Our trip to Europe and the States 2013: Porto and Surrounds !!

Very beautiful town of Obidos

It is Sunday the 15th of Sept and I am a little behind on the blogging at the moment so I will include in this one the places that we visited on the trip up from Lisbon, the city of Porto and the surrounding area.

Quaint houses

Yesterday we drove from Lisbon to Porto (the second largest city in Portugal), and on the way made three stops. The first at a little medieval town of Obidos, then onto the seaside fishing village of Nazare, and then onto the old University town of Coimbra, before finally arriving at our Hotel in the heart of Porto, a long day.

Having a Coffee

Walking the wall

The Medieval Wall

Odidos, is known as one of Europe's most romantic medieval villages, with cobblestone streets, colourful houses, covered in geraniums and bougainvillea and white washed churches, all encircled by a castle wall. It was really lovely.

We then moved on to Nazare and fishing village with the old town situated on top of a rock face, where we had lunch, quite a unique place.

Nazare from old town on top of rock

Old Town

Finally we arrived in the ancient town of Coimbra which again was well worth the visit. As I have said before Portugal, in particular, is pretty tied, but it does add to the charm of the place. Here are a few images that hopefully capture some of what we saw.

On the beach Village

Beach tents

The old town is on top of this cliff!!

View of Coimbra from top of hill

Coimbra University on top of hill

Colourful way to protect from the sun

Some interesting views on way to the top

Some jean pot plants

Some more !! :-)

Medieval town of Guimaraes

Medieval dress

So today we headed off again in the bus and made a couple of stops. The first one was at a Church on a hill at a place called Braga. You many be picking up that I am a little over old churches on the hills that seem to be everywhere. Our tour guide is a devout catholic who LOVES little old churches on the hill tops and gets excited about explaining the icons and statues etc that we will see there !!. All that to say I didn't take many photos at that location today.

Making stuff, old stuff

We then moved onto the medieval town of Guimaraes that is the "birthplace" of Portugal. Twice every year they have a medieval festival in the town and today was one of those, which was fun..

Aveleda Winery 1

Aveleda Winery 2

We finished off the day by visiting the Aveleda winery and beautiful gardens. Had a tour of the gardens and then some wine tasting. nice way to complete the day. Now back at the hotel doing the blog and waiting for the next race of the Americas Cup. Go TNZ.

Some images from today....

Aveleda Winery 3

Beautiful swans on pond

Garden house

We got to see some wine as well!!

Porto city centre

Amazing old book shop

Today, Monday the 16th Sept began with a guided bus tour around the city of Porto for a couple of hours and then some more "wine tasting" or in this case "Port tasting". We then had the afternoon and evening on our own to explore the city.

Cool sculpture

We really enjoyed walking around the city, again it is not a Prague, but has a character all of it's own which has been heavily influenced by the early explorers that went out into the "new world" and returned with the riches. These riches have long ago been spent, but there is a residue that remains, along with a "drop or two" of Port....

W & J Graham's Winery

1952 Port Gift to the Queen's 60th

Bridge over the Douro River

The River

Us in front of the river and bridge

How they use to transport the Port

A close up :-)

Lots of Bridges over Douro

Still have to get Sky !!

View from inside our Hotel

Traditional boat

We are now in Salamanca, arriving at 8-00pm after 12 hrs on the road, or boat. Today we took a boat ride up a river in the wine country and had a picnic lunch on board. It was a great day and beautiful country to view.