Sunday, 9/28
We took a morning train to Porto, arriving before noon at Sao Bento Residences, an apartment hotel directly across the street from Sao Bento station. We had a huge studio apartment, complete with kitchen and 3 balconies. It’s an amazing deal at about $325 per day.
Lunch was at Vinum, with a winery tour and port tasting at the adjacent Graham’s cellars.
Lunch was superb. I started with clams in garlic sauce, then had duck with foie gras. Stanley had seafood soup and suckling pig. With a glass of wine each, and coffee, the total was 132 euros.
Next was the tour and port tasting, which cost 60 euros each.
It was a great tour with a very informative guide. The tasting consisted of 3 different ports, with an accompaniment for each, chocolate, cheese and a custard tart. Afterward, we bought 2 bottles of port to take with us.
Dinner that night was at Gruta, a Brazilian restaurant with a rather small menu comprised entirely of seafood.
We enjoyed everything. I chose to have 3 appetizers, starting with oysters and then going on to langoustine with kohlrabi and lemongrass, and a mixture of barnacles, mussels and razor clams. Stanley had the cod. We shared a baba au port for dessert. With wine and cocktails, the bill was 180 euros.
Monday, 9/29
This was the day of our tour of the Douro valley. We started at the meeting point at 7:40 am. Thankfully it was pretty much across the street. The reason they start so early is that they can’t have all these tour buses in this area after 8:00. That means we get a 25 minute stopover in Amarante on the way to the tours and tastings, which is not an entirely bad thing as the town does have some charm.
We continued on to the first tour and tasting, with lunch. This producer specializes in moscatel, the lesser-known sweet wine of the Douro region. It was good, though we can see why port is the more important one. The lunch was very good, consisting of a leek and potato soup, lettuce and onion salad, gratin of cod and potatoes, roast pork with potatoes and cabbage, flan and fruit for dessert, a glass of moscatel for aperitif and one for dessert, and coffee.
We then were taken to the port of Pinhao for the 50-minute river cruise. On the way we stopped to take some photos.
After that we continued on to the Quinta da Roeda, the vineyard and winery where Croft port is made.
Back in Porto, we had dinner at Digby.
We had a very nice dinner, starting with a sardine tartlet for each of us. Stanley had suckling pig and I had a tripe and bean stew with a hunk of perfectly medium-rare to rare pork. I made a mistake when I ordered the wine and ended up with a reserva at 88 euros instead of the 38 euro I had intended to get. Of course it was a wonderful wine though, and with cocktails the total was only 208 euros anyway.
Tuesday, 9/30
Our first stop in the morning was the cathedral, just up the street from the hotel.
Next to the cathedral is the bishop’s palace, which is definitely worth exploring, even though there is a separate admission charge.
Then we headed to Casa Guedes Progresso for lunch. No reservations so we arrived early, but it turned out the restaurant was not busy at all.
We both had francesinhas. This is a sandwich that is a specialty of Porto. They offer 2 versions, the traditional and the Guedes. I had the Guedes which contains Bread, Roasted Pork, Egg, Mortadella, Red Sausage, Fresh Sausage, Ham, Gouda Cheese and Special Sauce. Stanley had the traditional, which has steak instead of roast pork. The slices of cheese are on top of the sandwich, then a fried egg is placed on top of that, and the whole is smothered in gravy. You eat it with a knife and fork, and it is heavenly. I drank a glass of sangria with tangerine and ginger and he had stout. With coffees the bill was 41 euros.
After lunch we took a 2-hour boat cruise on the Douro, which was lovely.
Dinner was at Casario, where we sat on a terrace overlooking the river, a beautiful setting.
This was the best dinner yet in Porto, and the cheapest. It’s a small plates restaurant, and they suggest ordering 3 or 4 dishes for 2 people. We started with cocktails made with port from the Cruz winery, which were excellent. We then shared 4 dishes: Crab terrine, asparagus souffle, turbot and guinea fowl. A bottle of wine from the Douro was 27 euros. The total came to 100. Quite a bargain.
Wednesday, 10/1
We began with a visit to the Soares dos Reis Museum.
It wasn’t especially interesting. The 2 paintings above were the only ones I thought worth photographing.
Then lunch at Ora Viva.
It’s a small restaurant that takes a limited number of reservations only up to 12:30. We arrived at noon without a reservation and got right in. The food is good but very traditional. Stanley had melon with smoked ham and then grilled flounder. I had octopus salad and cod. With a half liter of sangria and coffee, the bill was 66 euros.
After lunch we went to the Bolsa (formerly the stock exchange, which moved to Lisbon, it is now the chamber of commerce) for a half-hour tour.
For our last night in Porto, we had dinner at Almeja.
This is a very attractive restaurant with a limited but interesting menu. Dishes we had were pig’s head terrine with apple and brioche, goat cheese with honey and truffle, grilled pork with blood sausage, and roast kid goat on rice. With a bottle of wine, and cocktails, the bill was 135 euros.
The next morning we left for our flight to Paris via Munich.
Robert Rems' Open House 