Portugal Part II - Porto Covo

Our next stop on our trip was a small beach town called Porto Covo in the Alentejo region of Portugal. Porto Covo is about 3/4 of the way down the Atlantic Coast of Portugal, about an hour or so north of the Algarve. It's a tiny town, with only about 1,100 people, so there wasn't much to do there other than enjoy the beach, check out the sunset, and have some nice dinners at the few restaurants in the town.

We arrived just after sunset on the Monday, and after checking into our hotel (which was a bit of a nice surprise -- we actually had a small apartment with kitchenette, and we had expected just a basic hotel), we did a quick tour of the town and went for dinner. Our travel book only listed a few restaurants, and after seeing the town, we could see why. The town, as mentioned before, was tiny, and there were maybe a dozen restaurants in the whole town. So, we went to one of the recommended places and had a ncie seafood dinner. We wanted to order a Cataplana, a fancy seafood concoction cooked in a copper pot, but you had to pre-order it, so we had a similar dish instead; a big pot full of rice, crab, clams, prawns and assorted other goodness. We liked it enough that we decided to pre-order the Cataplana for Wednesday night at the same restaurant.

Tuesday morning we woke up, had ourselves a little fresh fruit breakfast, and headed right for the beach. Most of the coast in the area consists of very scenic rocky cliffs, but there are a number of beautiful little sandy beaches among the cliffs. We found a great one, and almost had the thing to ourselves for most of the day. I don't think there were more than 6 or 8 people there at a time, including us. While the water was still quite chilly, we spent a fair amount of time in there, relaxing in the cool water, exploring some caves in the cliffs, and having violent seaweed throwing wars.

Unfortunately for us, we got a little too excited with the beach, and spent a little too much time in the sun, meaning sunburns and limited beach time for Wednesday. Tuesday night we sat on the cliffs to check out the sunset. It's pretty cool seeing the sun set right into the ocean, a luxury we don't have here in Germany, or even in Vancouver with all the mountains there. The sunset was beautiful, and we followed it up with another nice dinner. This time we tried another regional dish, Black Pork. Erin was a little skeptical at first, but it turned out to be really good, so were very happy about that.

Wednesday, due to the over-sunning we gave ourselves the day before, meant no time lounging on the beach, but we did have a nice walk along the cliffs, and spent some time at a cafe (in the shade) at another really nice nearby beach. At dinner, we finally got our cataplana, and it didn't disappoint. It was quite delicious, and there was probably enough food for 4 people.

Porto Covo was really nice. We wouldn't recommend it if you're looking for excitement or nightlife or tourist attractions, but for a quiet few days at the beach, it was a great destination. One more than one occasion we discussed the idea of buying a little house there, so we could spend our days sunning at the beach and avoiding the rest of the world.

Thursday morning, we hopped on a bus up to Lisbon for the last 3 days of our trip. More on that coming soon...

Portugal Part I - Porto

The first 10 days of May were great for us. We were able to escape from an unfortunately cool and rainy Konstanz spring and head to Portugal for 10 (okay, 9 -- it rained on our last day) days in the sun. Our trip consisted of three stops: Porto in the north, the small beach town of Porto Covo in the south, and finally Lisbon, about halfway up the coast. First stop was Porto.

We arrived in Porto early afternoon on May 1, which unfortunately for tourists like us was a holiday, meaning a lot of shops were closed. That didn't matter too much though, as there was still a lot to see.

Porto is Portugal's second largest city, and lies on the banks of the Douro river. It's old downtown is considered a world heritage site, but it is probably best known as the area where Port Wine comes from. I don't think we had been big Port drinkers before this trip, but by the time it was over, we'd had a lot, and even bought some bottles to be shipped home for us.

On Friday, we explored the old town for a little while, found a nice restaurant for lunch, and then crossed the Dom Luís Bridge to Villa Nova de Gaia to check out some of the Port Wine makers. We got there too late for tours, but managed to sample a couple of Ports at a company called Taylor, and liked it enough to buy a couple of bottles. For dinner, we chose a nice restaurant recommended by our Lonely Planet book, and had a nice Portugese meal (a giant baked cod for Erin, a steak for Tim).

On Saturday, we explored the town some more. We visited a large farmers' market, did some window shopping, and went back to Villa Nova de Gaia for more port wine, and this time a tour of the wine cellars. We toured the cellars of a company called Offley Forrester, and while it seemed they kind of rushed us through a little bit, it was still cool to see the cellars and all the barrels filled with aging Port, and also learn some about how port is made. We finished off with a fun tasting, where we were able to sample 5 different types of Port. Maybe drinking a bunch of Port in the mid-afternoon isn't the best idea, but we had a good time. The Port tasting was followed up with a really nice dinner at a restaurant right over the river.

On Sunday, since most things in town were again closed, we decided to head out to a nearby beach for some sun. Swimming didn't happen, as the water was still too cold to swim in, despite air temperatures of about 30 degrees. We relaxed in the sun for a few hours, and when we got back to town, went for dinner at a tiny little hole in the wall restaurant we found on one of our previous wanders around town. The restaurant was about the size of a living room, and had some good food, and great chocolate cake for dessert. Be sure to ask Erin how much she enjoyed her tripe stew!

Late Monday morning we left Porto for a train to Lisbon, and then a bus to Porto Covo. Check back soon for our posts about those stops!