Day 6 - Guimaraes - Penafiel - Viseu

Day 6 already! Man, it's going fast. And by "fast" I mean I can barely remember what we've done already. That's one of the things I love about the Globus tours; they really stuff it full. It's also what I hate about them. 

Today we left Porto and headed north. Our first stop is Guimaraes. The little I knew about this town was that Alonso Enrique, the founder of Portugal, was born here. And, big shock, there's a beautiful cathedral in the main square. 

Our tour guide, Hassan, picked this place for a group photo. He was NOT expecting to see the crabs in the photo. He laughed when we put them on and said he had never had a group shot with crabs.

Janet and I took this opportunity to take a crab shot with ourselves and Alonso. 

After the photo op, we walked down a tiny street to the Largo da Oliveira. There used to be a olive tree planted here by Alonso Enrique. But it got chopped down at some point and a new one put in it's place. This square also has a Gothic shrine to commemorate the Battle of Salado ( a battle between Portuguese and the Moorish army in 1340.)

Walking a little further we found ourselves in the main square. Here is where we found the Church of Sao Gaulter. The square to the church is filled with this beautiful garden. 

The sun was in the worst place possible to take a good shot of this church. We walked down to the church and spent a couple of minutes inside. It was simple and beautiful as it appears all the cathedrals are in Portugal. 

We were getting close to the time we had to meet the group again, so Janet and I walked up the street and found a little cafe to sit and have a Fanta and some water. 

Back on the bus we headed to Quinta da Aveleda located in Penafiel for some wine tasting. 

Part of the group took a tour of their gardens, and the rest of us lazy bones just hung out in the main house resting on a veranda with some beautiful views. 

The wine tasting was accompanied with some heavy tapas. It was quite delicious, but the wine... not so much. It was too sweet and I'm sure not their best wine. 

Next stop, a drive through the Duoro Valley on our way to Visue where we'll stop for the night. 

The Duoro Valley is their wine country. The hills are covered with rows and rows of vines. 

All those photos were taken in a moving bus barreling down the highway. The reflection in the bus window shows up every now and then, but you get the picture of how the valley looked. 

Visue is an interesting place to stop for the night. It's a small town with TWO cathedrals in the same square. There wasn't much going on in this sleepy little town when we got there. Janet and I walked up to the cathedrals then on the way back stopped for a beer. We had a dinner excursion later that night so we needed just something to get us to that point. 

Dinner was a group dinner that was included in the tour. It was at a little restaurant called Forno di Mimi. We started with an appetizer that I really wish the waiter didn't tell us what it was. Chicken gizzards. Blech. The gravy it was in was good though. 

That was followed by a vegetable soup. Portugal is big on their blended vegetable soups. And so far they've all been delicious. 

The wine they served was amazing as well. I took a photo of the bottle so I could maybe find it here in the states. 

The main meal was "veal". At least that's what they called it. Hassan explained that the Portuguese "veal" isn't the same as our veal in the states. He said instead of "baby" cows, it's more like "teenage" cows. Not quite mature, but not a baby either. We had it this "veal" several times and each time it was amazing. Super flavorful and so tender. 

Dessert was this chocolate mousse. It was WAY too rich and way too much. I took a couple of bites and passed on the rest of it. 

And of course the whole thing was followed by coffee. Amazing coffee. The Portuguese really do a good cup of coffee. 

By the time we got back to the hotel it was almost 10 and we knew we'd be leaving early again the next morning. We were pooped. Well, at least I was. By this time of the trip I also realized I had done little to no journaling. I'll explain why in a later post when I talk about how much I HATE the iPad.