Portuguese Voyage - Stop 1: Porto (Day 2) - Ruby, Tawny, LBV? Não obrigada!

Rise and shine in Porto, Oporto (in English), "A muito nobre, sempre leal e invicta cidade do Porto" (The very noble, always faithful, and invincible city of Porto) - invincible because of Porto's resistance 'Porto's Siege' during the civil war in the 1830s [learnt that from my walking tour guide, more about that later].

Just like Champagne, it's easy to guess where Port wine is from - it is Porto's world known export. Well, there is no guessing what I did first thing that morning: a Port wine tour 

 

The Port wine cellars are located across the Duoro River from Porto at Vila Nova de Gaia. There are so many lined up along the river - and after some research, I decided to go to Graham's. It is further up on the hill (only a 10 - 15 minute walk after crossing the Ponte D. Luis I). To be fair, I think most of the Port wine cellars are almost similar, but I am glad I went to Graham's - due to its location, I had a great view of Porto, from Gaia.

Not the best picture, but imagine if you are there in person!

Truth be told, I hate Port wine! (I apologise to all the Port wine lovers out there!). It is thick and sweet and to top it off, I had a really bad experience back in university :S Since then, I refused to even touch a glass of Port! Yet, nothing has changed, after the first taste of Port in ages - I STILL HATE IT! (please forgive me!)

Despite my feelings for Port, I learnt that it is harder to make Port wine than regular wine... 

Did you know that:

• Port wine is only made from grapes grown in Duoro valley.
• The Duoro valley is the first wine demarcated region in the world!
• After the 'crushing' process, the Port wine is fortified with spirits (usually brandy) to stop the wine from fully fermenting. It is stopped when the ideal sugar level is reached. 
• Then Port wine expert tastes the samples to determine the 'future' of the Port wine. It could be: 
• Ruby - usually the sweetest and stored in the smallest oak barrels or tanks made of concrete or stainless steel to prevent oxidative aging
• Tawny - less sweet/ intense than ruby. Aged in the larger wooden barrels, exposing them to gradual oxidation and evaporation
• Vintage - made entirely from the grapes of a declared vintage year. Not every year is declared a vintage in the Douro. The decision on whether to declare a vintage is made in the spring of the second year following the harvest. The decision to declare a vintage is made by each individual port house. Usually aged in barrels for a maximum of two and a half years before bottling, and generally require another 10-40 years of ageing in the bottle before reaching what is considered a proper 'drinking age'. There is speculation that 2015 may be declared a vintage year... so make sure you get your bottles in 2017!
• Late Bottled Vintage - could have been vintage, but unfortunately didn't make the cut..lol

It certainly made me appreciate Port more. :D

As, I am not a fan of long blogs/ articles - to ease your reading, I shall end my post here...My first half of day 2...  Don't worry, I will post the second half... 

Portuguese Voyage - Stop 1: Porto (Day 1)

After collecting many many maps from various cities over the years, I have finally decided to write a blog. Share my travels with netizens and hopefully it may serve as a guide for your future travels.

Why did I decide to start a travel blog, you may ask. Well this was fuelled by my mother, "Why can't you share your travels??" she nagged one day... my reply, "Why can't you let me be!" Funny thing is I had the idea to blog about my trip to Portugal, and with her nagging in the background... I thought let's just do it... Hence, you are now reading this...

You may also be wondering why is the title of my blog such. Well after almost 29 years of living in this world (not yet, few months away!!),  I want a partner who shares the same passion in travelling and exploring as I do! Who will fly away with me and at the same time will root me down when needed.. just as I would. Click here to apply.. jokes!

Ok, I have gone way off tangent! Back to my very first post: My first stop in exploring Portugal....PORTO! 

Ponte D. Luis I

Praca de Ribeira

Clerigos Tower

View of Porto from outside the railway station

Railway art

View of Porto

My thoughts on Porto: it is a scenic beautiful city, history rich .. but I found it a bit too cramped up... I need my space :S 

Beautiful, nevertheless & the food - delectable! 

The place I stayed was located in an amazing location, the Virtudes area. It was central enough, walking distance to most places within historical Porto, but far enough to find local treasures (restaurants)! and the view from my bedroom is the scenic Rio Duoro.

On my first night, I had dinner at O Caracas. It is run by a pair of twin sisters and their mother. The mother is the local chef of the restaurant. There is no set menu. Each night the dishes change based on what's fresh in the market - and there is always 1 fish dish and 1 meat dish. The dishes are local traditional Porto recipes. On that night, the options were cod (bacalhau) fish balls and venison.

As I LOVE cod - the obvious choice was the bacalhau.

OMG! The food - sublime!! It tasted like home-cooked food and it was so tasty and fulfilling!! I wanted to hug the 'mother'!! The portion....HUGE! (I later found out that ordering for 1, can actually feed 2!) And the price I paid for my meal, 1 bowl of vegetable soup and a glass of wine... less than 10 Euros!

A few things I learnt from my first dinner experience and more:
1) The Portuguese eat loads of rice! It was picked up from the countries they conquered way back then (15th/16th century) - Malaysia (or Malacca to be exact) being one of them!
2) They also adopted tea and cinnamon!
3) They have amazing coffee, wine, and cheese - SO IMPORTANT!
4) Huge portions (as mentioned above)
5) There is hardly any vegetables :( - I missed my veg a lot during this trip!
6) However, most of them people are slim - possibly due to the uphills they have to go through every day (every city I went to in Portugal is so hilly! hardly any flat land)

See... that's why I love travelling... you learn new things every day which you can bring home with you (just as the Portuguese did.. lol).

That's a wrap of my first evening in Porto... as for the rest of my Porto trip..to be continued...


P.S If you do want to ask me any questions or leave comments.. please fill in the comment box below :)