Portugal 2007

We went to Portugal in September 2007 primarily to attend the Moto GP race in Estoril. Spent the first 5 days in the city of Cascais, then picked up a car and began our tour north exploring Obidos, Porto, the Douro Valley, Coimbra and Lisbon, among other cities. With so many days at races, the rest of the trip was more of a reconnaissance mission to see where we would like to spend more time when we returned.

Cascais

It was pretty quiet while we were there, especially considering the Moto GP was being run just up the road in Estoril. The weekend brought in the bike contingent, but it was much smaller than we have seen at other races. The majority of the day was taken up at the track, but we sampled a number of restaurants, and walked around most of the city proper on our one day off.

: Probably the main shopping area in Cascais. Pretty quiet this morning.

: Tiled home, of which there were many.

: Bougainvillea.

: Down at the harbor

: I think every visitor takes this shot. It’s everywhere.

: Looking back towards town and our hotel from the harbor.

: Boats at anchor. Our entire stay looked like this.

: The hotel from the harbor

: Not a lot of wind. Weather was awesome though.

: View from our balcony. In the evening, when the staff turned down our room, they would leave a carafe of Port, and we would spend the late evenings after dinner enjoying the quiet (and the wine of course)

: The view from the bed (practically)

Obidos

Leaving Cascais, we headed north to Porto, stopping for the morning/afternoon in Obidos. We have both visited and stayed in a number of cities like this in Europe, and I have found it much nicer to stay at least one night. The population swells 10-20x during the day, with tour buses and masses of people. Of course I’m one of them, but I have found the evenings and early mornings in these small towns the most pleasant. Unfortunately I learned this lesson after our trip to Portugal. By the time we arrived the town was already crowded. It was still a nice visit, but photo opportunities were rare.

: One of the few empty side streets.

: Up on the wall overlooking the city

: The surrounding countryside

: Just inside the entrance to the city.

Douro Valley

We drove to the Douro valley from Porto taking a mixture of highways and local roads. Arriving at our hotel, Solar de Rede, in the early afternoon, we spent the time relaxing, and sampling the wines, and walking around the vineyards. The weather couldn’t have been better, although it was a little hazy. In a couple of the pics below, across the valley, there was a church whose bells tolled on the hour . Very pleasant.

: Soon to be wine.

: Douro River

: Ripe for harvest

: River cruise boat, moving upstream.

: Church across the river

: Cars, buses, trains, and all manner of farm implements use this narrow stretch. Use the mirrors at the bends in the road!

: Douro River

: Douro River

: Douro River

: Solar de Rede

: Solar de Rede

Alc0baca

Probably took too many pictures inside the church at Alcobaca, but the story was so compelling, just couldn’t stop.

: Monastery of Alcobaça

: Monastery of Alcobaça

: Inside of the Monastery of Alcobaça

: Tomb of King Peter 1

: Tomb of his murdered mistress Inês de Castro

: Castle of Leiria. The night before lightening was flashing over the castle, but my pics left a lot to be desired.

Lisbon

We didn’t have much time in Lisbon. The only must do that we had was the Port Wine Institute, located in the Chiado area. With hundreds of wines to choose from we settled on only 4. We also walked up the hill to the Castle of Sao Jorge.