Our second home-base in Puglia was in the city of Bari. From Brindisi, it was a very comfortable 1.5 hour Trenitalia trip to the Bari Centrale station. We then walked about 15 minutes to the Residence Hotel Moderno. This hotel … Continue reading
County Cork is located on Ireland’s south coast, with a population of ~600,000. It is known for its wild coastlines, fertile farmlands and enchanting scenery. The county is unofficially called the ‘Rebel County’, a name with ties to King Henry … Continue reading
Leaving Belfast, we took the Dublin Express bus. This was a comfortable ~2.5 hour ride that took us directly to Dublin centre. From there, the DART train whisked us to within 1/2 block of our hotel. For 5 nights, we … Continue reading
We spent the last week of our trip to Eastern Europe in Athens, the capital city of Greece. It is believed that Athens has been inhabited for 5000 years. The ‘Golden Age’ of Athens between 480 – 400 BC was … Continue reading
We had never heard of the city of Thessaloniki, Greece before planning this trip. We were looking for somewhere to relax for a few days between the business of Istanbul and Athens and Thessaloniki popped up. It was a great … Continue reading
About a week ago, we spent five days in Budapest, the capital of Hungary. This was our first time in the city and we were very impressed with it. Budapest has nearly two million people and is a sprawling metropolis, … Continue reading
As I described in my two previous blogs, we enjoyed 10 days in Lisbon in November. I will finish off our series with some memories of a few fun other things we did and as always, some of the great food we ate.
The Águas Livres (Free Waters) Aqueduct was built from 1731 to 1799 to provide clean drinking water to the city. It ran for 58 km and the 109 arches survived the Great Earthquake that destroyed practically everything else in the city. Today, you can walk over the 35 arches of the Alcântara valley, which cover a length of 941 metres. We had the aqueduct all to ourselves and enjoyed strolling the walkways on both sides.
The Lisbon metro system provides a fast and easy way to travel. It consists of 4 colour-coded lines with over 50 clean and bright stations. Many of the stations are decorated with wonderful tiles and murals. We spent a rainy morning riding the metro and stopping at many of the stations to enjoy the art – a great sight-seeing excursions for the price of a couple of metro rides. Here are photos of a number of the stations.
And the absolutely amazing Olaias station.
Lisbon operates a number of vintage trolleys that not only are used for transport, but provide a fun way to do some sightseeing. The #28 winds its way through the narrow streets of the Alfama, Baixa, Estrela and Graca neighborhoods. As well as passing by some notable sights and providing a look at workaday Lisbon, you can marvel at how the tram narrowly misses walls, buildings and other vehicles. The #28 is very popular with tourists and can be extremely crowded. We recommend going earlier in the day and catching the trolley at the beginning or end of the line (Martim Moniz or Campo Ourique). We had to wait for a couple of trolleys to fill before our turn but we found the driver only allowed enough people to fill the seats at the Martim Moniz stop. If you chose to disembark along the way, you probably wouldn’t get a seat when you hop on again. There are other trolleys that provide a look at other areas of the city. We also took trolley #15E to Belém.
Nothing could delight Harvey more than a car show so it was very serendipitous that on a Sunday afternoon, we found the Parada de Automóveis Antigos. Over 150 vintage automobiles lined the Avenida da Liberdade – we were very impressed with the display, each car was in pristine condition.
Our blog followers will know that we aren’t art aficionados and unlike many European travellers, we do not visit a lot of the great museums that abound on the continent. We did however come across an interesting exhibit that we thoroughly enjoyed. The World of Banksy presents recreations of over 100 artworks of the elusive street artist, with descriptive plaques that discuss the significance of each piece.
Each evening, our hotel – The Lumen Hotel – presents a display of light, colour and music in the interior courtyard. We managed to stay awake until 10 pm to enjoy it one evening.
As always, we would like to give you a peek at some of the great food that we enjoyed while in Lisbon.
Among Portugal’s thousand recipes for codfish, the Pastéis de Bacalhau are a typical Portuguese dish made of potato puree, onion, parsley and steamed codfish amassed together in a ball and linked with eggs and milk, and then deep-fried. We enjoyed one for a snack on the street.
Never fear, we didn’t miss the pastries – here are just few!
And a beverage here and there!
That’s a wrap for our 2022 travels! Thanks for reading and we hope you enjoyed sharing in some of our memories. Stay tuned for more adventures in 2023!
Cheers,
Bev & Harvey (and our great travelling partners, Debbie & Larry)
Leaving Porto, we hopped on the Alfa Pendular train for a comfortable journey of just over an hour to the city of Coimbra. The AP trains are great and an easy way to travel. The train arrives at the Coimbra-A station, where you can hop on another free train for the 5 minute ride to the Coimbra-B station.
Coimbra is located on the route between Porto and Lisbon. It is about 50 km inland from the Atlantic and sits on the banks of the Rio Mondego. It has a population of ~140,000, but the historic centre has the feel of a small town.
Our hotel, Hotel Mondego , was located right across the street from the Coimbra-B train station. It was an excellent hotel – great location, lovely rooms (premium room), great breakfast and super-friendly and helpful staff.
We found Coimbra to be a great place to just wander, taking in the architecture, the grand pedestrian only avenues and the small, windy lanes.
The University of Coimbra was first established in 1290, moved a number of times and finally returned permanently to Coimbra in 1537. The university is among the oldest universities in continuous operation in the world and the oldest in Portugal. It was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2013, citing its architecture, unique culture and traditions, and historical role.
The main attractions are situated around the Patio das Escolas, which is presided over by a statue of King João III.
The most famous building is the Biblioteca Joanna, a baroque library named after after King João V. Constructed between 1717 and 1728, the remarkable central hall is decorated with elaborate ceiling frescoes and huge rosewood, ebony and jacaranda tables. The library holds more than 40,000 books, which can be borrowed under strict conditions. This room is strictly controlled – you must purchase a timed entry ticket and are allowed only 20 minutes in the room. No pictures are allowed – the pictures below are of the anterooms. Interestingly, the library has a colony of bats to protect the books – they eat potentially harmful insects.
The Capelo de São Miguel (Saint Michael’s Chapel) was built in the 1500’s with small renovations and additions in the 17th and 18th centuries.
The Royal Palace sits below the crenelated clock tower which stands 112 feet high and is the most notable item in all Coimbra landscapes. The palace was built in the tenth century and for many years served as a royal residence.
The views from the Palace catwalk are wonderful!
On the hill in Coimbra are the old and new cathedrals. The old Cathedral dates from 1117 and is currently undergoing restoration work.
The new Cathedral was built slowly between 1598 and 1698 and took over the role of Coimbra’s main church from the old Cathedral in 1772.
Fado is considered the song of the Portuguese soul, traditionally performed by women. In Coimbra, fado is closely connected with academic traditions. A major difference in Coimbra is that fado is performed by men.
Groups of university students sing fado on the streets, dressed in their traditional attire.
One evening, we took in an early evening fado presentation at the Cafe Santa Cruz. While we sipped a beverage, we listened to an entertaining half hour of music. The acoustics are great in this church turned cafe.
Coimbra is doing a good job of developing its river valley. There are great walking paths, a fun pedestrian bridge and an awesome evening lighted fountain display.
Once again, those wonderful Portuguese pastries!
Salt cod and sardines are Portuguese staples.
Some other great meals in Coimbra – definitely recommend these restaurants.
Coimbra was magical at night!
If you have some time, listen to Debbie’s Podcast that we recorded from the River Bar. Once there, you can access a number of podcasts about our trip and other interesting topics!
We hope you enjoyed our memories of Coimbra. If you travel to Portugal, Coimbra is an awesome place to visit and to recharge yourself between the busy cities.
Cheers,
Bev & Harvey
Join me as I remember fondly the great food and drink of Porto, Portugal.
We loved the pastries in Paris – but it’s just possible that the pastries in Portugal are even better…..
It seems that the majority of Portugal pastries are filled with egg cream custard. We wondered why and found out this interesting history. The sweet treat has religious roots. Catholic nuns and monks used egg whites to starch their clothes, as well as using them for making paste. This resulted in a lot of egg yolks to spare, which to avoid waste were used to make desserts. We wondered what they now do with the extra eggs whites that must be left from all the egg custards, as we assume they are no longer starching clothes and making paste with them. We didn’t get an answer to this, although we did see some very large meringues in a few bakeries!
Pastéis de Nata are the original and most popular egg cream pastry. These originated in Belém, Lisbon but are prolific in all of Portugal. We tried many in Porto and give the award to the Manteigaria – Fábrica de Pastéis de Nata. Located in the Delta Coffee House, it was fun to watch the tart production as well as to enjoy their great coffee and of course the tarts!
We also indulged in a number of other great pastries, a few of which are pictured below.
The Portuguese generally eat dinner after 8 pm and the restaurants in our area didn’t open until 7:30 pm at the earliest. This is quite a bit too late for our North American habits! Our guesthouse host suggested that we visit the Mercado Bom Sucesso . What a great find this was! This upscale market is a cultural experience where you explore the best flavors of Portuguese cuisine as well as international cuisines at the various shops scattered throughout the space.
We ended up eating dinner at the market most every day after returning to our guesthouse for a late afternoon rest. We found that all of the vendors provided top notch food and we thoroughly enjoyed the great variety!
The Portuguese love pork. They even have a Museum of Pork (which we didn’t visit). Many of the common dishes are prepared from Leitão no forno or suckling pig. Before cooking, the meat is seasoned with garlic, pork fat, salt and pepper, and then put into the grill or oven for about two hours, first at high heat, then at a more gentle temperature. The pigs are usually cooked in wood-fired ovens with aromatic herbs.
The bifana is pork cut in very thin slices, eaten on a small wheat loaf called molete. The sauce is delicious – said to be seasoned with beer, whiskey, white wine, garlic, red paprika, Port wine, pepper, bay leaf, and olive oil.
Cod is also extremely popular. It is said the Portuguese have 365 ways to cook Bacalhau (dried cod!)!
Some of the other dishes we enjoyed at the Mercado.
Here a few of the delicious dishes we tried at restaurants in the city.
The Francesinha is found most everywhere in Portugal. It consists of meat (in our case, a pork cutlet), ham, sausage and cheese layered between thick slices of bread. The sandwich is then topped with more cheese, warmed in the oven to melt and and lastly, topped with a fried egg and a slightly spicy beer sauce.
We had to try one – to clarify, Harv & I split one. It was surprisingly delicious and as is traditional, was served with fries.
And finally, the drinks of Porto! Of course, Port reigns. Port is a fortified sweet wine. The grapes are grown and the wine produced in the Douro Valley outside of Porto. The port is then transported to the wine lodges of Vila Nova de Gaia across the River Douro from the old city center of Porto to age and be bottled.
A number of the lodges/houses offer tours and tastings and you could spend a lot of time visiting them. We chose to visit Taylor Fladgate, one of the oldest of the founding port houses. Taylor’s offer a self-guided tour with an excellent audio guide. The tour takes well over an hour and provides detailed information about all aspects of port history and production.
At the end of the tour, you are invited to taste two of Taylor’s popular ports – a late bottled vintage and the Chip Dry white port. We chose some snacks to go with these drinks and it was lovely.
We would highly recommend the Taylor Fladgate tour – a great introduction for newcomers to port as well as lots of information for those more into the world of port!
Another great twist to port – a port tonic! This refreshing cocktail is crafted with two parts of tonic to one part of white port. It generally comes with an orange wedge and a sprig of mint. This version that we enjoyed on a sunny afternoon along the waterfront seemed to have some additional orange flavouring added – perhaps Cointreau or Aperol. It was great!
Had to have some sangria while in Portugal. This one was at the Peninsular Cafe, a fun place near our guesthouse with an old time counter as well as table service. This sangria accompanied our Francesinha.
Lots of great coffee on the trip. On this occasion I forgot to ask for them long so we had fun little espressos with a dab of milk.
I hope you enjoyed this look at Porto’s food and drink! Next, on to the great city of Coimbra!
Cheers,
Bev& Harvey
How can I blog about Paris without mentioning the food? We didn’t go into the Michelin fine dining experience while there – for one thing, the suitable wardrobe didn’t fit in my small suitcase – but nevertheless, we had some fabulous meals and snacks! Have a look!
We visited the Sain Boulangerie near Canal Saint-Martin. This award winning bakery was amazing – you can see them making the bread through the windows at the corner and the lovely lady working in the bakery took the time to tell us all about the baking process and the source of their ingredients. It was a great experience – not to mention how much we enjoyed the things we purchased!
More coffee and pastries!
Pizza and wine in the sunshine!
So what can I tell you about French tacos – google them! Who knew – they were actually somewhat tasty, although I’m really not sure about the french fries in them! 🤔
Dinner at Chez Marie on Rue Lepic was so good!!
We enjoyed wine, baguette and cheese while watching the Eiffel Tower come to life with lights one night – a truly magical experience!
Must have a crêpe when in Paris!
There were many more delicious pastries and meals! Paris is really a gastronomic delight – and although it is known for expensive, fine dining, we found that there are multitudes of affordable eats & treats when one ventures off the main tourist areas! Explore – look for the hand-written menus at the small restaurants and boulangeries!
Cheers,
Bev & Harvey
A Long and Winding Journey 