Porto - July 17, 2010

Morning view out our window!

Tom, a port wine lover?!!!!

Today was our first day in Porto, Portugal. We set a new family record, nobody woke up before 10. We had kind of a lazy morning. We did some laundry and downloaded some pictures, ate some lunch and then we went out. First we went on the 6 Bridges Boat Tour.  It took us under 6 bridges on the Douro River. It was really hot, but the breeze and spray felt nice. All of the houses built up on the hills on either side of the river looked so cool, it looked like a picture from a book or something!

After we got off the boat we strolled around in Porto looking for a mid-afternoon snack. We got sandwiches at a pastry shop and walked across the bridge to Vila Nova de Gaia to eat them. We sat near the bridge and while enjoying our sandwiches some crazy boys, close in age or a little older than Ryan, wearing their swimsuits stood on the narrow ledge on the side of the bridge over the water and jumped off. It was crazy! It looked super fun at the same time though. If my parents would have let me I would have totally done it! It was great entertainment, they would jump, swim, climb out, rush back to the bridge and do it again! They were jumping from probably 35 feet up!

After finishing our sandwiches we searched for a place where we could get a port wine tour, seeing as that is what Porto is known for. We found one and our tour guide was Bruno. He was very nice and told us a lot about port wine. It was pretty interesting. We also got to taste port wine. I do not like wine. It was so gross. Plus it burned my throat. My mom on the other hand really liked it. This is her “Oh I really like this one, it’s so smooth! But I also really like this one it has more of an oakier taste, but that one is divine!” It was kind of funny.

On our way back to the bridge to Porto there were more crazy bridge jumpers. We continued to watch them and then made our way back to our apartment. We hung out there for a while and then went back out to look for some dinner. We walked in what felt like 9 circles and then decided on a place we had passed already “Pimms.” It was really cool place. It was all white and there was mirrors covering the walls with shelves and pots. I ordered just regular spaghetti I don’t know about the rest of my family. It was really good though! After we paid we walked back down to the river front “Cais da Ribeira.” It is very lively down there, there are people everywhere and we kept seeing this walking band with an accordian, guitar and a tamborine. Their music was really good. Plus when it got really dark it was so pretty with all the lights reflecting on the river.

My parents ordered some beer and my brothers and I got an ice cream cone. We just sat at our table eating and drinking and then one of those clowny guys that blow up balloons and make animals came around. He insisted that he makes Trevor a balloon. He was a really funny character, it was so funny! He made Trevor a motorcycle. Then he insisted on making me a balloon. He made me a little yellow dog and inside its stomach is a mini balloon and when he handed it to me he says “Beware of boyfriend” it was hilarious. He made Ryan this little rat and when it’s “sad” it has a tail, but when it’s “happy” it has a boner.

We paid balloon man and then headed back home seeing as it was already near 11. Now I’m tired so I’m going to bed.

-Katie

Coimbra – July 16th

Some sisterly love in Lisbon's Barrio Alto!

The "quad" at Coimbra University!

Some extremely steep stairs....

Tom checking out the arch of the lookout tower.

The welcoming view from the window of our Porto Apartment of the Rio Douro.

After navigating Lisbon via public transportation, Tom nabbed our rental car and made his way back to the hilly streets of Alfama to pick the rest of us up in order to make our way to Coimbra.  Without GPS I was a bit nervous about following the map as the streets are not very well marked, but we made it to the highway and to Coimbra within a couple of hours.

Coimbra, nestled in a very hilly area, is home to Portugal’s oldest university.  The university itself is situated at the top of the largest hill, with a commanding view of the surrounding town and river.  The buildings date back to the 16^th century and are quite impressive, though the upkeep of the grounds was less so.  The students, following tradition, are clad in black suits and wear a robe when in the presence of their fellow students and professors.  Since school was not in session, we only saw 1 or 2 students and I was not quick enough with my camera to capture them.  Ryan indicated that this was NOT the kind of place he would be interested in attending college!

The town of Coimbra was quant, with old buildings situated on narrow, winding, hilly streets.  There still remains, the last vestiges of the once important lookout tower.  Today it acts as a kind of gateway into the old town.  Portugal temperatures so far have been in the mid to high 70’s but the sun makes it much warmer, so climbing those hills was a sweaty affair!

From Coimbra a wrong turn took us on the back road to Porto, our next stop.  This was a happy accident as it gave us a much better feel for what life is like outside of the cities.  Similar to the states with single family housing (lots of townhouses too), cute little burgs and some lovely vistas that would have been missed traveling on the main highway.

Another wrong turn or two landed us who knows where in Porto, which is a rather large city and between my detail lacking map and the weak English directions of the apartment owner, we were very turned around.  Couple that with the fact that our apartment was in the Ribaira (river) district and Friday night is a happening night (read: traffic jam), and suffice it to say that we arrived, quite harried!  Fernando, our host, was a delight and greeted us with chilled bottles of water and port (for which Porto is known) as well as some yummy fresh bread and a well appointed apartment.

Cathy

The Last Day in Lisboa

Sorry for the lack of posts over the past few days....we had to work out the photo downloading snafu and then our apartment in Porto did not have internet access.  So, now that we have internet again, we will have a few posts coming over the next couple of days to get caught up!

View From The Oceanarium of the Vasco de Gama Towers

A stingray in the oceanarium's big tank

 View From Barrio Alto Lookout

Our final day in Lisbon started off the same as the first two, with cereal and orange juice for breakfast. Big Whoop. We caught our double decker bus to the tile museum, where there were many cool tile arrangements. After the tile museum, we hopped back on the bus and took it to the Plaza Do Nacaos, the site of the 1998 Worlds Fair. It’s such a fine plaza and takes up many acres of land, it could practically be considered a small city. The only problem is that not many people visit it. All of the residents of Lisbon either don’t know about it, or have been there and don’t like it (which is hard to believe), and it seems to be that most of the tourists don’t know about it. Anyway, it houses a train station, a shopping center, many buildings, namely two identical ones that stand next to each other and they each have make believe “sails” at the top to make them seem like ship masts. They were built in memory of Vasco de Gama, an explorer that discovered the route around Cape Horn to India. Also in the Plaza, there was Europe’s biggest aquarium, and a tram system along the beach.

We visited the aquarium, and it was very interesting. They had many cool creatures, ranging from sharks, to fish, to crabs, to stingrays, etc. It was built literally right on the Ocean, so that added to the effect, and made it seems cooler. After we left the aquarium, we waited for an hour (at least) to catch our bus out. Either we didn’t time their system right, or it was just really bad. We took the bus back to the commercial part of downtown so that my dad could go to the car rental place and get our car ready for the next day. Since we were all starving, we headed into the nearest McDonalds, a “one time deal for this trip” as my mom told us. “We won’t be eating this kind of junk that we can get anywhere, we’re here to enjoy real food, not look like tourists.”  “Yes mom, we know.” It was a most surprising McDonalds, unlike something you’ll ever see in America, for a few reasons. First, it was very clean (shocking, I know!), second of all, they had a desert counter, separate from the main counter, so that it almost felt like a café. Thirdly, it was painted nicely, there was a place where you could place a “quick order”, and order from a computer, and it even had an upstairs where you could eat.

After we were done being in awe of the McDonalds, we headed back to the bus stop. Once again, we were stuck waiting for more than an hour (there is no way that it could have been our bad timing twice!). It got so boring that Trevor and I started counting certain types of cars, he chose Mercedes Benz, and I chose Volkswagon, he outscored me by at least 50 cars, it was just unfair! In Portugal, nearly every car that you see is a Mercedes, because everyone has one, and at least 75% of the taxis are Mercedes’. We then took the bus up to Barrio Alto, where there was a great panoramic view of the city. After enjoying that for a while, we headed to the little side streets and soaked those in. We found a little spot to have a drink and they even had a PS2 that you could pay to play on. Trevor and I battled it out on FIFA 10, and we got about 15 minutes worth before it shut off. We left that place, and after a while found a place to eat, a tapas bar called Artis. They had many great appetizers, and a great owner who knew English and served us very well. After we were done eating, we headed back to our neck of the woods, the Alfama, to catch some traditional Fado music. The music was great, they had male and female singers, and it was our third restaurant/ bar of the night, so we decided to call it and head back to our apartment.

Technical trouble already!

Just giving you some eye candy to keep you with us while we sort out some photo downloading issues!  This is Tram 28, the Alfama neighborhood trolly, which we have utilized quite a bit as part of our local transportation.  As it passes through some of the very narrow streets, it feels like it will take out anyone or thing that may be in it's way, but no mishaps while we were aboard!

We are off to new towns and experiences today, Coimbra and Porto! More once we get settled and sort out our technical difficulties.

An Even Longer Day

Greatest Combination: Street Performers and Animal Cruelty 

Praca do Comercios 

Gigantic Lines for Delicious Tarts

Antiga Confeitaria de Belum

YUM

Pasteis de Belem - Crisp pastry nests filled with warm custard cream topped with powdered sugar and cinnamon, Delicious

They could use some sunscreen...  they are looking kinda burned!

Grocery store in the train station

After a great nights sleep, we walked to Praco de Comercios and watched street perfomers (waiting for dad to get directions). We took a double decker tourist  bus to Belem, and visited Torre de Belem (built in 1515 to defend the harbor). It was a pretty cool tower that had some great photo opportunities. After a long walk, we finally arrived at Antiga Confeitaria de Belum. On seeing the building i thought "Oh gee. we finally arrive at the place, I'm starving, and now we have to wait in a line thats so long, it goes outside and it's the length of the building. Yay". But waiting in line was worth it, because those tarts are the most delicious custard filled tarts i have ever had. And the first i ever had. we took a trolley into Alfama, and had dinner at a Pois Cafe, a delicious cafe that specialized in sandwiches (and american ice cream - Ben and Jerry's). we then walked to the train station, that had a mini grocery store inside. I kinda wanted to buy the pigs, but i remembered that katie wouldn't like to see me eat that. Talk to you guys in 3 days (but now you have to listen to the bad reports from my siblings) oh yeah we also are 6 hours ahead so im going to call it a night.

-Trevor

(note by Cathy....Trevor's travel journals of the past always discussed the food he ate, I guess even with technology, some things never change!)

A Very Long Day

Taken from a window in the Igreja (church) de Sao Vicente de Fora

View from our apartment in the Alfama, a neighborhood in Lisbon, Portugal

                                

                                 Taken from another window in Igreja de Sao Vicente de Fora

After 21 hours of travel, the Wall Family finally made it to Lisbon, or Lisboa, Portugal. We drove to O'Hare Airport in Chicago, then took a plane which was supposed to go to Philadelphia, but ended up in Pittsburgh for about 4 hours. After getting into Philly at about 11:30 local time, we got on a plane that left around 1:00 AM and got into Lisbon at around 1:00 PM local time. We exchanged some of our dollars into euros, and got on our way to our apartment which was located in the Alfama neighborhood of Lisbon. We found that our apartment is a great mix of old and new furnishings and is going to be a cozy place to call home for the next few days! After settling in, we headed a couple hundred feet to a restaurant across the street and got some lunch. Much to our dismay, hamburgers are not made the same around the world! Both Trevor and I ordered one, and found that a Portuguese "hamburger" consists of a burger with ham and eggs on top. Not exactly what we expected... We also found out, or Trevor did rather, that Portuguese people don't like being spoken to in Spanish. The years that they spent under Spanish control doesn't make them love the Spanish people and language. You're supposed to speak in Portuguese, English, French, or a lot of other languages besides Spanish. After lunch, we strolled around the neighborhood, which has twisty, turny cobblestone streets that are very steep. It's a great place to visit! We went into an old cathedral as well, Igreja de Sao Vicente de Fora, which had a sweet observation tower at the top where you could see alot of the city. After the church we started heading back home so we can get a good night's rest and get ready for tommorow!

-Ryan

Just about ready

After many hours surfing the net and researching countless guide books, our trip is largely pulled together.  We have a pretty specific route and lodging booked in most locations.  Below is a pretty cool tool I found on Google maps to show where we are headed. Hear my sigh of relief at wrapping this up and feel the excitement finally building for getting on our way!

Over the past couple of nights we have spoken as a family about what we are looking forward to and dreading about this month long journey.  We are excited about surfing in the Atlantic, practicing Spanish, family bonding (me), visiting places we have never been before, the food and beautiful scenery.  We are dreading spending every waking minute with siblings (Katie, with agreement from the brothers), the food, museums and historical sites.  I am sure that we will have some absolutely wonderful moments and memories as well as times we will hope to forget or at least look back on and laugh about.

Now to finish packing and taking care of the other "leaving for a month" things.

Posted by Cathy





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