July 20. Porto

The main toll road to Porto was really good, and the ride was without a hitch except charger in the car was not working and consequently TomTom Navigator stopped working. The good thing is that we have a data plan on one of the iPhones (thanks Kostik and Romik) so we were able to get by with Google maps. It looks like the latest software upgrade of TomTom may have messed it up as well.

Porto is great. I think it unjustly misses out on the tourist crowds, not that I am complaining. We raced though the city and hit all the main points. First, St. Francisco 700 year old church had the most gold gilding we ever saw in a single building. When Franciscan monks arrived to the city they initially had hard time getting support. Ultimately they got many rich donors and had built a "Heaven on earth" for them. It got spared any wars and fires. It is something.

They also have an interesting museum in the building where the order administration presided. The enormous meeting room with monstrous table and separate altar must have inspired awe in visitors. In the cellar they have their catacombs. I never before saw numbered graves on the floor in the walking areas. It almost looks like a parking lot.  They also have crypts in the walls. At least those have names besides numbers. They were all buried in the decade of 1850s - maybe it was a transitional period. 

Next we walked along beautiful Ribeira street toward Dom Luis bridge, they have a few of them, hope I am getting the name right. We crossed the bridge on the lower lever and arrived to Gaia, a suburb of Porto where wine dealers age their wine. We walked along the street looking at the different Porto manufacturer houses. Ultimately we picked the house of Ramos Pinto for the tour of the museum, cellars, and tasting. 

Pinto started as a dealer sometime towards the end of 1800s. Ultimately he bought several wineries and became one of the youngest producers. What fascinated me about Pinto was that he followed exactly the same marketing techniques we use 100+ years later. He created branded giveaways for men and women to encourage specific buying behaviors, he sponsored city events and landmarks, he even had a competition for the best poster design (exactly what we do with crowd sourcing design contests). He even brought his display cabinet from one of the trade shows in Brazil to Porto and set it up in his office. Something companies do with tradeshow booths. Where he went a bit further than I saw (yet) was to set up throne for the main client contact and smaller thrones on the sides for associates, while his team was sitting on low stools at a table in front where the best product was featured. If the deal closed,  the guests were invited into the room with the tradeshow booth, incidentally right in front of a beautiful Victorian bathroom with flowers on the porcelain. Cellars were nice, tasting was OK.

On the food front, we tried the local specialty - Francesinha. It translates as "little French woman." It is two slices of Wonderbread with random combination of meat inside. Can be chorizo, ham, and pork. And then it covered in melted cheese and spicy sauce. Little French woman you won't be after eating this. I am somewhat ambivalent about the taste but Dan and Georgia liked it. We ordered it again, in a different restaurant to make sure but the waiter forgot. So I guess someone can try it at home and then let us know. Supposedly it is on top 10 world sandwiches list.

After wine tasting we took a cable car to the upper level of the bridge and walked back. Cable car is a good altenative to the boat cruise if someone is short for time. It takes about 15 minutes, goes above the river, and provides even better views.

We saw the main cathedral next. After St. Frank's everyone of them was anti-climactic but they were all amazing in different ways. Then we went to the coin store but it was closed for lunch between noon and five pm. So we went to Cafe Majestic where supposedly Harry Potter was written. Conceivably some of the sufferings Harry goes through were inspired by their deserts. Just kidding, but it is very hard to live up to the reputation like this. At least we got the checkmark is there. We saw the food and flower market, and a bunch more churches, climbed the bell power of one of the churches and came back to Ribeira for dinner. 

Another note about today was how good Georgia is at orienting herself. We drove through a part of city and ultimately parked somewhere else. When we came back to that part she recognized it immediately, even before Dan did.

The final touch was our hotel for tonight. We wanted to stay somewhere scenic, historical and affordable. Wineyards are too far East for our next day trips so we picked a place near Porto called Quinta la Granja. It is a manor on 444 Rua Manuel Francisco Araujo in Maia (more pictures here). The owner called us while we were in Porto to confirm we are coming.

We got bit doubtful driving towards hotel through some deadish neighborhoods and past decrepit apartment buildings. The street it was on was not better - there was some kind of wasteland managed by a bunch of suspicious looking men with dogs. When we were about to turn around we spotted a high fence and a gate with the right numbers on it. I rang the bell and they opened the gates to let us in. Inside there indeed was a beautiful manor, complete with gardens (guarded by vicious german shepards), chapel, main house, and adjacent to chapel guest house.  The owner bought the place 30 years ago and had lived there with his son. It looks like they started opening up to renting out the place.

Door to the guesthouse is

to the right of the chapel

The guest house is spacious. There are a couple of empty anterooms - maybe they were used as storage/waiting rooms before. There is a bedroom on the first floor and even larger master bedroom on the second floor. There is a fireplace downstairs. Everything is immaculately clean. All the furniture is pretty old in a nice antique kind of way though there is a bit of musty smell because there were no people here for years. There are no other guests right now.

We visited the living room the inside the main house. There are lots of even better antiques, guilded furniture, knicks knacks and such. The owner seems really nice. Still it is a bit weird to be in a house like this. It is like we are in a kind of Rocky Horror Picture Show, without any of the characters. Tomorrow breakfast will be served in the living room and we will get the tour of the gardens and chapel. And then we are off to the other adventures.