Setting off to your next destination can be difficult if:
* a number of shoe shops you haven't explored is open around the cnr from your hotel
* another Portuguese delicacy namely Pao com Chorizo (a mouthwatering spicy chorizo cooked in the bread dough €1)
* unsure how to navigate getting out of Lisbon via the tiny one way streets etc
So we shopped, we ate and Tom Tom in hand we still asked for directions to arrive on the A1. A beautiful piece of road linking the North and South of Portugal - with thanks to the the EU.
Filling up at a petrol station shouldn't be hard but 45mins later we were back on the road - you want a What? Receipt??? Cars fly past us @ speeds in excess of 130 -200kph We overtake only 5 cars and one of them is a cement mixer (full). We arrive in the ancient city of Porto 3hrs later beside the Douro River past the many old port wine houses looking for our hotel wishing the car was a moped the streets are cobbled and getting skinnier unlike us.
We ask hotels advice for traditional Portuguese food - there is Pizza Hut Burgers & chips wi everything throughout Portugal thanks EU. We are booked to dine @ Shish in Foz the best in town? Ok the location is on the beach as the sun sets (never trust a restaurant that relies on atmospheric setting because the food is usually overpriced and crap - unless it's in France). It was a fusion of Japuguese - what the... A country built on salted cod Bacalhau & Pasteis de Nata doesn't add wasabi to raw fish? It adds salt, lots and lots of salt to cure it, which may answer why we are always thirsty. We were not disappointed with the quality of the food or....the upturned nose of the wait staff. Obviously not a place where the rif-raf dinne. We were pleased to see just a couple of traditional Portuguese food fused as a Japoguese offering. And as usual the wine list is based on a regional offering rather than grape type.
And so we explore this ancient city and world renowned producer of Port wine.
There are some amazing churches with extraordinary architecture and traditional azuleijos adorning the interior and exterior walls. There is the world famous bookshop Livraria Lello which was built in the 18 century and is famous for it's Spiral Staircase, which was the inspiration for the Harry Potter 'moving staircases' in Hogwarts School. There is the famous Eiffel designed bridge which crosses the river Douro and links the two sides of the city with the famous Port Houses along the banks of one side. There are the beautiful 'gondola like' boats that carried the grapes from the vineyards along the Douro to the great port houses. Now of course they come in big trucks, but the boats carry another valuable cargo....tourists.
There is much to see if you like to walk that is the best way, you can take a tourist bus of course, but more often than not they go too fast and the headphones on the recorded tour don't work ( as was our case! ). So we walked.
On our last night we joined the locals at a Tasca on the edge of the river. There we enjoyed simple fare but delicious just the same. The salgados ( equivalent of tapas) were freshly made and we also had the "roasted" chorizo, which was literally roasted on our table on vessels which were lit by firing up some spirit to provide a flame upon which the chorizo was roasted mmmmmmm.... The chourizo was then placed on the rustic sourdough bread and the lovely juices oozed into the bread which we forged down and washed it down with icy cold Sagres beer. This ... Is Livin'
Tomorrow we head to Coimbra the ancient University City of Portugal famous for it's ancient buildings, library and Portuguese scholars.
