Monday, September 4 -- Yesterday, we took a flight on Ryan Air from Barcelona to Porto. Dorota, the very first Rotary Youth Exchange student that we hosted now lives there. We arrived in Porto at around 1:30 pm and we were picked by Dorota's partner, Jorge, and their 2 year old daughter, Aurelia. Dorota is originally from Poland, but has lived in Porto for around 15 years. Fortunately, Jorge speaks really good English. Aurelia speaks mostly Portuguese, a little bit of Polish, and a few words of English. She is really cute, but she seemed unsure of the stranger sitting next to her in the car speaking a weird language.
When we get to their flat, she warmed up to us; especially Thom. We went out for a little bit to eat. Aurelia entertained the others in the café. After, Aurelia took and nap. We stayed with her while Jorge picked up Dorota after she finished giving a tour. Dorota works as a tour guide for Polish people visiting Porto. When Dorota got home, we started the process of catching up on years since we last saw each other.
Eventually, we headed to dinner at the fisherman's village. The meal was served family style with sea bass, octopus, salad, bread, boiled new potatoes, and a cabbage dish. Aurelia, once again, was the star of the restaurant. She visited the tables of other guest. They were all entertained. The table behind us I heard three ladies speaking English with an U.S accent. We started to talk and I found out they were from Florida.
After dinner, we headed back to their flat. Dorota set up a tour of port house for tomorrow and gave us a list of places to go. We are all tired and ready for bed.
We have found that the schedule is different here. The workday for Jorge starts at 9 am and he takes Aurelia to childcare and he picks her up at 6 pm. Today, Dorota started at giving a tour at 9 am, but she also had to go by one of the rentals before the tour. Dinner both nights has been after 8 pm and Aurelia went to bed after 10 pm.
Porto (Oporto) is a beautiful city starting along the banks of the Duoro River. If you take a boat up the Duoro River, you will find your self in the Port wine growing area of the Duoro Valley. Wine was important to the region from the time antiquity long before the British came to make Port wines. The Anglo-Portuguese commercial treaty of 1654 created new opportunities for English and Scottish merchants living in Portugal, allowing them special privileges and preferential customs duties. In 1667, disputes between the English and French lead to high tariffs on French wine and the English look for a new source of wine. They found that the Duoro Valley grapes produced a wine palatable to British consumers. The earliest recorded shipment of wine under this name Port took place in 1678. To protect the wine during the long sea voyage it was sometimes ‘fortified’ prior to shipment with the addition of a small amount of grape spirit, or brandy, which increased its strength and prevented it from spoiling.
The port houses were actually built on the opposite side of Porto in the city of Gaia. The Port houses are still located in Gaia. This was where the Port was stored until it was time to ship it on the river out to the ocean. On our way to our port house tour, we stopped at the renovated market. It is very different from when I was here 10 years ago. It was more rustic and open. Now the facade has been updated and the it is more sterile. It is full of food vendors, selling meat, cheese, fruit, smoothies, cheese, bread etc. We stopped for a fruit smoothie and then continued walking to the Real Companhia Velha. We crossed the Ponte Infante Dom Henrique , also known as Ponte do Infante , is a road bridge that connects Gaia to Porto.
Our tour started at 11:15 with a video with English sub-titles as our group was made up of people taking a French tour, a Spanish tour, and English. We then went on a short tour where we saw big wooden barrels where the port is stored until ready for bottling. Our guide speaks at least 4 languages and has excellent English that he learned from video games. He told us about the different ports (the whites, roses, rubies, and tawnies). After that we headed to the tasting rooms. We are separated from the large group and asked to wait while our guide settles the larger group. We were a group of 6, two British couples and us. One of the British guys is a French wine connoisseur who traveled France frequently. Real Companhia Velha is a family run business founded 1756 and still run by family members. It is the oldest Port company with uninterrupted business since 1756. When our guide comes back went into the vintage cave where there are Port wines dating back to 1765. They are no longer selling the vintage wines and no longer adding to the collection. The wines are covered in black mold as this helps to preserve them. While there is mold all around, it does not smell musty or mold. Then he took us to the luxury tasting rooms. We had ordered the higher price tasting of the tawnies (a 10 year, a 20 year, and a 40 year old). as we had we have it for 50% off. Dorota set it up for us as this is the port house that Dorota brings her tours to. We started with a white port which is much lighter and then it was on to the tawnies. They definitely got better with age. The last tawny was really good and Thom shared a little of his tasting with our UK friends. They seemed to really appreciate the tawny.
We got a recommendation for a vegan restaurant from our guide called Honest Green. It was a restaurant we passed on our way this morning. We headed back a different way up to the Monastery of Serra do Pilar, the round church, and the view of Duoro River and Porto. The views were beautiful although there were clouds rolling in. We across the Luis I Bridge, an arched bridge with a low-level road plus a second-level metro line. We meandered our way to the Honest Green which was very busy. The food was great and the fruit waters were refreshing. It was raining hard while we ate, but it slowed down afterward. We headed back to the flat for Thom's raincoat.
After that we found the hidden neighborhood, which is an area renovated small homes in narrow streets / walkways. The homes were very nice. We walked down the long staircase to the Duoro River. We walked the touristy area along the river and then to the very interesting Igreja de Sao Francisco which was built 1245 and renovated after a fire much later. The interior of the Church of São Francisco has three naves covered with gilded carvings, in which it is believed that more than 300 kilos of gold dust were used . There is so much gold that covers the church that, years ago, it was closed to worship because it was too ostentatious for the poverty that surrounded it. The church has ornate sculptures and catacombs where members of the Franciscan order are buried, as well as some of the city's noble families.
We headed back to the flat for showers and a quiet evening of pizzas ordered in.
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