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Porto

Ryan's parents stopped through Amsterdam on their way back to the US from Italy which gave us an opportunity to travel somewhere kid-free while we had babysitters.  Porto, Portugal seemed like the right place given the focus would be on wine, which Sam finds very boring.😉


September 27:  6:00 am flight which meant catching a 4:45 am bus to the airport.  One of those decisions that seemed right at the time.  It did get us to Porto early with some time to explore before the food and wine tour we had scheduled for later in the day.  We walked around and hit the Porto Cathedral.  That's right - another European church!  This one was unique in the blue tiles throughout.



The food and wine tour was a good start to getting to know the Porto food, wine, neighborhoods and a bit of history.  Photo below of Pastel de nata which is a Portuguese pastry.  After the tour we walked across the Luis I Bridge and went to a rooftop bar for sunset viewing.  One thing about starting the day so early is that I hit my highest step count since moving to Amsterdam.  And the hills of Porto are serious so the steps are of higher "quality" than normal.





September 28:  This was our only unplanned day.  We started at Livraria Lello which is known as "the prettiest bookstore in the world".  It was beautiful but so crowded and despite my comments below about the pleasant people we encountered generally on this trip, it seems like all of the most irritating tourists were at this place at the exact moment we were. 😞  


Then we went to the Vila Nova de Gaia side of the Douro River which is where many of the port makers have tasting rooms.  We went to Taylor's and Cockburns for port tastings which was pretty exciting for Ryan, who is a port drinker.  We learned that the mass producers of port, such as the ones we visited on this day and what we are used to in the US, are sweeter (more syrupy) than the smaller producers in Douro Valley.  People in Porto DO NOT like the mass producers and prefer the less sweet versions that the smaller producers make and I would agree with them.  We even had some delicious white port which I had never had before.
  


September 29: We originally had scheduled a guided hike at Serras do Porto Park, outside of Porto, for Thursday.  The guide asked if we could reschedule for Friday (today) which was fine, but then as we were preparing to meet him at the train station he asked if we could defer the start of the excursion from 8:45 am to after 2:00 pm.  That was a little frustrating.  Since we were ready to go we decided to cancel the guided tour and go to this park on our own.  Essentially Ryan became the tour guide for this hike.  We managed to get in a scenic and pretty challenging hike (some actual climbing needed which makes it challenging to me!).  An actual guide and a nice picnic lunch (was to be included in the excursion we booked) would have been nice. I am not sure if hiking tour guide is a future career for Ryan but I guess it was his first attempt.


September 30:  Today we had a 10-hour Douro Wine Country tour.  It included 2 smaller winery visits (Quinta Da Foz and Quinta Do Monte Trevesso), lunch and a boat ride.  It was a long day but we had a very entertaining guide, great wine and beautiful views.  Also, the people that were on the tour with us were not annoying!  Same goes for the people on the walking food and wine tour we had the day we arrived.  I think Portugal, and maybe Porto specifically, is more geared towards people that are well-traveled which helps them be less annoying (i.e. needy and overly-questiony) on tours. 


Also, they still do foot-treading (foot stomping) with grapes in stone troughs before and during the first stages of fermentation.  We didn't see that happening but here is a picture of the trough from Quinta Da Foz.  I sorta wish I didn't know that.  I think about foot juices and leg hair getting into the grapes. 😨




October 1:  We had a late flight out of Porto so we stored our bags and decided to rent bikes and hit the beaches of Porto.  The bike rental was an idea based on chatting with some people we met on the wine tour who did something similar (except they biked to a nearby fishing village - note to self for our next trip to check that out).  However, I felt immediately regretful and appreciative of the biking setup in Amsterdam.  There are very minimal bike lanes in Porto and the ones on our path were a little ways outside the main part of the city.  It was tricky to share the road with cars and the sidewalk with pedestrians.  We managed to navigate it without incident and enjoyed the beach and a fish-filled lunch.  






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