After Madrid, I found myself in Porto. My previous visit to Portugal was to Lisbon a few year back which ranks among my favourite cities in Europe (the other being Stockholm).
Porto is the second largest city in Portogul (after Lisbon, duh). This city is the reason why there is a Port in Portugal. After Roman times, the Moors briefly had this area under control but was "reconquered" in around 1000 AD and the area was renamed Portucale (with Porto as capital). It was from here that Afonso Henriques launched the Reconquista winning Portugal as an independent country.
The river that flows through Porto is Rio Duoro. Actually Porto town is on one side of the river - the town on the other side is technically Gaio but now both together are considered to be Porto. Gaia is where the British wine merchants set up shop when they were forbidden to trade with the French. That is the reason why there are wine labels such as Taylor's, Graham's and Sandeman's that come out of Porto.
The Duoro valley has the oldest demarcated vineyards in the world. I don’t know much about wines but Port is known for its intense flavours and silky textures (whatever that means). However, to my untrained palate, what I love about the Ports are the lovely sweetness the wines have.
Let me bore you with a bit of Vinology - there are basically 4 kinds of Port - White, Red (Ruby and Tawny), and Rose. Ruby Ports are aged at least two years in vats, Tawny for two to seven years in wooden casks, and Aged Tawnys are aged for even more years in wooden casks. Vintage Port - made from grapes from a single year – is aged in barrels for two years, and then in bottles for at least 10 years. Late Bottled Vintage (LBV) is aged for around five years in wooden casks and then bottled but has to be drunk immediately – unlike vintage which can be stored for years. As you can guess, I visited a lot of Port warehouses!
In Gaia I visited three (wine) caves in succession. These are basically warehouses which run tours where they give the history of the particular wine company, explain wine making, and have wine-tastings. With three wine tastings at each cave (Taylor's, Offley, and Calem), by the time I reached the third cave, I was reasonably 'happy' after which I went for a Fado show, which was brilliant, as always.
Sights in Porto include the Se (cathedral) which is perched on top of the hill from where the bridge D. Luis I crosses the river. It is from here that one gets lovely views of both Porto and Gaia. Close to the cathedral is the Sao Bento train station (which has a stunningly-tiled main hall). Other wise there is not much to see in Porto apart from generally walking around - and ducking into a bar for a glass of Port.
On my last day in Porto, I just decided to take it easy - which sort of meant hardly any sightseeing but a lot of Port wine drinking (I've become partial to the Tawny). However, in between bar hopping, I did manage to visit the bookshop, Livraria Lello - built in 1906, this beautiful bookshop regularly features on every top-10-bookshops-of-the-world list.
I had set a few churches for sightseeing but thanks to the Port inside me I decided to overlook them. But I did burn some of those wine calories when I climbed up the 225 steps to the top of Torre de Clerigos from where one gets 360-degree views of the roof-tiled city.
From Porto I visited the small towns of Braga and Guimaraes (could never get the pronounciation of the latter correct). Both these towns are in the Minho valley (north of Porto) and are about an hour away by train.
Braga is Portugal’s third largest city with a princely population of 1,40,000. Like most other cities in this region (and in Spain), it went through the usual order of being controlled by Romans, Visgoths, Moors, and back in Christian hands again after the ‘reconquest’. Bang in the Baroque centre of town is the huge cathedral Se, construction of which started in 1070 and it took almost 100 years to complete (which is actually quite less by medieval European standards). The cathedral doesn't seem very large from the outside but you realise its size only when you're inside.
The day I was there a festival (Braga Romana) was being held to recall the Roman heritage of the city - there were stalls everywhere and almost everyone was dressed in Roman (think Julius Ceaser) outfits. It seemed like true time (and place) travel.
Not having much to do in the city, I decided to visit the Bom Jesus do Monte church (which is about 5 kms away). For that I had to take a local bus - which was just as well as it suddenly started raining when I was trying to get to the bus stop. More beautiful than the church itself was the huge staircase that leads to the church which is perched on the top of a hill. Different tiers of the staircase apparently represent different decades of the 18th century - my lack of architectural knowledge prevented me from making any academic observations. And apparently the church itself is a remake of the Golgotha of Jerusalem (that is what my guide book said). Anyways, after a quick round of the church I settled into the cozy café from where one could get views of the town down below. And what did I order? Port wine naturally!
Suitably tanked, I took the bus back to town and while walking around I noticed a few Indian connections - Rua di Goa, Rua di Damao, and a Rua di Diu. After that bit of desi nostalgia, I plonked myself in an atmospheric bookshop which had a nice coffee-shop where there was a story telling session going on for children. Though the stories were in Portuguese, the gestures of the storytellers and the regular squealing of the children made it an enjoyable experience.
My next day trip from Porto was to the town of Guimaraes (an hour long train journey from Porto). This town, famous as being the birthplace of Afonso Henrique (father of modern Portugal), turned out to have a nice medieval feel to it - with lovely labyrinthine lanes and pretty squares. I saw the obligatory sights in town – the Castelo (castle) and the Paco dos Duques (Palace) - the former (from the 11th century) was the birthplace of Afonso and the latter was built in 1401 by the 1st Duke of Braganca
There was not much else to do in town apart from drinking the (yet again!) obligatory Port before heading back to Porto.
