Porto, Portugal

We reached Porto, Saturday evening and walked around the harbor area after checking in to our hostels. We walked across a bridge built by one of Gustav Eiffel's students and it has a feel very much similar to the Eiffel Tower. After winding through some streets, we walked along the river front and found a wonderful little restaurant where we ate dinner and had our first taste of vinho verde(green wine). It is a wine not too common outside of Portugal due to its need to be drunk within a year of being made. It has a refreshing taste so we brought 3 bottles back to Madrid. On Sunday, we meandered through the city instead of hitting all of the tourist spots and took pictures of the city. We did go to the famous Casa da Música that was opened in 2005 for Porto's celebration of being a European Culture Capital. The inside was quite beautiful and modern in its decoration and shape. After a walk along the beach at sunset, we caught a bus back to the river front, where we found a Tachin restaurant. We sat in a cave with our shoes off and resting on pillows and ate chicken with rice and drank more green wine. On our way back to Spain, we stopped in Guarda, Portugal, near the border, to eat lunch and take in the view from the highest town in Portugal. Hope you enjoy the pictures of one of our new favorite cities.

 

 

 

 

 

Share

Salamanca, Spain

The weekend of October 10-11 was extended to October 12 due to a Spanish national holiday. We were invited by a lovely couple we met recently after arriving to ride with them to go visit Porto, Portugal. We set out early Saturday morning and stopped in Salamanca, Spain along the way for some lunch/tapas/drinks/to look around. If you have seen the movie Vantage Point then you have seen Salamanca. The Plaza Mayor is where most of the film was shot but in addition to the Plaza Mayor, there is an impressive cathedral and university that puts Salamanca at the center of education in Spain. Students from all over the world come to Salamanca to study and take classes. We also found something very curious, a carving on the church that appears to be an astronaut on a church constructed hundreds of years ago. We posted a picture for you to decide. Here are a few pictures of our few hours there.

 

Share