A week in Porto & Lisbon
Plus a day trip to an underappreciated wine region
Hello ~ I’m Scott and welcome to your 5-minute vacation for July 2nd. I share these snippets of our travels in the hope that my photos and stories will allow you to go on a vicarious vacation and “get away from it all,” if only for a moment. I appreciate you inviting me into your inbox today.
Here’s your previous 5-Minute Vacation in case you missed it.
A handsome example of Azulejo. Portugal is famous for these tin-glazed ceramic tiles that are used both in the interior and exterior of buildings.
Have you ever wanted to visit someplace but every time you tried, it just didn’t work out?
Since moving to Europe, we’ve tried several times to visit Portugal only to abandon those plans because the airline tickets were too pricey, or the flight connections were horrid, or both. It got to the point that we wondered, why is it so difficult to visit Portugal? Well, it’s only difficult if you’re flying from Poland. Once in Germany, we found better flights, so off we went.
We flew into Porto. We finally made it to Portugal.
Porto ~ or “o Porto” in Portuguese which means “the port/harbor” ~ sits at the mouth of the Douro River.
Porto is an old city. It’s been around since before Roman times. Porto is also a hilly city. After one of our guides led us up and down streets with Azulejo-decorated buildings like this:
we needed sustenance. Our guide knew just the thing: Pastéis da nata.
Pastéis da nata are egg custard tart pastries, usually dusted with cinnamon. We probably had too many during our trip. We didn’t care. They were heavenly.
You’ve probably heard of Port, Portugal’s famous fortified wine, but did you know that Portugal also produces still wine? We weren’t aware of Portuguese still wines until we tasted some in one of Scott Harper’s wine classes. They were yummy and we’ve always wanted to learn more about them. We decided that the best way to do that was to go to the source: the Douro wine region.
The Douro Valley, with terraced vineyards on the steep, sun-soaking slopes, is an underappreciated wine region.
One of the wineries we visited was Quinta do Beijo (beijo refers to both a kiss and a hummingbird). After the tasting, we were offered the opportunity to see what was inside those big wooden casks.
And what did we find inside those big wooden casks? Nothing more than an eager tourist.
In addition to wine, Portugal is famous for cork. In addition to wine bottle enclosures, cork is used for shoes, wallets, handbags and many other products.
After a few days in Porto, we took the train to also-very-hilly Lisbon.
In addition to Pastéis da nata, Portugal is also famous for seafood, including bacalhau (dried, salted cod) and sardines. The company Comur packages sardines in these colorful tins that are labeled with a year (it’s a faux vintage because the sardines are the current season’s catch) and the name of one or two celebrities who were born that year. The tin with my birth year on it omitted mentioning me. An obvious oversight.
At the end of our stay, we went even higher into the hills around Lisbon to visit Quinta da Regaleira. Quinta da Regaleira is a 4-hectare (10-acre) property that Carvalho Monteiro purchased in 1892. He then developed it with faux towers like this, a palace, several tunnels and a well with 9 flights of stairs that are said to represent the 9 churches of Hell from Dantes’ “Inferno.”
Portugal: in addition to quirky estates, you’ve got great food, superb weather (on average, Lisbon gets over 2,800 hours of sunshine a year), delicious wine, and friendly people. No wonder you’re a tourist hotspot (especially for British and French tourists, according to our guides). I’m glad we finally got the chance to meet you.
Parting Shot
Walking around Lisbon, we turned the corner into a parking lot and saw someone praying to a saint on top of a well, silhouetted against a tasty pastéis-da-nata-yellow wall. How could we not want to come back to a place that has parking lots as beautiful as this?
Today, I’d like to begin an occasional series called Travel Words. Today’s word, inspired by pastéis da nata, is:
Tripetite
When you eat loads more than usual just because you’re on holiday.
I know I’ve been guilty of this; how about you?
Until next time,
Tschüss!
Tripetite!!!
As always, such a wonderful trip back for me, Scott. I love these 5-minute vacations, and the opportunity to revisit some great memories. Except your photographic eye is so much better than my amateur selection, so I got revel in that tile again, (and the food, and the hills!) I loved the yellows of Portugal. You may recognize some of it in my author/profile photo.