More Portugal

After Sintra and a bout of serious food poisoning or bird flu or something we headed off in our tiny hire car to the Duoro Valley.

The Duoro is one of Portugal's more famous wine regions and most famous for it's production of grapes for Port. The roads in the Duoro were unbelievably steep and I was just trying to focus on the white line in the middle of the road. Nate advise me not to look at the sheer drop just metres away. The instructions for the B&B said to avoid the first turn off for the winery unless you were used to driving on steep roads. We saw the sign but couldn't even see the actual road because it was so steep! It looked like you'd be driving straight off the cliff. Scary stuff!

Anyway, we arrived there safely and here's a picture of Nate with the Duoro Valley in the background.

After the Duoro valley we headed to Porto itself and I was glad to get rid of the hire car. The driving was fantastic along the freeways but the tolls were pricey. I think we spent 30 Euros on tolls ($55AUD). We also got seriously lost in the city of Braga and couldn't get out! I drove around for about an hour in this stupid town which wasn't much fun seeing as i wasn't enjoying sitting in the left hand side of the car, changing gears with my right hand, driving on the wrong side of the road and basically driving in a busy, maze-like, cobble stoned Portuguese town.

Anyway, we finally made it to Porto and ditched the car. The sun was still shining and this is a picture of the river and Porto city in the background.

And here is a picture of me riding a pig. Yes, it was fun:)

We went off to the other side of the river to Vila Nova de Gaia, which is where all the port is(and the pigs too). Basically until 1987 all the port produced in the Duoro Valley was transported there to be aged. If it wasn't aged there, then it wasn't port. Simple. Things have changed now, but most of the Port producers have tasting rooms there and this is where all the tourism is. In the Duoro even though there was a lot of grapes being grown, very few of the wineries are actually open for tourists like in Australia.

Anyway, we wasted no time. Here is a picture of me sampling some of the delicious port at Taylors. Oh yeah and when they ask you if you know much about port and you say "yes, we drink it in Australia", they smirk and think that's not real port you stupid Australian!!

The next day we headed back to Braga (the Bermuda triangle like city) but this time on the train. I was adamant that i wanted to go and see Bom Jesus do Monte which apparently means good Jesus of the mountain according to wikipedia. So anyway it turned out that the train was a much better idea and we were there within an hour and a half.

We headed up the stairway which is actually much longer than you can see in this picture. At the top of the stairway is a church and on the way up there is a fountain on each level representing the five wounds of Christ, the three virtues and the five senses (there's some more detailed pics on flickr). At the top there was a fantastic view so we stopped to have an ice cream. There was also a park with a lake and yet another grotto. All in all it was worth the visit and I'm glad we finally made it.

And last but not least we ate this delicious starter on our last night in Porto. It was at a restaurant called Black Coffee and luckily for us Nathanael spoke French because the waiter only spoke Portuguese or French. Anyway, he suggested this. It was goat's cheese, possibly deep fried and then covered in honey and walnuts. YUM!