the less- and so nice to be out in the boat with wind and spray.

We arrived back in time for a late lunch- we picked a small traditional looking restaurant down by the water- I had my first paella for the trip- absolutely loaded with seafood, and David had grilled tuna (yes Portugal is slowly turning him into a fish eater!) and vegetables. Still feeling full at 7pm!

After lunch we walked a few km along the cliffs that we’d sailed around.

Back to our hotel in time for the sunset. Last night here and heading to Evora tomorrow, approximately 350km drive north east of here.

Driving update: David is now a true pro.  He stayed on the right side of the road all day with no reminders, and after going through 50 roundabouts (I kid you not) between Sagres and Lagos he is officially the roundabout king!