Wednesday began with a good breakfast at the Imperio Hotel. You really can't beat the value of this place. The rooms are comfortable and airy and it is only €35 a night for both of us. As the weather didn't look so promising we were soon on the train back to Porto. When we checked in at Peninsular again we found we had been allotted a bigger room, which was welcome. As the weather was looking better we went for a good walk towards the sea on the Porto side of the Douro. We caught the little ferry across to Gaia at €1 each and headed back inland. The rain started and got steadily worse necessitating the donning of waterproofs. We popped into Porto Cruz for an explore and tasting. After watching several Douro related videos we opted for the superior tawny tasting. We were supposed to have a 20 year old, 30 year old and a colheita. However the assistant wasn't happy about her bottle of 20 year old and so upgraded us to the 40 year old instead. No way were we going to complain about that! By the time we were ready to leave the rain was coming and going. We decided to head back to our hotel during a lull but before long it was frighteningly torrential. How I longed for my walking boots rather than my drenched trainers. The roads were like rivers in places. Back at the hotel we found that our supposedly waterproof back packs and their contents were sodden. It took three days to dry my trainers out and our cameras and binoculars are still not right. Fortunately the rain had stopped by the time we had to go out for a bite to eat prior to our tango lesson.
After all that excitement the day before we woke up late and still tired on Thursday so we decided to have a cultural day in Guimarães. The train was ridiculously cheap at just over €7 each return. On arrival we soon found our way through the charming old town and up to the castle. I was only able to take one
photo as my still damp camera went on the blink after the first shot. It was a real shame as the castle was impressive. How come in Hastings we can only manage a ruined 11th century castle whilst the 9th century done in Guimaraes is perfectly preserved. We enjoyed a good wander round the Duke's Palace which had been restored during the Salazar regime. It reminded me in places of the Victorian fantasies inside Cardiff castle. As it was only one euro each extra we got combined tickets which included the architectural museum in the old town. However we didn't find this nearly as interesting as the palace. Having had enough culture for one day and as they rain was threatening again we bought a big bag of fruit and headed to the station for the next train back to Porto which pulled in shortly after we reached the platform. After a rest in our room and a fabulously degenerate hot chocolate each it was time for our next tango lesson. Afterwards we looked at several restaurants for our dinner but ended up back in Lagostim where the food is both good and reasonably priced. This time we enjoyed the simplicity of turkey steaks washed down with a light yet fruity Dão red.
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| Guimarães |
We had an appointment to meet Oscar Quevedo at eleven on Friday morning so we timed our getting up round that. Unfortunately Oscar couldn't make it as his new son had be born just the day before. We had a good tasting of the basic ports before heading up to Offleys as Dot wanted to try their pink offering. Before we got there we chanced into a delightful artistic tapas bar establishment called Taste4Art where we met our second tartaruga of the holiday. We ended up staying there for a delicious chouriço assado washed down with a Nierpoort tawny. By the time we left Offleys it was almost time for the free fado show back at Quevedo. We had a wonderful party of an afternoon listening and dancing to two talented chanteuses. As a result we were too tired to make it to that night's milonga, which didn't start until eleven. After another good meal at Lagostim we were soon in the land of nod.
Yesterday we were due to transfer here to Vila do Conde but couldn't leave Porto without a visit to Kopke. On the way Dot was highly amused by the motorcyclists who were competing over an obstacle course that had been set up along the waterside in Ribeira. After much urging I managed to get her inside at Kopke where we ordered a couple of colheitas accompanied by dark chocolates. The assistant also gave us samples of their delicious ten and twenty year old whites. What a treat they were! After that we collected our cases had caught the metro. We soon settled in and recovered from hauling our luggage up to the Santana Hotel so we decided to take a swim. We were delighted to see that the pool and gym had had a major refurbishment. Having worked up our appetites and had a white port appetiser we headed into town to find a multibanco and something to eat. We ended up in Les Villagoises where we confused the waiter so much that we ended up with only one main dish to share. Actually it was fine as after Dot had a huge ice cream and I had a lump of cheese we left feeling full but not bloated. The dish we had was an absolutely delicious salmon in French garlic sauce, which came with a scrumptious helping of vegetables. Back in our room we ended the day with a glass of the Martha's colheita, which we had bought at Castelinho in Regua, before dropping off into an exhausted sleep.
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