Porto - Portugal

Nestled near the top of Portugal along the Sapphire coast is the Unesco Heritage listed city of Porto situated at the mouth of the Rio Douro.

Porto is an extremely hilly city featuring some seriously old buildings and also some seriously modern buildings. In short it was a city with something for every style of traveller.

Porto is also home to many caves, which for centuries have been producing that lovely wine primer – Port. It is thought that the Port grapes were first planted by Roman soldiers in the Douro valley around 2000 years ago, although the discovery of port itself is credited to 17^th century merchants travelling from Britain whom discovered it while at war with France when they turned to the Portuguese for wine. Legend has it that they threw in some brandy with the grape juice and hey presto, juice is preserved for the journey home to England and by the end of the journey has a lovely kick to it.

We decided to spend three days in Porto as a well deserved rest after Boom festival (that post is currently being written – stay tuned!) and also to try and wash what seemed like 50kg of desert sand and dust from all our clothing, ourselves, and the van. As I write this now however we didn’t fully succeed and I am still finding fine dust throughout our cupboards!

Porto is extremely well set up for tourists with many operators offering hop on and off services and packaging them with port tastings in the caves followed by a cruise on the Rio Douro. For the measly sum of 19 euros we had unlimited use for 48 hours.  This service turned out to be fantastic as it drove us through all areas of Porto and also nearly 45 minutes out into the surrounding beach suburbs. The bus and the boat also included an audio commentary with complementary headphones that you kept after if you so wished.

Porto featured some of the most unusual and stunning architecture I have seen on my travels, and the use of tiles to create murals and religious art was quite beautiful. The following are some pictures that show off this unusual style.

Porto is filled with rambling narrow lanes and steep staircases that lead up and down all over the city. Buildings also cling to the cliffs on both sides of the river.

A trip to Porto wouldn’t be complete without some Port tasting, and both Bob and I were happy to try out the many varieties that exist. White, ruby and tawny were featured in most Caves, and after sampling a few, we walked away quite happily with a bottle of Ruby Port which is more subtle and drinkable than a Tawny as it has been aged for less time and also in a large barrel. Apparently less contact with the air and wood means less oxidation. This I learnt on a free tour, which was accompanied by three FULL glasses of the various Ports on offer.  For those that already know this, sorry to bore, but I found it interesting to learn how port is actually made. The initial process is actually the same as making wine however on day three the process is interrupted and fermentation is stopped by the introduction of basic table wine. This is what gives Port it’s more intense sweetness, with the other flavours then created through the aging process by using barrels that are of various sizes. Another interesting point I learnt was that once the barrels are past their use by date for making Port (approximately 100 years for the larger barrels and 50 for the smaller) they are then sent to Scotland for the production of Whiskey.

The last picture is of the boats that were traditionally used to move the barrels of port from the city of Porto to its various destinations. These boats are still produced today although for more tourism based use rather than industry as in the past.

For the last day in Porto, Bob and I decided to take the bus all the way out to the beaches north of Porto where a Portuguese man had told us was the best place to eat freshly barbequed seafood.  We were not disappointed! Walking around the streets we came across a few stores and in confusion could not decide which barbeque looked best. Out of nowhere an African man selling various items starting wildly talking to me and gesturing very frantically at one of the restaurants. My standard line when confused in Spain or Portugal was, Los Sientos, no entiendo muy bien, muy dispacio por favour. Immediately he switched to English and starting saying don’t eat at the others this one is the best. Eat the squid! So we started walking to the restaurant with the giant porcelain sailor called Barco Velho.  A little old man standing proudly out the front with the blackboard started rapidly speaking in Portuguese and pointing to his selection of seafood. Seeing the blank look I’m sure we were giving him, I understood him say, espera  (wait) and mia hijo (my son)….Ingles… then calling across the restaurant he yells to a man at the back. English!!!!  Looking at each other Bob and I could only laugh, and taking our seats at the old mans insistence we waited for his son, who came out and speaking fairly good broken English asked what we would like. After telling him we weren’t sure and could we see a menu he started to laugh and say is very difficult and there was no English but if we tell him what type of fish we like he would prepare us a meal and would bring us olives, bread and salads to accompany them.

Below is the fantastic meal that ensued. After a first course of beautiful olives, roasted peppers with onions and bread to start it was topped off with barbequed sardines and squid, a plate of potatoes and a jug of wine. Unbelievably this meal only cost about 20 Euro and we were stuffed so full we could hardly walk back to the bus stop for our return home.

Thanks again for reading J Oh and by the way after the meal, the African man that had recommended the restaurant couldn’t help but smugly smile as we walked past him and say “see I told you….”

Wales

Wales – well it was a while ago nearly three weeks ago now but time has been flying by and it seems that time to sit and write is always difficult to find.

After attending the Beatherder festival it was time to continue on with our tour of Britain before we departed for France and eventually Boom festival. Of all the areas we visited in Britain, it is without a doubt that I can say the friendliest people I have met on our trip so far are from Wales. Whether cracking jokes in the local shop, or people coming up to us on a country road where we parked for the night to make sure we were ok, I felt completely safe and welcomed in this lovely little country.

Wales is not the biggest country but it alongside Scotland is home to some of the most beautiful scenery in Britain.  We started our Journey into wales by entering from the north and heading down south into Snowdonia, which is a beautiful mountain range scattered with pristine waterways and equally beautiful towns. I almost felt it was like each city was a finalist in the tiny towns competition we often see in Australia.

We spent our first night wild camping just outside of Betws-y-coed. Yes that’s really the name. Before we went further south into Snowdonia, we decided to double back and head north to visit Conwy which is a town situated on the north coast and features historic buildings such as the Conwy castle and the well preserved Elizabethan house shown in the photos below.

From Conwy we proceeded west through Wales along the north coast, stopping for a short while in Caernarfon which is a lovely port side city before continuing through to a town called Beddgelert, which is near Snowdon; the highest peak in Wales reaching 3559ft above sea level.

The next night we struggled to find a place to wild camp after leaving the Snowdonia ranges. We ended up pulling up on the side of a road near Mackynlleth. While we though it was a layby on the side of the road, it turned out to be the private property of one of the nearby farmers. After finishing dinner a four wheel drive pulled up and an older man named David Owen walked up to our van and started asking if we were ok and what our plans for the night entailed. We talked about how we had just eaten and would perhaps stay put. I enquired if we were on his land and found out that we were on a wood holding area but that he could care less if we stayed there and was more concerned that we were camping on our own and if we were well provisioned and felt safe. He said he felt that if we were his children he would feel comforted knowing someone had enquired as to their safety! After a short conversation we proceeded to his property to collect water, which we were low on, and also heard a wonderful history of the area including the history of his families ownership of the farms which dated as far back as the early 1700s. As we were leaving he again hailed us to stop and insisted that we take a bottle of wine with us to enjoy as we watched out the evening.  It never ceases to amaze me the hospitality and kindness that you can experience from people on your travels. It was simultaneously humbling and inspiring.

Following our stay near Mackynlleth Bob and I visited CAT (Centre for Alternative Technology), which was located just down the road. We had intentionally stayed nearby in order to visit this centre. Started in the 1970s by a group of people with a common intention to create a way of living that was harmonious with the environment and had a minimal impact, it is now a thriving centre for teaching, innovation and environmentally sound practices.  The centre welcomes people to come for a short course, to visit its property and see demonstrations and informative displays for a day or to come for an extended stay, participating in daily life on the farm/ centre to gain an in-depth understanding of environmental practices that can be applied to all aspects of your life.  There are even Bachelor and Masters degrees available from the centre as well as their short course program.

http://www.cat.org.uk/index.html

http://courses.cat.org.uk

The location for the centre was once an old rock quarry but has now been transformed and features gardens which supply all the produce to feed the workers and the public visitors as well as supply all the water and electricity needs to keep the property running, including the technology centre and lecture arena, which hosts recognised qualifications in many areas of sustainable practice.

After visiting CAT, we again continued south towards the Brecon Beacons. In the town of Brecon we visited a lovely market where we purchased, black pudding, lava bread and trout pate, which are apparently quite typical to Wales. It is also where I finally brought a Pork Pie. Lets just say interesting.

For those that are unfamiliar with Lava bread, its not bread, its actually a pureed seaweed type of paste which is made from a species of seaweed called Lava. Which I believe stands for delicious. The link below will take you to a webpage all about it...

All about laverbread :-)

Feeling tired from our travels we spent two nights next to the Talybont reservoir.  This area is one of the most beautiful in Wales and the river we camped next to had a lovely walk which took you along a series of waterfalls and swimming pools which was extremely popular with locals. This was my ideal way to hike.  Walk ten minutes, go for a swim and then repeat J

Our last stop in Wales was Cardiff. Bob and I decided that tonight we would hit the town and see what Welsh people got up to. Both being fans of Human Traffic (the movie not illegal immigration) we also tried to find the club and street locations used in the film. Unfortunately the club (Club X – and no its not a sex shop as we would assume in Australia) that was used in the film as the movie clubs interior was closed. We did however enjoy finding various spots around the city that were featured such as the Philharmonic orchestra building and the Weatherspoons pub for the scene where they all sing the altered version of the national anthem.

Human traffic national anthem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MR_5ah7EKfo

Cardiff is quite an interesting spot. Its quite a big city although it felt very small as if it was a little town playing at being a big city, a bit like Bendigo or Ballarat but with a huge nightlife. We both really liked it, and not necessarily because it had an historical beauty or was filled with interesting art, (it was in fact quite grimy along the pub/ club strip) but because it had a very fun feel to it, and by the end of the night we were in stitches! This is mainly because the first thing we noticed when we arrived into the centre of the city was the number of hens groups. As we looked around more we noticed there was also a number of bucks groups. By the end of the night we had counted 53 different groups!! Yes that’s right 53! The best part of it was that most wore costumes with various themes not all related to penises and sex, there was even a group of men sporting various superhero costumes getting drunk at the local Australia bar – Walkabout.

Two levels of sports screens, a ‘surf’ bar and a dance floor pumping out beyonce. Absolutely screamed Australia…I did however finally get a decent beer in Britain, happily finding a Fat Yak, for the extortionist price of 6 pound which converts to roughly 11 Australian dollars. I know I got ripped, but after two months of luke warm and almost flat beers I was willing to pay the price.

By the end of the night we decided we were up for finding a club to have a bit of dance. After wandering around for a bit we eventually came across the Oceania club. Three levels with three rooms of various styles. The first was the ‘Chill-out bar’ but infact had the best music playing in the club, churning out good Piano house. The third floor played almost good electro and pop remixes, and finally the second floor by far the funniest/ scariest, featured a lighted disco dance floor complete with accompanying disco ball almost as if it had been taken from Saturday night fever. The tunes were a mixture of current cheesy pop and disco classics and at any moment I expected to see John Travolta strutting across the floor to lead a choreographed disco dance.

Yes the last is one of the aforementioned bucks wearing a tutu.

Having sneakily parked up in the city, the next morning we attempted to get up and away early. Surprisingly we managed to do this by 9am and having read about a local market that is well worth finding we set off in the van to hunt down a good recovery breakfast. The market we came across was only little perhaps less than 30m in length but each stall boasted beautiful organic produce, artisan breads and pastries and even more delicious offerings.  We also managed to have the best coffee so far in Britain. For some reason Britain also doesn’t do coffee well. I know I am probably expecting too much coming from Melbourne, but a Flat white is a good test of a barista as there is nowhere to hind the obvious taste of over an compacted and bitter double shot coffee or burnt milk.  Finding a coffee caravan that had flat white on the menu was already enough to get me excited as this so far had been a rarity.  When I placed my order tentatively, the operators turned out to have travelled for over three years in NZ and AUS and had trained in NZ, while their boss had trained in Melbourne. They presented the coffee to me having joked that the pressure was on as I was from Melbourne and I was not disappointed.

Wales was a wonderful place to travel. Both Welcoming, safe and intriguing it featured everything.  We have placed Wales on the list of places we must return to.  I hope you feel a little inspired to give this beautiful country a visit too.