Eating, Drinking, and Being Merry

So, there has definitely been some (responsible) port tasting going on around here (over the course of many days), since port happens to be Jeff's and my wine of choice. We love the intense oak and caramel flavors that come from the ports aging in oak barrels. We are particularly fond of the older tawnys and have been trying with all diligence to determine which one is our absolute favorite. It's a hard job, but we are up for the challenge.

We have also been sampling lots of local cuisine, sometimes with our port and sometimes separately. One curiosity is that many restaurants will serve tapas (appetizers) immediately upon seating, with the understanding that you only pay for what you eat. This was actually a gradual understanding for us--a lesson learned the hard way, so to speak, especially since we come from the land of bottomless baskets of free tortilla chips and bowls of salsa. We been served everything from bread and olives to custard tarts (Nata do Ceu)...and we've enjoyed them all. We've also intentionally ordered some local specialties, like Francesinhas (beef and sausage sandwiches covered with melted cheese, served in a bowl with a wonderful sauce, and eaten with a knife and fork), Chorizo Flambe (chorizo sausage, served on a mini grill and set on fire at the table, which is a real crowd pleaser), cheese boards (with lots of local cheeses and jams), and several cod fish dishes. Everything has been delicious!

Thankfully, we are working off most of the excess calories we're consuming by walking around this beautiful city, which is is built on a hill, so every street is almost vertical. And, also paved with cobblestones. So it's not like namby pamby exercise. (At least that's what I tell myself.)

Sadly, we had to say goodbye" to Mimi and Grandpa this evening. And, our time in Porto is almost at an end, as well, as we'll head out early Thursday morning for England. There has been a whole lot of merry-making, though, and exceptional memories have been made.

I'll drink to that!

Pretty Porto

On a mission to find our favorite

We enjoyed the tour at Sandeman conducted by the "Don."

Iconic Branding:
1. The younger boys outside the House of Sandeman
2. Clay with the "Woman in Black" of Porto Cruz
3. Clay with "The Don" of Sandeman
(Because, as you know, Clay does like a good statue!)

Ponte Pensil has been a favorite place!
The two food items shown are the Chorizo Flambe and the Francesinha.

 The boys have really enjoyed playing at the playground by the river
and putting on performances at the Ponte Pensil platform.

This restaurant prided itself on "rotating tapas" (served on a lazy Susan)
and being able to pull out a bottle of vintage port from its collection
for almost any patron's birthday year, for photo ops.
I guess that means that we're a "vintage" couple.

We were so sad to say goodbye to Mimi and Grandpa
this evening. We had so much fun exploring Spain and
Portugal with them during the past month. They will be missed,
but we will carry special memories of this time with us!

Exploring

This morning, Clay took us over to the park he has visited with Mimi and Grandpa while the rest of us have been doing school this week. He also took us over to the fruit market, which seems to be his new favorite place.

In the afternoon, part of our group explored some different parts of the city than we have previously visited, while the rest of the group stayed home to read and rest. We walked almost to the Atlantic Ocean, and through the university campus, and ended up at the botanical garden, before heading back down to the river to meet up with Grandpa and the older two kids for "cafe." Altogether, we walked about six miles, which is a lot for me, but is really a lot for the little legs of Max and Clay. But, they did great, and we all had a good time.

Max was interested in the boats this artisan was making,
so the nice man invited him to come over and try his hand at it.

Little boys with a big cask

Sights of Porto
1.The cave at "Clay's" park
2. A copper still
3. The place where the river meets the ocean
4. Street performers
5. Roasting pigs
6. A port boat under construction
7. A beautiful abandoned building
8.The view from the other end of the river

It was a whole lot of steps to the botanical garden.
When we got there, everyone needed to rest!

Porto Botanical Garden

A violin playing flea and his little mimic

The Other Side of the River

Today's explorations took us across the Dom Luiz I Bridge and to the other side of the Douro River. We wandered through the fascinating streets of Porto and eventually found ourselves at Livraria Lello and Irmão, an amazing bookstore celebrating its 110th birthday this week. We had to purchase tickets (at a minimum cost) to enter, but the price of our tickets could be used as credit for purchases. It was absolutely beautiful, and my pictures don't really do it justice. (You can check out the link to see more pictures.) From there, we wandered down to the Crystal Palace Gardens, where we spent some time playing on the playground, marveling at all the peacocks, and taking in many beauties of nature. Finally, we headed back toward the river, where we explored the shops and cafes along the water's edge and eventually settled on one of the sidewalk cafes for dinner. Later, Jeff and I snuck out for a little date, which mainly consisted of trying several different port wines, at several different neat places along the river. It was a really wonderful day! Porto has turned out to be one of our very favorite stops we've had on our RTW trip, so far.

Clay woke up this morning intent on getting fresh strawberries,
(which he insisted on referring to as "fresh strawberries"),
so Mimi and Grandpa took him down to the fruit market,
while the rest of us did some school work this morning. 

Ready to cross the Don Luiz I Bridge

Looking back to "our" side of the river.
Our house is the red one about half-way up the hill
on the right side of the picture.

Livraria Lello and Irmão

Crystal Palace Gardens

Date Night:
The last picture is a pub a the base of the Don Luiz Bridge.
That concrete structure, which was used as a base for a suspension bridge in the 1800s,
sits right in the river and is the patio for the pub. It was a very cool place for a date!
The bottles of port are from a cellar across the street from the bridge pub.
We did the tasting with some of their oldest ports, including one that was harvested
the year Jeff was born. We loved all of them!

Porto

This afternoon we explored a small section of Porto along the river, which contains a great many wineries and shops, lots of moored wine boats, a fun playground, the gondola station, and a great many neat cafes. It is such a lovely city, and we are looking forward to exploring more of it over the next few days.

Barcos Rabelos (wine boats) moored on the Douro River

Quinta do Noval 

Quinta do Noval tasting flight
(These were our favorites of the day!)

Calem House

This was the largest cask at Calem, holding 60,000 litres of ruby port.

The tawny ports are housed in the smaller casks, to give them more contact with
the oak wood and to expose them to more oxygen. These barrels are later sent to
the Famous Grouse Scotch distillery in Scotland, which we saw while we were there.

The lovely tasting room at Calem

Ferreira
(Visited on the recommendation of the street vendor
who sold us the roasted chestnuts)

We tried only the "special" ports at Ferreira

We were likely the only port drinkers out today with our own knightly bodyguards.

Two peas in a pod

Dinner on the river

Portugal

We arrived in Portugal yesterday and have already had so much fun! We officially celebrated Max's eighth birthday, changed time zones, stayed at a lovely little farm house close to nothing, visited a wonderful medieval walled city, and finally landed in Porto, where we will be hanging out all week.

Where we spent our first night in Portugal

Celebrating the birthday boy

The walled city of Obidos

We heard that the city was established, more or less in its current state,
around the year 1307, but further research suggests that there was was probably
a Moorish fortification here around 713 and very likely a Roman city here
even before that, during the height of the Roman Empire. 

The maze-like cobblestone streets wind around through the fascinating town.

This bookstore was amazing!
Clay wisely proclaimed: "It's like a bookstore AND a market!"

Samples for grow-ups of ginjinha
(cherry liqueur served in a chocolate cup)

Obidos Lovebirds

Walking the wall

There were a ton of cute little shops selling accessories made of cork.
Weston fell in love with this flat cap and just had to have it!
(Additionally, Ruth got a cork bag, my father-in-law got a
cork baseball cap, and I got a cork bracelet and a spoon.)

Clay was more interested in "weaponary"

Max was also interested in collecting souvenirs
that would help him defend the castle.

View of the Rio Douro, from our new house in Porto

View of the Dom Luiz Bridge, from our town house

Just a couple of streets over sits the Mosteiro da Serra do Pilar,
which looks lovely all lit up!

Eight to the Max

Max,

It's hard to believe you are eight already! Where has the time gone? I guess time really does fly when you're having fun. And, this year has definitely been full of fun and adventure! We sold our house in April and embarked on our RTW trip in May. You have been up for every adventure along the way and have been such a trooper, in such a wide variety of situations.

One of the things you were looking most forward to was Stonehenge, and it didn't disappoint. You absolutely loved it! You also really enjoyed spotting animals in Kruger National Park, in South Africa. And, you have had fun playing on various beaches and playgrounds everywhere we've been. For your birthday, we surprised you with a chocolate-making workshop at a tiny chocolate factory in Mijas, Spain, which you enjoyed immensely. And, today, we will head to Portugal. I don't know many eight-year-olds who've been to quite so many places or tried quite so many new things. But, you make it look easy!

I have seen you mature in so many ways this past year. You are learning more and more to master your emotions, rather than letting them master you. You are becoming more gentle and are responding quicker to correction. You are also a great helper and so very smart. And, you are learning to think of others ahead of yourself, to take care of your possessions, and to curb some of your packrat tendencies. These things don't necessarily come easily or naturally to you, but you are working on making these choices each day, which shows a great deal of maturity and self-control, and that makes me so proud.

You have developed a true love of reading and will often read a book rather than play a video game. This year, you read most of the Narnia books, many of the Magic Treehouse books, and have just started the Percy Jackson books. You read many other books, as well, which I will not take the time to name individually. You have also been listening to the Harry Potter books, which you enjoy tremendously. Very often you can be found reading to Clay, which not only speaks to your reading skills, but also to your fantastic big brother skills. Occasionally, you even like to scribble down stories of your own. You have a great imagination, so these are always fun to read.

You have been doing a wonderful job with your school work. You were thrilled when I introduced spelling tests a month or so ago and are thinking about getting involved with PSIA when we get back to the States. You are doing very well in Math and like to listen in on your older siblings classes to see what you can glean from what they are learning. You have a curious mind and are always interested in learning how things work and in trying your hand at building or making your own creations. You are still intrigued by robots and often talk about finding a job, when you are an adult, that will allow you to build and work with them.

Running is still your passion, but you also love skiing. When we skied in Andorra in December, you showed a great deal of skill and control and rarely fell. You do love the feeling of going fast and jumping, when the opportunity presents itself, but you are more careful than you used to be and more interested in going down the mountain well instead of just fast. This is an important lesson that stretches far beyond skiing, and I think you are really beginning to grasp the concept. You are very athletic but don't seem terribly interested in organized sports, though you occasionally talk about the possibility of playing soccer on a team. You are also thinking about looking for some kid-appropriate 5 or 10Ks to run in when we get back to the States.

You love to be outside and can be entertained for long periods with nothing more than sticks or rocks. You love playgrounds and parks and open areas, and you never tire of running and climbing and moving. Even so, you have had several opportunities while we've been traveling, to practice sitting still and behaving like a gentleman, and you have performed beautifully in every case. This is another sign that you are maturing.

You make life so interesting and fun, and you honestly make me a better person. I'm so glad I get to be your mom, and I'm so proud of you and the young man you are becoming. I hope you have the very best birthday and that the year ahead is full of even more fun and adventures. Happy birthday to my favorite eight-year-old!

Love,
Mom

Seville Tapas Hop

It was chilly and rainy today, but we didn't let that quash our plans to do a "tapas hop" in Seville. We wandered around the city and stopped at several tapas bars to sample the local cuisine. We also saw lots of other interesting sights and had a great time.

Our first stop was the indoor market, where the boys had
a great time visiting with the butcher at one of the carnicerias.
Clay was thrilled when Jeff gave him some money
to buy whatever he wanted!

Bar Europa

El Zeste

Plaza Chica

Other sights in Seville:
1. One of the quaint streets in the center of town
2. One of many dress stores selling flamenco dresses
3. A John Wayne mural near one of the tapas bars
4. Weston posing with a barber pole (ref: Barber of Seville)
5. Churros left to cool
6. Orange trees line the streets
7. Metropol Parasol
8. A snail sculpture on the side of a building