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| Porto, Portugal and the River Duoro |
Now that we’ve moved on to Spain, a retrospective on our first visit to Portugal is in order. It was our first visit to this little country to the west of Spain, and we’ve fallen in love with it. Sometimes when we get on a conversation about our travels in Europe, people ask us what our favorite places are. In the past it’s been a handful of cities: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Florence, Rome. Now the list will include the entire country of Portugal.
What we loved about Portugal
- The Wine – we love “medium to full hearty” reds, like Chianti and Sangiovese from Italy and Monastrell from Spain. We found the Touriga Nacional of Portugal to be the perfect example of what we like in a red wine.
- The Countryside – we expected a topography more like Spain: flat, semi-arid. What we found was lush, rolling hills and deep river-forged valleys. Admittedly all our time was spent in central and northern Portugal, so we’ll one day have to see how the southern end of Portugal looks.
- The Climate – while nearly half our visit was marred with cloudy and rainy weather, which the locals said is incredibly unusual for June, we found the mild temperatures and clear air to be a lot like central coastal California.
- The Highways & Bridges – we rode the spotless new A1, A25, A28, etc. highways, crossed bridges that looked like they had been opened to traffic just the day before, and despite the tolls (infamous in Portugal) and despite that we generally don’t like driving while traveling, we enjoyed the incredible (and surprising) “newness” of Portugal’s infrastructure, one of their benefits from being in the EU.
- The Wine – did we mention the great wine in Portugal? Particularly the Port for which they’re famous worldwide. The Douro valley is the official home of Port wine: if it isn’t grown and made here, it shouldn’t be called “Port” (and actually can’t in Europe).
- The Timezone – we literally didn’t realize that Portugal is in the same timezone as the UK until our plane landed in Porto (we thought they were on “European time” just like the rest of the continent). 1 hour seems a trivial difference, but it makes it a wee bit easier to do calls back home.
- The Cheese & Bread – well we might actually put these on any “what we love” list about countries in Europe, but it seems the Portuguese are especially adept at making them.
- Brown eggs, fresh fruits – this might be more an aspect of where we happened to stay, but we suppose any good quinta or casa or solar (the various levels and distinctions of B&B’s in Portugal1) is going to serve up some of the freshest and tastiest foods you can imagine.
- Reasonable Prices – everywhere we went in Portugal the prices were great, from €1.50 wine to €1 loaves of bread, and entire meals for 2 (with wine!) for less than €20, we found Portugal to be a stellar travel bargain.
- The Friendly, Faithful People – there are plenty of friendly people across Europe (even in Paris), but the Portuguese are especially friendly. In some places tourists might feel they are intruding, but not in Portugal where they openly welcome their tourists. And it’s good to see the Portuguese actually using their beautiful churches for their intended purpose, unlike many places in Europe.
- The Quinta Experience – Hugh and Jane at www.portugalbandb.com might have spoiled us, but the quinta experience itself is enough to make one fall in love with Portugal.
Notes
1 – A Portuguese “Quinta” (KEEN-tuh) is (or was) a working estate or farm and also makes money for the family by letting rooms; a “Casa” (CASS-uh) is a home–without the estate or farm–that lets rooms, more like what we would call a B&B or a pensione; a “Solar” (SO-lahr) is an estate (or former estate) that includes a chapel and lets rooms.
1 – A Portuguese “Quinta” (KEEN-tuh) is (or was) a working estate or farm and also makes money for the family by letting rooms; a “Casa” (CASS-uh) is a home–without the estate or farm–that lets rooms, more like what we would call a B&B or a pensione; a “Solar” (SO-lahr) is an estate (or former estate) that includes a chapel and lets rooms.
