Portugal Travels – Adventure 7

Adventure 7 is actually only a small part of this post. There were a couple of significant itinerary items that occurred before and after Adventure 7 that need to be covered. (As you might have gathered, there was a lot to the itinerary.)

Braga

In the morning, we took the train to Braga, regarded as the religious center of Portugal, where we visited Bom Jesus do Monte, an expansive religious complex. This was probably the highlight of the many “enlightenment” stops Matt had on the itinerary.

One of the main attractions here are the stairs. Climbing the stairs is the thing to do. Like we needed to climb more stairs. We started at the top. Dave elected to stay at the top.

Those of us who decided to seek the most enlightenment took the tram down. Way down. Much further down than we expected.

And then we climbed.

We took so long that at one point Dave texted us asking if we had gone to hell.

Porto Adventure #7

After a train ride back to Porto and a late lunch, we gathered ourselves at the AirBnb before heading out on Adventure 7. Adventure 7 was basically walking along the Vila Nova de Gaia side of the Douro River and searching out port places. We peeked in Burmester, walked by Caves Calem, and had a flight at Sandeman. Once again, the weather could not have been better.

Then it was on to dinner at Mistu where we had a bunch of tapas! One of my favorites was the seared butterfish with foie gras. Matt’s favorite OF THE ENTIRE VACATION was the salmon ceviche.

Pinhao

We got an early start the next morning to take the train to Pinhao in the DouroValley. It was early enough there was still mist over the river as we crossed the bridge.

The train was out of Sao Bento train station where the lobby is known for the tile work. (There is a lot of beautiful tile in Portugal that I have not done justice to in these posts.) The train station is unlike anything I’ve seen here.

Once again, I slept on the train. The previous night I had been busy tracking Nicole and her travels in a Uhaul from Methuen, to the North End, to Newton to pick up a couch, to the North End in an attempt to drop off the couch, and then to Methuen with the couch that did not fit through the front door of her new apartment. Once she was safely in Methuen for the night, I stopped tracking her. This was at 10:03 pm east coast time. Which is 3:03 am Portugal time. The lack of sleep was ENTIRELY my own fault. As Megan kept telling me as I stressed out about the move, “She’ll figure it out.”

We walked from the train station up to a winery (Quinta de la Rosa) along a road where, once again, we could have taken a fall over a precipice into the river at almost any point. At Quinta de la Rosa, we had a tour of the winery followed by lunch with a “winemaker’s selection” of wine. I can’t remember what we had at lunch, though I know there were sardines. I enjoyed everything except for the sardines.

Then it was back down into town where we stopped at a coffee shop where the authentically nice barista gave us plenty of ice for iced cappuccinos and a free bag of ground coffee for the morning. I think we may have also had some Pastel de Nata.

Then it was back to our AirBnb where we enjoyed our last night in Porto by having dinner on the porch – prosciutto, cheese, potato chips, chocolate, and port.