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Hello all, final check in before we return home on Saturday 15th September. The last rant had us leaving Lisbon of course, and off to Porto. Our initial experience of Porto was extremely bleak, as I interpreted what Tom Tom was telling us incorrectly and we took a wrong turning, navigating in any partnership in a foreign car and country is inevitably dicey. Then when we got back onto track and turned into the street where our hotel was it looked grim, and unfriendly, and of course difficult to find. And just to add to the present situation, Joe noticed the lock cover had fallen off, and the tom tom stopped working because the lighter was out of action.
However things quickly turned around, the lovely staff of the Eurostars das Artes put me onto an app for the iphone called TMN Drive, which worked as effectively as the tom tom would, (but we were later to find out yet again, it is only as efficient as the ning nong, that’s me, manages it) and then a little walk took us into a lovely square where we found the ideal little restaurant. The room was very cheap, and speldidly clean with the most comfortable bed we have slept on.
So in the morning we went out with renewed vigor. Porto is a beautiful city, we jumped onto a tram for a couple of euros, and that took us to the funicular, they are quite keen on funiculars in Europe, it dropped so steeply we felt like we might topple over. At the bottom we wandered along the Douro river, in and out of tiny alleys, before getting across the other side of the river to visit the wine caves. We chose Taylors, and it was a very good choice. We enjoyed a good and informative tour before some super tastings. Rebaording the sightseeing bus was a mistake as it seemed to go round in slow circles, so we jumped off when it got close to our hotel and had a quiet night in.
The next day it may not come as any big surprise to many of you that we found the wine growing region of Douro. Our driving experience until now had been quite disappointing, admittedly we were on the motorways quite a lot, but still going through the same countryside, and it just seems drab and uninteresting, scruffy sort of trees everywhere, with no change at all. But after we left Alemante and reached 800 meters up we got our first breathtaking view of the beginning of the Douro valley, vineyards as far as the eye could see, and it only got better from there. Certainly some of the roads were very narrow, and a big challenge for Joe the driver. We came down down and down to reach Regua we crossed the river and meandered our way to Pinhao, passing by a huge lock, in which a big ferry boat just happened to enter while we were looking on. It was a very deep lock and we didn’t have time to watch it complete its transition.
Our real surprise awaited us when we arrived at the most beautiful little piece of paradise we could have hoped for, Vintage House Hotel. At a ridiculously reasonable rate, which included a 5 star breakfast to go with it’s 5 star rating, we were welcomed by a gentle kind front man, who handed us a complimentary glass of port wine each to sit and enjoy on the dining terrace while he completed the checkin, took our cases out of the car and driving it back up to the car park. Then up to our luscious room, with a beautiful little balcony where we sat out with our Douro wines and snacks in the evenings. Pinhao itself was not such a special town, except its famous train station, with its colourful tiles of the region. Portugal is famous for its tiles, and all over houses and buildings, and signposts, they look wonderful. Our main entertainment in this area was just going for little drives along the tiny roads, and visit the wineries. One of them was a very tricky road up to Quinta Nova, and thankfully we encountered no trucks on our route. The view way up here, and the beautiful lunch they served on the terrace there nearly enticed us to come back for a night, but time was marching on, and we continued on our travels north. We stopped for a filled roll in a beautiful little medieval town called Guimareus, which was a great little stop, but further navigating issues arose trying to get up to the National Park which had been suggested to us. Certainly the navigating issues contributed to an ill feeling of this area, but actually the little town of Geres in the National Park gave a rather hostile feel, thousands of tourists buzzing here and there, and the few people we did encounter seemed to be pretty unfriendly, and getting accommodation seemed to be less than straightforward, so we drove back to Valencia de Minho, where again we got lost. After a nice Swiss resident of the area drove ahead of us to our Quinta (the Portuguese word for winery) we found our room and went down to investigate the little town. Sometimes it works well, but when people say they like to get off the main trail and go into the little local places, it doesn’t always spell a pleasant experience. Sometimes none of them speak English, and look very suspiciously at us, and this town was one of those, it just had a grey lonely feel to us. Probably going way north was our only wrong turning, but from here we went back down to a real little gem, Evora. This is a very old walled city, a beautiful place to wander in and out of alleys, and eat in the little sheltered eateries, we found one called Mr Pickwick for our evening return, the owner had his own style, we found him very entertaining, and his off sider as well, but I read on the forum reviews that most people seem to detest this place and the staff. We couldn’t have been more happy and in fact we returned the next night. It only cost us 20 euro also, always a bonus. We did the touristy sightseeing things, the Cathedral was magnificent of course, and the various other ruins dotted about. Our hotel Ibis was just outside the wall and only cost about $70nz, very clean, handy and friendly.
After 2 nights here we successfully, I am happy to be able to report, navigated ourselves to Sintra. This was a real gem to end our Portugal experience on. It is a UNESCO protected national park just about 25 minutes from Lisbon. For only $140 including breakfast, we had a room in the Tivoli Hotel, just across the road from the National Palace right in the heart of the Historic centre of Sintra. Our room looked over the valley and all the chalets and palaces dotted amongst the green treed hillside, and up to the Moorish Castle towering above us. We woke on Sunday to masses of people, thousands and thousands. We could not bear the thought of battling with all of them, so after a rather useless little train ride, we wandered below the National Palace and found the most ideal little spot to while away a couple of hours. Edla Espaco was a family run restaurant, or café, where he had been a desktop publisher and traded that life in for this. Simply unbelievably we had a fixed menu of Carrot and tomato soup, then coriander sauced chicken, and a small desert and coffee all for the total of 5.50euro or NZ$8.50 each, and a cheeky bottle of white for only 4.5 euro, or $6.92. He had colourful bean bags, terrace tables, and a couple of funny big king and queen lounge chairs, brightly colored yellow. Sounds awful, but it worked.
On Monday we woke to attack the tourist sights, ticket in hand we joined the throngs boarding the 434 bus climbing up the winding trail to the Moorish Castle firstly, thankfully most of the bus stayed on board for the next Palace. It was a lovely peaceful meander around, with breathtaking views down to our little village and the hidden palaces and chalets on the hillside. And of course lots of steps. It gave a wonderful view over to the Pena Palace, the next one for us to take on. It was built for Ferdinand ll, and was occupied by the royal family for not so very long, but now it is just for our enjoyment. It is along the lines of the Disneyland castle we went past in Germany.
After that little jaunt we took car in hand and made it almost 5 km before taking the wrong turn, but after that navigating was exemplary and we found our way out to the Atlantic coast to almost the most western point of Europe. The town we were angling for was called Ericiera, it was just beautiful, perched on a steep cliff, providing a most dramatic view. We wandered down amongst all the fishing boats lined up on the shore, many of them seem to have skids on them, and a tractor just drags them out and parks them up. The little streets with their white and blue apartment/houses were a peaceful meander, until we tripped upon a fish restaurant with its tables teetering on the edge of the cliff, where we had a most beautifully grilled sea bass. Then back to Sintra, where I slipped out of the bath/shower when I forgot to put the non slip mat down. Now I can appreciate the extra layers I have put on over the last few months, they came in very handy as I landed thud on the hard floor, thankfully not hitting my head on the basin or throwing my arm out to save me and breaking it. So all is well.
So that brings us to the end of Portugal, which on reflection we look upon favorably. A few moments of navigating strife, and the poorly chosen visit to the far north, and some of the boring countryside, and continuous built up area where one town seems to join into the next have been out weighed by the beauty of Sintra, even with the throngs of people buzzing around, and the magnificent and huge Douro valley, and quaint little medieval Guimaeras, and the walled city of Evora. We had planned to go to the Algarve, but Portugal proved to be a bigger country to tackle than we thought.
Turkey this year was very relaxing, with the usual drenching of sun and swimming. It seems ridiculous that we are now sitting here in sandy Dubai, taking flight for NZ tomorrow.
So until next year, Wrighteau Rants are over and out.
However things quickly turned around, the lovely staff of the Eurostars das Artes put me onto an app for the iphone called TMN Drive, which worked as effectively as the tom tom would, (but we were later to find out yet again, it is only as efficient as the ning nong, that’s me, manages it) and then a little walk took us into a lovely square where we found the ideal little restaurant. The room was very cheap, and speldidly clean with the most comfortable bed we have slept on.
So in the morning we went out with renewed vigor. Porto is a beautiful city, we jumped onto a tram for a couple of euros, and that took us to the funicular, they are quite keen on funiculars in Europe, it dropped so steeply we felt like we might topple over. At the bottom we wandered along the Douro river, in and out of tiny alleys, before getting across the other side of the river to visit the wine caves. We chose Taylors, and it was a very good choice. We enjoyed a good and informative tour before some super tastings. Rebaording the sightseeing bus was a mistake as it seemed to go round in slow circles, so we jumped off when it got close to our hotel and had a quiet night in.
The next day it may not come as any big surprise to many of you that we found the wine growing region of Douro. Our driving experience until now had been quite disappointing, admittedly we were on the motorways quite a lot, but still going through the same countryside, and it just seems drab and uninteresting, scruffy sort of trees everywhere, with no change at all. But after we left Alemante and reached 800 meters up we got our first breathtaking view of the beginning of the Douro valley, vineyards as far as the eye could see, and it only got better from there. Certainly some of the roads were very narrow, and a big challenge for Joe the driver. We came down down and down to reach Regua we crossed the river and meandered our way to Pinhao, passing by a huge lock, in which a big ferry boat just happened to enter while we were looking on. It was a very deep lock and we didn’t have time to watch it complete its transition.
Our real surprise awaited us when we arrived at the most beautiful little piece of paradise we could have hoped for, Vintage House Hotel. At a ridiculously reasonable rate, which included a 5 star breakfast to go with it’s 5 star rating, we were welcomed by a gentle kind front man, who handed us a complimentary glass of port wine each to sit and enjoy on the dining terrace while he completed the checkin, took our cases out of the car and driving it back up to the car park. Then up to our luscious room, with a beautiful little balcony where we sat out with our Douro wines and snacks in the evenings. Pinhao itself was not such a special town, except its famous train station, with its colourful tiles of the region. Portugal is famous for its tiles, and all over houses and buildings, and signposts, they look wonderful. Our main entertainment in this area was just going for little drives along the tiny roads, and visit the wineries. One of them was a very tricky road up to Quinta Nova, and thankfully we encountered no trucks on our route. The view way up here, and the beautiful lunch they served on the terrace there nearly enticed us to come back for a night, but time was marching on, and we continued on our travels north. We stopped for a filled roll in a beautiful little medieval town called Guimareus, which was a great little stop, but further navigating issues arose trying to get up to the National Park which had been suggested to us. Certainly the navigating issues contributed to an ill feeling of this area, but actually the little town of Geres in the National Park gave a rather hostile feel, thousands of tourists buzzing here and there, and the few people we did encounter seemed to be pretty unfriendly, and getting accommodation seemed to be less than straightforward, so we drove back to Valencia de Minho, where again we got lost. After a nice Swiss resident of the area drove ahead of us to our Quinta (the Portuguese word for winery) we found our room and went down to investigate the little town. Sometimes it works well, but when people say they like to get off the main trail and go into the little local places, it doesn’t always spell a pleasant experience. Sometimes none of them speak English, and look very suspiciously at us, and this town was one of those, it just had a grey lonely feel to us. Probably going way north was our only wrong turning, but from here we went back down to a real little gem, Evora. This is a very old walled city, a beautiful place to wander in and out of alleys, and eat in the little sheltered eateries, we found one called Mr Pickwick for our evening return, the owner had his own style, we found him very entertaining, and his off sider as well, but I read on the forum reviews that most people seem to detest this place and the staff. We couldn’t have been more happy and in fact we returned the next night. It only cost us 20 euro also, always a bonus. We did the touristy sightseeing things, the Cathedral was magnificent of course, and the various other ruins dotted about. Our hotel Ibis was just outside the wall and only cost about $70nz, very clean, handy and friendly.
After 2 nights here we successfully, I am happy to be able to report, navigated ourselves to Sintra. This was a real gem to end our Portugal experience on. It is a UNESCO protected national park just about 25 minutes from Lisbon. For only $140 including breakfast, we had a room in the Tivoli Hotel, just across the road from the National Palace right in the heart of the Historic centre of Sintra. Our room looked over the valley and all the chalets and palaces dotted amongst the green treed hillside, and up to the Moorish Castle towering above us. We woke on Sunday to masses of people, thousands and thousands. We could not bear the thought of battling with all of them, so after a rather useless little train ride, we wandered below the National Palace and found the most ideal little spot to while away a couple of hours. Edla Espaco was a family run restaurant, or café, where he had been a desktop publisher and traded that life in for this. Simply unbelievably we had a fixed menu of Carrot and tomato soup, then coriander sauced chicken, and a small desert and coffee all for the total of 5.50euro or NZ$8.50 each, and a cheeky bottle of white for only 4.5 euro, or $6.92. He had colourful bean bags, terrace tables, and a couple of funny big king and queen lounge chairs, brightly colored yellow. Sounds awful, but it worked.
On Monday we woke to attack the tourist sights, ticket in hand we joined the throngs boarding the 434 bus climbing up the winding trail to the Moorish Castle firstly, thankfully most of the bus stayed on board for the next Palace. It was a lovely peaceful meander around, with breathtaking views down to our little village and the hidden palaces and chalets on the hillside. And of course lots of steps. It gave a wonderful view over to the Pena Palace, the next one for us to take on. It was built for Ferdinand ll, and was occupied by the royal family for not so very long, but now it is just for our enjoyment. It is along the lines of the Disneyland castle we went past in Germany.
After that little jaunt we took car in hand and made it almost 5 km before taking the wrong turn, but after that navigating was exemplary and we found our way out to the Atlantic coast to almost the most western point of Europe. The town we were angling for was called Ericiera, it was just beautiful, perched on a steep cliff, providing a most dramatic view. We wandered down amongst all the fishing boats lined up on the shore, many of them seem to have skids on them, and a tractor just drags them out and parks them up. The little streets with their white and blue apartment/houses were a peaceful meander, until we tripped upon a fish restaurant with its tables teetering on the edge of the cliff, where we had a most beautifully grilled sea bass. Then back to Sintra, where I slipped out of the bath/shower when I forgot to put the non slip mat down. Now I can appreciate the extra layers I have put on over the last few months, they came in very handy as I landed thud on the hard floor, thankfully not hitting my head on the basin or throwing my arm out to save me and breaking it. So all is well.
So that brings us to the end of Portugal, which on reflection we look upon favorably. A few moments of navigating strife, and the poorly chosen visit to the far north, and some of the boring countryside, and continuous built up area where one town seems to join into the next have been out weighed by the beauty of Sintra, even with the throngs of people buzzing around, and the magnificent and huge Douro valley, and quaint little medieval Guimaeras, and the walled city of Evora. We had planned to go to the Algarve, but Portugal proved to be a bigger country to tackle than we thought.
Turkey this year was very relaxing, with the usual drenching of sun and swimming. It seems ridiculous that we are now sitting here in sandy Dubai, taking flight for NZ tomorrow.
So until next year, Wrighteau Rants are over and out.
