And so begins the adventure...: Last Day in Portugal

We are in Porto, the home of Port wine! As many of you know, this is one of my favorite wines so we couldn't very we'll come to Portugal and not visit Porto.

Sidebar for those that are keeping up with this, I did not post yesterday because we did not have internet access even though we were told that we would have it.

Back to Porto. This is one of those cities, for me, that will not need to be revisited again. The only reason we came was for the wine tastings,and that was a disappointment. The wine was not disappointing but rather the tasting rooms were. We expected to go to tasting rooms like one does in the US when visiting wineries - you go to the vineyard, wander around a bit, take a tour of their wine making areas and finish with tastings either in the vineyard or in a lovely tasting room.

In Porto, there is a specific area that you go to, actually across the river from Porto, called Vila Nova de Gaia. There are at least 20 port lodges there. These are not the vineyards but rather where the port is brought and aged. While some of the cellars are quite impressive, it's not the same as going to the vineyard. Fortunately for us, we are going to be in the Duoro Valley in four days and that is where the vineyards,are - along with tasting rooms. So we actually tasted Port in Porto and we will then go to the vineyards to drink it again.

Croft was offering a tour, tastings and a Fado show for an extremely reasonably price (and I so wanted to hear Fado), we scheduled the tour and show. Oh my gosh, I am mad about Fado music! And the wine was pretty damn good. So good in fact that Ernie bought a bottle of their 1983 single Quinta vintage port! Fado songs reflect Portugal's relationship with the sea. Fado means fate - how fate deals with Portugese adventurers and the women they leave behind.

What I did find sad about Porto is how dirty and unkempt the city is. The exterior of the cathedral is like so many others we have visited, usually plain and uninspired but the altars and chapels inside are amazingly rich and beautiful. The cathedral in Porto was in such need of restoration and just plain cleaning that it was almost sad to visit it.

The Ponte Dom Luis I bridge is amazing! It is 150 feet above the river. In the 1880s, Teofilo Sefeig, a protege of Gustave Eiffel, stretched this Eiffel-tower sized wrought iron contraption across the 500 foot wide Duoro River. Eiffel himself designed another bridge in Porto a bit upstream.

We also wandered around some of the tiny colorful streets in Porto down by the river. Wait till you see how tiny some of these homes are!

There are four hones here!

This last photo is for our son Chris. This restaurant was named Cris. Ernie went inside to pay the bill and he said the restaurant was on the second floor and the ceiling was only two feet above the table tops.

Almost forgot, the most memorable thing about Porto was the room we had. Actually not the room itself but the parking accommodations. Since we got the car, having available parking is critical. We'll Ernie found a place in Porto that had parking. We were ecstatic! We got to the location and the woman was waiting with the key. There was parking on the street and, of course, there was nothing available so we were a little concerned about the parking. She pointed to a garage door and proceeded to open it. You should have seen Ernie's face! It was priceless. The driveway was between the two buildings and went down a steep hill to the basement level. We turned it. Both side mirrors and I said a prayer before heading down. The woman was directing me down the alley (lane, funnel, whatever you want to call it, path to doom) while Ernie was watching the passenger side from the street. She kept directing me down with minor adjustments left or right while Ernie kept saying stop, back out, don't keep going. I finally heard Ernie say of hell with it and he turned away. Obviously I got down into a spacious parking lot. I will admit that I had trouble sleeping worrying about getting that standard transmission car up that hill without hitting the sides. The next morning, Ernie waited at the street level to make certain nobody walked in front of the drive this forcing me to stop halfway up. Made it out easier than it was going in.

About an hour and a half after we left Porto, we stopped for breakfast in Braga. Walked around a bit and saw their main cathedral. Wait till you see the pics. So plain on the outside. It doesn't even look like a church but oh my gosh, the altar is stunning.

We the went on to Bom Jesus which is a sanctuario in the mountains above Braga. We just drove up to view the church and the scenery. They have a trail documenting the Stations of the Cross going up the mountain. We did not have time to do that today. Possibly another trip to Portugal. See the photo of the cave that represents the last station - Chris rising for the tomb. I can only imagine what the other stations looked like.