It's Been A Long Time

 Yes I know it has been months since my last post.  Keith and I are enjoying time at a club in Jupiter, Fl called Admiral's Cove.  Our lease in the marina goes through the end of October of this year.  It is very nice with  more golf and tennis than you can imagine; however, I did not think anyone wanted to hear about us playing golf or tennis week after week.  We did, however, take a 14-day trip to Spain and Portugal in May. Now that we are back, I thought ya'll might like to hear about that trip.  So here goes.

The trip started in Porto, Portugal.  This is a medieval, coastal city in northern Portugal founded in 1123AD.  It is the second largest city in Portugal and probably best known for its Port wine production.  A large portion on the city is designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We stayed at the InterContinental Porto hotel which is an 18th century restored palace converted into a hotel.  The accommodations were first class.

The center table near the check-in desk.

Breakfast area

Looking out over Porto from some gardens.

Keith and I on a boat cruising the Douro River which comes from the most northern Douro wine region of Portugal into Porto.  Here the river connects to the Atlantic Ocean making it a great port for exporting the areas wonderful Port wines.

Port wine is a sweet, fruity wine used primarily as a desert wine.  It comes from the Douro region of Portugal, one of 14 wine regions in this country.  The Douro region has been producing wine for over 2,000 years and in 1756 it became the oldest legally demarcated wine regions of the world.  Port wine can only be called "Port" if it comes from this region.  The production of Port wine and all its varieties is beyond the scope of this humble blog, however there are a few interesting tidbits I will mention.  The grapes are still harvested by hand in this region.  They are then transported from the vineyards in the north to Port houses in the city of Porto on the coast.  Here the grapes are processed and the wine is blended, aged, bottled, and shipped around the world.  Port is a fortified wine meaning grape spirit or brandy is added to the wine before fermentation is complete.  This results in retention of some of the natural sweetness of the grapes, making the wine exceptionally rich and smooth to the palate.  Today the grapes are transported by truck, but for hundreds of years flat bottomed rabelo boats were used to bring the grapes from the vineyards to Porto.  

Rabelo Boats in the Douro River in Porto

There are several boats for tour rides along the Douro River in Porto and our tour group was able to take a ride one afternoon.  Here we are passing another such tour boat.

Additional views from the Douro River.  If you look closely you may see the medieval city wall at the top of the skyline.

There are 6 bridges across the Douro River.  One was designed by Gustave Eiffel, the designer of the Eiffel Tower.  He designed the bridge in 1876 and it was completed the following year. Here you can see part of that bridge.

A view with a portion of the other side of the bridge.

After our boat ride we went through the steep, narrow, and winding streets of town up to the Taylor Port house.  

Example of the narrow streets in the part of town where the Port wine houses are located.

Taylor's has been producing Port wine since 1692.  They produce many varieties of Port including both white and red Ports.  They also produce many limited edition Ports and have the distinction of having the most expensive Port ever sold.  Many of their limited editions sell for several thousand dollars per bottle.

Touring Taylor's Port house

Once the tour was over we were treated to a wonderful wine tasting and lunch at Taylor's complete with Port wine and dinner wine.

My glass of white Port.  White Port, who'd have thought there was such a thing?

The river cruise and Port wine house visit was a lovely day.    

Porto also has a well known train station, the Sao Bento Train Station.  This building was constructed in 1900 and contains over 20,000 tiles depicting historic scenes of Portugal.  It's most striking tiles are the azulejo blue glazed tiles.

Sao Bento Train Station, Porto Portugal

This should give you a taste of the first city we visited on our trip.  I have many more pictures and much more info about Portugal, but I don't want to put it all in just one post.  I hope everyone enjoys this post.  I will continue with our trip in the next post.  Tune back in next week for more of Portugal before I move onto Spain.