July 7th
Now the fun begins!
We're nothing if not sophisticated... More adventures in Portugal. But, first, we have to do the educational part and work our way into trouble...
The Avenida dos Aliados (Avenue of Allies) from Praça de Liberdade (Liberty Square) featuring King Pedro IV. King Pedro was a Portuguese civil war hero that advocated a limited constitutional monarchy. At the same time, he wanted to remain the Emperor of Brazil. He got it.
Lello & Irmao Bookstore. I really don't know anything more than this place was beautiful and we got a map of the national park area from here. It's in the college part of town and worth checking out. Apparently, The Guardian rated it the 3rd best bookstore in the world.
With books like this, it has to be true!
Illegal photograph. I didn't know I wasn't allowed to take pictures of their beautiful building until another customer got yelled at.
Igreja e Torre dos Clérigos (Clérigos Church and Tower). This is the church...
This is the tower...
Now beware of God's power! Really, that sun will rip you to shreds...
A nice park
Boys 'R Us.
Now this is a drinking fountain!
Drying laundry and Portuguese pride.
São Francisco Church. This place is now a museum and it's crazy on the inside (no pictures allowed here either). Despite having Napoleon raid it during their civil war in the 1800s, it's still covered in nearly a 1,000 lbs. of goldleaf, crazy ornate art of beheaded missionaries, boats, Jesus' family tree, and a million other things that will blow your mind.
São Francisco statue talking with a killer seagull...
Now that we are out of the crazy part, we can take pictures. I guess this is the church boardroom or something.
The ossario (catacombs)!
Yep, those are human remains. Bones stacked on top of bones. This is wear people rotted until they were moved to the boxes you saw earlier.
Praça Infante Dom Henrique (Henry the Navigator Square)
Back in the Ribeira district
They seemed to be filming some kind of morning show that lasted 6 hours a day or something.
St. Pillsbury
Ponte Dom Luís I Bridge by Teofilo Seyfrig, a student of Gustave Eiffel (of Eiffel Tower of Paris)
Later on, I'll show you one of Eiffel's own bridges in Porto.
Porto from Vila Nova de Gaia
A nice picture of us before we get ugly...
These were the type of boats they used to transport wine down the Douro River back in the day.
Sandeman Wine. I love that their logo is Zorro drinking wine. Apparently, they are the Budweiser of Port wine. We didn't have theirs, but we're at a bus stop waiting to start our wine tasting tour
W. J. Graham's
We learned so much about Port wine. How it grows, it's history, why it's so strong, and so on and so on...
So many barrels of wine
Apparently, the owner collects wine like baseball cards. These are some of the oldest vintage wines they own.
Now the fun begins!
View from Graham's after the tasting
Ok... Maybe the wine was a little stronger than we expected. It's our honeymoon...
On our way to another wine joint
Here we are at Taylor. This company started in the business of sheep and now makes some of the finest wine. How did they make the transition? Very well...
More views of Porto from another winery
Finally! Going downhill! To another winery...
Croft was pretty good. In hindsight, I should have gotten the Port Shaved Ice drink...
Vasconcellos was awesome. We were the only one's there since it was a Wednesday. We tried the cheap stuff and it was good. We had Port with chocolate and it was really good. They we tried some of the 20 year vintage and it was amazing. This coming from a guy who doesn't really care for wine.
The man in the black shirt was awesome. He loves wine and will make you love wine.
Noval is where that terrible picture of me at the top of this was taken.
Our friend, João, who was great and gave us lots of wine and advice on Porto. He suggested that we eat at Restaurante O Cometa, which we tried to do. But, we couldn't find it. So, if you are ever in Porto, please go to this restaurant and tell us how awesome it is...
Crossing the bridge once again. We ended up having to call it an early night because we're going to Peneda-Gerês National Park tomorrow...
