Portugal: Tourists Discover an Old Land

 

The magnificent Jeronimos monastery in Lisbon gives a hint of the grandeur and history
that Portugal offers, as tourists are discovering. Talk with anyone who's been to Portugal
lately and they're likely to tell you that it was crowded with tourists. 

  Portugal is probably seldom the first European country an American visits. Doesn't everyone want to see France first, then maybe Italy?   And why visit? After all, Portugal has almost no internationally known landmarks like the Eiffel Tower or Rome's Coliseum.
     Nevertheless, visiting Portugal is a lot like visiting those more popular countries. The wine and churches will remind you of Italy. The ham is like Spain's ham. The ancient ruins are like those in southern France, and there's an iconic bridge in Porto designed by Gustave Eiffel that opened three years before his tower in Paris. After a few days, you start to enjoy Portugal as Portugal, a unique and ancient country with its own traditions, cuisine, culture, music and history. Residents of Porto and Lisbon could give Italians lessons in la dolce vita. Chefs in Evora could teach their French counterparts a thing or two. Winemakers all over the country are producing world-class reds, whites and especially roses.  Not to mention port. Madeira, of course, comes from Portuguese islands in the Atlantic.
     In 2017, Jane and I spent the better part of April touring Portugal and we were hardly alone. There were throngs of international tourists in Lisbon, Sintra, Porto and Evora. Our other destinations were much quieter with fewer tourists. This posting focuses on the hotels we chose for our clockwise circuit around northern Portugal.

      We arrived in Lisbon very early on April 1 and stayed three nights at Casa Amora (click HERE for link), a guesthouse in a quiet residential neighborhood. If you're thinking of staying at Casa Amora, try for its studios in neighboring houses rather than the small rooms in the main house. We had one night in the later (with hardly room to open our suitcases) before asking if we could move to a studio. Fortunately we could, landing in a two-story unit with a small kitchen and two full bathrooms. Very much better, and the staff could not have been more accommodating. Casa Amora is close to a metro (subway) stop called Rato. It was also an easy walk to the streetcar stop at Basilica da Estrela. The only negative is that there are few restaurants in the immediate neighborhood.

The lounge at Casa d'Obidos featured a full-size pool
table, a felt-covered card table, and a TV with
several English-language channels.

      Once on the road in a rental car, our first stop was one night in Sintra at Villa Mira Longa (click HERE). Sintra is practically a suburb of Lisbon but is a destination in its own right because of its many palaces, reminders of Portugal's royal history. The last king was Manuel II, who was deposed in the 1910 revolution and died childless in England in 1932.  At least one palace still has much of its late-19th-century furnishings. Mira Longa is a short uphill walk from the center of the action in front of the National Palace and where you can grab buses to other palaces.
     Next was Obidos, a walled village that was a medieval port but is now 10 kilometers inland due to silting in its harbor. The town, still surrounded by crenellated walls and towers, is a warren of narrow streets lined with stone houses, shops and restaurants. Its castle is now a hotel, Castelo de Obidos. We stayed two nights in a converted manor house, Casa d'Obidos (click HERE), outside the town but with a view of the castle and walls.

Our terraces (the other was much smaller) at  Quinta do Vallado
near Peso de Regua looked out on a hillside vineyard.

     We made it to Porto on April 7, checking in for four nights at 6Only (click HERE), a boutique inn that had only six rooms when it opened in 2009. It has since added an adjacent building and added six suites. 6Only is near the top level of Gustave Eiffel's Dom Luis I bridge and the top of  the Funicular dos Guindais, the rail line that lets you return from the riverbank without a long, long walk up a steep, steep hill. Although 6Only is on a fairly lifeless block and around the corner from the bus station, its location really isn't too bad. And the suites are huge with unique cork-encased free-standing bathrooms. Be sure to ask for a room or suite at the rear, which will be much more quiet than a street-facing room.
      Next were two nights at Quinta do Vallado (click HERE), a winery hotel, in the hills above Peso da Regua in the heart of the Douro wine region. We stayed in a large room in an angular new building above the reception area and dining room. Our two terraces looked out to vineyards on the the other side of a tributary of the Douro. Vallado's wines -- we had a red and a rose -- are excellent, as is its restaurant. It was warm enough to use the pool, which is in an orange grove where guests literally pick their snacks off the trees.

The stone walls of the original convent add character to the bar
at Pousada Convento de Belmonte, which made a great gin and tonic using
locally made tonic.

     Our next stop was the mountain town Belmonte where we stayed at Pousada Convento de Belmonte (click HERE). Only the bar, a courtyard and a few sitting rooms remain of the original convent. The large and comfortable rooms and the dining and breakfast rooms are all relatively new. If you go there, don't be tempted by the offer of a large room with a private terrace. The smaller rooms with smaller balconies have the mountain views you'll want.

During our four nights at Albergia de Calvario
in Evora we encountered a group of Harley Davidson
bikers from Siberia. They were there for only
one night, but made an impression nonetheless.

 
By April 15, our time in Portugal was winding down and we were headed to our last destination, Evora, in the Alentejo wine region and a center of cork production. Here we stayed three nights at Albergia de Calvario (also known as ADC; click HERE), just inside the city walls. Most people planning a trip to Portugal are intent on seeing Lisbon and Porto. Evora should also be on that list for the ancient megaliths nearby, for its bizarre chapel made of human bones, for its cathedral and Roman temple, and for its great cuisine. Portugal's famous black pork (from a special breed of acorn-fed pigs) reaches its apogee here.
     Our trip ended with one more night in Lisbon, at Tryp (click HERE), a hotel within walking distance of the terminals at the airport (where we had to return the rental car). With a 5:40 a.m. flight, it made sense to be close to the airport, and it was easy to grab a taxi for one last dinner in the city.

Alcohol

        You may be focused on Porto's many port tasting rooms (expect to pay for your tastings), but for my money the best alcohol in Portugal is its unfortified wines. Touriga nacional and touriga franca grapes are blended with other varieties, especially tinta roriz (known in Spain as tempranillo) to produce hearty and satisfying reds with loads of secondary flavors. I seldom like rose wines, but I didn't have a one in Portugal that I didn't enjoy. Yes, Mateus rose is still made and sold in its distinctive bottle. No, having given it up while still an undergraduate, I didn't try it again. Many of the good roses are 100 percent touriga nacional. Whites are also good, especially vinho verde and alvarhino.
     Two beers seemed available most places, Super Bock and Sagres. Both are so-so lagers but good enough when cold enough.  Some tapas places also offer bottled craft beers; I had only a couple and both were pretty hoppy and pretty good.
     Sangria is another option -- better by the liter than by the glass -- and is widely offered. Never had one that wasn't freshly made, well fortified and dotted with fresh fruit.
   

Renting a Car

      We've rented a car for at least part of every European trip for the last 20 years, and renting through Avis in Portugal was the worst experience by far. The diesel-powered Renault Megane estate was fine, but  the total charge ended up being more than double what Expedia had quoted, and the receipt, emailed to us, was in Portuguese, not that the English language version that we finally requested and got was much easier to understand. Also, the charge to our credit card was in U.S. dollars, allowing Avis to charge us an unfavorable exchange rate as well as a needless "dynamic currency conversion" fee. I will avoid Avis/Budget in the future, and will make sure that my credit card is being charged in the local currency.
      Driving in Portugal is like driving anywhere else in continental Europe. The signs and traffic laws are the same. Narrow village streets can be quite a challenge. One problem, and other tourists reported experiencing it, too, is that the GPS didn't always get us where we wanted to go.  Belmonte, for example. There is apparently more than one Belmonte in Portugal and the GPS wanted to send us to one in the south rather than asking which Belmonte we wanted. We had to stop and ask directions. The GPS was fine, though, in the larger cities.
     Get a toll responder (same idea as an EZPass responder) when you rent your car. It will let you go through tollbooths without stopping and give you unfettered access to the highways, almost all of which have tolls.
   
 

Portugal: Porto, City of Food and Wine

Gustave Eiffel's Dom Luis I Bridge, as seen looking toward Porto from the Vila Nova de Gaia side.
 The top level of the 1880s bridge is used only by pedestrians and a light rail line.
 The bottom level is for pedestrians and vehicular traffic

   Although I had never consumed much port wine nor particularly enjoyed it when I did, I've long been interested in Porto. Perhaps it's the combination of geography and wine: grapes are grown upstream along the banks of the Douro River. Much of the wine that comes from them is taken downstream to Porto to be fortified as port wine, which is then exported worldwide. Not all the Duoro wines become port; there are reds, whites and roses sold as regular (unfortified) wines. These, especially the reds, I have liked for a long time.
     Porto is also intriguing because trade in port long ago made the town very wealthy, wealth that can be seen in street after street of baroque buildings. Areas to explore include both sides of the river, the city itself on the Porto side and the other side (Vila Nova de Gaia, which is not part of the city of Porto) with its port wine lodges -- if you drink port you'll recognize a few of the names -- and a gondola that provides amazing views of both sides of the river and the iconic Dom Luis I Bridge that connects them.

For the itinerary of our April 2017 Portugal trip

and links to hotels, click HERE. 

     Despite its steep hills, this compact city of about 300,000 is quite walkable. We were there April 7 to 11, a Friday to a Tuesday. On that Sunday morning we took a bus to see the celebrated Casa da Musica, the modern auditorium designed by Rem Koolhaas. We bought tickets to return that night for a 9:30 concert by British jazz pianist and singer Anthony Strong.  From the auditorium it was a long but pleasant enough walk to the Serralves Contemporary Art Museum. Unfortunately, a Miro exhibition there was so popular that the lines were extremely long. We gave up on getting in and instead kept walking until we reached the city's beachfront area, Foz do Douro (mouth of the Douro),where shady streets lined with the homes of the affluent slope downhill to beaches, rock outcroppings and oceanfront restaurants. We found a place for lunch -- grilled octopus is always a good bet in Portugal -- and walked along the beach before taking an old-fashioned streetcar back to the riverfront near our hotel and the Luis I Bridge.

A few notes of a fado performance

  at Casa da Guitarra in Porto.    

       We stayed at 6Only, a 12-unit guesthouse, convenient to the upper lever of the Dom Luis I Bridge, to the funicular that goes down to the riverbank and the bridge's lower level, and to the Casa da Guitarra, a guitar and music store that presents fado performances daily at 6 p.m. in a concert format in a small listening room across the street from the store.  We had missed out on fado in Lisbon, so we were happy to have a chance in Porto to attend this performance with two guitarists and a singer. The guitars are plucked, not strummed, and the vocalizations can seem almost operatic at times. The performance was delightful, though this music is traditionally melancholy; lyrics often reflect resignation to the poverty and premature deaths of fishermen and seafarers, as well as a longing for something better.
     Since we are tourists, we did two very touristy things. We took a doubledecker Yellow Bus tour of the city, and we took a boat ride on the Douro.  Both were enjoyable.  Earbuds aboard the bus let you hear about what you're seeing, but loudspeaker narration on the boat, in Portuguese and English, was incomprehensible.
     Porto is like Disneyland for drinkers. Besides the port tasting rooms, there are sidewalk cafes on both sides of the river and, in Porto, well inland, too.  One we particularly enjoyed was the Wine Quay Bar (click HERE),  on a walkway above the riverfront promenade, where we stopped in a couple of times.  The menu is tapas and, as always in Portugal, the ham is a good bet, as are the cheeses. The wine list is good, too.  It offers indoor seating, but the best seats are along the walkway out front, looking out over the river. Especially in the late afternoon, sea gulls are a menace, swooping down to steal bread and other foods right off your plate. The staff hands out water pistols but I never saw anyone actually deter a bird with one. We suffered two raids (the staff replaces the stolen food) but declined the offer of a table inside. As it gets later, the gulls aren't a problem.
      A similar spot is even closer to the river, a bit upstream on the other side of the Dom Luis I Bridge (still on the Porto side), called A Bolina (click HERE).  Again, red wine, ham, cheese and happiness, which seems to be what Porto is all about. The lifestyle here is a thing of beauty: interesting venues for live music, sidewalk cafes, riverfront strolls, amazing architecture, beautiful beaches, and, of course, wonderful food and wines.
   
      On the way from Obidos to Porto, we pulled off the highway at the town of Alcobaca to visit its famous monastery, which was completed in 1153. Its church, 350 feet long and the largest in Portugal, is severely plain on the inside and made of huge blocks of granite. The church is the final resting place of King Pedro I, who died in 1367, and his wife, Ines de Castro. The young Pedro's father, Alfonso IV, disapproved of Pedro's romance with Ines and may have been unaware that they had secretly married when he ordered her murder in 1355. When Pedro assumed the throne five years later, he had Ines posthumously recognized as a queen. When Pedro died after seven years on the throne, the two were reunited: both now rest in beautifully carved tombs at the front of the church.
     Here are some photos from Alcobaca, then photos from Porto.

The unadorned sanctuary at Mosteiro de Alcobaca. Only about the first third
of it has seating.  

The 14th-century tomb of Pedro I.

The monastery's domitory. 

The monastery's refectory.

The church facade at Mosteiro de Alcobaca.

A port tasting at Portugal's oldest port maker, Kopke. A different chocolate was suggested for
each port. Jane preferred the tawny, which reminds me of Madeira wine, which I like,
 without being as good. I preferred the fine white port so much that I came home with a bottle of it.
White port is consumed cold; the others at room temperature.

The elegant Sao Bento train station was just a few blocks from our hotel.
 It's no longer the main station in Porto, but it has the more convenient location.
 Trains using this station also stop at the newer and larger Campanha station,
 which has many more trains.

A slice of beach at Foz do Doura.

A cafe near the Lopke port lodge on the Vila Nova de Gaia
side of the river, which means that that's Porto on the other side.

Stairs lead down from streets at the top level of the
Dom Luis I Bridge to the streets at the lower level.
On the other side of the river are the port lodges
of Vila Nova de Gaia.

The Funicular dos Guindais in Porto runs between the street at the lower level of the
Dom Luis I Bridge to streets near the end of the upper level. The stone face at right
gives some idea of the rocky terrain that Porto is built on.

Apartment buildings often have shallow balconies. These are along
the river in Porto.

A gondola connects the streets at the upper end of the Dom Luis I Bridge in Vila Nova de Gaia
with wine lodges along the riverbank. Porto is across the river.

A streetcar driver waits for a passenger to board. We took
this car from the Foz do Douro beaches back
to the riverfront near the Dom Luis I Bridge.

The old parts of Porto are a warren of narrow streets
and steep passageways with stairs. 

   

Rem Koolhaas's Casa da Musica in Porto.

The inside is just as angular as the exterior.

The Casa da Musica auditorium can be customized for different types of performances.
 Note the tiered seats behind the stage. The glass is actually a window to the outside;
 another window wall is at the rear of the auditorium. Before a performance starts, a special curtain is lowered
 to cover the glass for the sake of acoustics. The audience sits in individual seats with armrests
 that share a back that runs the width of the auditorium. If you're in the middle,
you better not have to leave during a performance.