Sunday, September 6th - Long travel day home

We are both awake around 0800. Blue sky sunny day in Lisbon with a high expected of 24. The weather during our entire trip has been fantastic.

We are sad to be leaving Portugal after having such a great experience wherever we went. So much great food and superb wine! During our adventures we met fellow travellers from around the world and briefly got to know some basic Portugese (even though we both agree it sounds like Russian to our ears!).

It is an under-rated country that merits more consideration for travellers. Your Euro goes a fairly long way here compared to other western European countries. Our analysis of its woes are of a people and culture that doesn't give itself enough credit. Failure to market the country, people, wine, food and destinations is hurting its economy. When we were talking about this with some Portugese they brought up the same challenges.

Anyway, we have a long flight to Toronto and then another longish flight to Vancouver. No complaints here as there is a downside to travelling across the oceans and across our country. Lana has arranged for two seats in "premium economy" for the flight to Toronto. From Toronto to Vancouver Lana is flying first class using her upgrade credits. Not enough credits for me to fly in first class, but I am more than good enough being in economy.

We had a good breakfast in the hotel with hot and cold food, inclusive of fresh fruit and pastries. Weighed our luggage again. All three bags are below 50 pounds, although my bag is slightly below the maximum weight. We check out easily and our taxi driver is about 10 minutes early so all is good. I get to talking with him and he is a fan of Sporting Lisbon's football team. His favourite players are Ronaldo (Portugese) and Messi (Argentina).

Arriving at Lisbon's airport and it is a zoo! It appears to be chaos. We find our check-in terminal although we had to wait quite a while due to a slow gate agent. While there is a long line for security we luck into getting into a newly opened belt. Our Air Canada Rouge plane is super busy, but we lift off on time and arrive in Toronto somewhat earlier than expected. We cannot taxi to our gate as it is still occupied. We get through NEXUS very quickly and then are delayed waiting for our luggage at the conveyor belt even though it is tagged Priority. Given we only have a 2 hour window to get to our connecting flight, every delay is making us nervous.

Off to Customs and another queue. Fortunately, we get a Customs agent that is overwhelmed by the wine numbers (we are 15 bottles over x 0.75 litres per bottle x average price x red vs white x country of origin. As you can see it is complicated. He decides to basically give up and charges us for only being 5 litres over our limit. So the net is that we pay only $22.45CDN for 15 extra bottles. Easy math makes that about $1.50CDN per bottle. Yeh!!! I pay cash at the Cashier and we are good to go.

Now we race to get our luggage on to the connecting belt and then we have about 55 minutes before our flight to Vancouver departs. We get to the Air Canada lounge so all is good. I need to stuff myself with food as I won't get fed in economy. That means we have about 15 minutes in the lounge. We arrive about 30 minutes before the flight departs and then an announcement indicates our plane is in maintenance and expect a 1 hour delay. Back to the Air Canada lounge we go.

The plane is ready about an hour late. Lana is in her First Class seats and I have a window seat close to the front! Yeh! During the flight Lana sends back her dessert of an ice cream and cookie. Very yummy. Uneventful flight and we safely land in Vancouver. Our bags come off the conveyor belt fairly quickly by Vancouver standards and we get a taxi home.

While it is a late arrival its good to be back home. First thing I check is to ensure each wine bottle, cherry liqeur and extra virgin olive oil is not broken and we have a perfect record.

Hope you enjoyed our blog!

Portugal Tips & Tricks

We thought it would be good to document or summarize what we have found is peculiar to Portugal and prepare travellers for this excellent travel destination.

• ATM's will only dispense 200 Euro at a time so plan accordingly. Also, not all ATM's will be on the PLUS international system that allows you to withdraw funds from your bank account in Canada. Check the screen on the ATM machine, it will show the PLUS logo and other's if it's connected. We used Millennium Banks (easily spotted due to hot pink signage) and there were locations all over the country.  
• If you rent a car definitely get the electronic toll device to allow you to drive through the quick pay lanes. It will cost you 1.50 Euro/day but it's totally worth it.
• Tipping in the country isn't required, but if wish, generally you round up 2-3 Euro's on the total bill.
• All restaurants will bring you some small dishes (petisco's) as soon as you sit at your table consisting of bread, olives, cheese, butter. These come with a charge so if you're not interested, just tell the waiter and they will be removed--no offence taken.
• The Metro in Lisbon requires each passenger to have a passcard. You scan in and out and it deducts the appropriate fare. You can load trips or a total amount--whatever works best for you,  but you can't buy four trips and use them with two people.  
• Room numbers do not always correspond to the floor of the hotel you are on!! We were in room 1107 but it was located on the 3rd floor and the button on the elevator was -1. Confused yet?
• If you decide to visit the wineries, you really need to book or reserve in advance. They often don't have the staff available to do ad-hoc tours and tastings.  
• Dinner is later than North American standards. Restaurants usually open between 7-7:30 PM and some not until 8 PM with the bulk of people starting to arrive after 9 PM.  
• As is typical in Europe, the server won't automatically bring you the bill--this is considered rude here. Only when you ask for it, will they bring it. Saying "ah-cont-ta por favour" is how to ask for the bill in Portuguese. 
• Food portions are larger than Canadian standards. A shared starter and one main entree can be plenty for two people. Entrees come with a few sides like potatoes, rice and salad. Perfect for sharing. 
• We noticed that everyone we saw was pretty casually dressed for dinner but then again, we didn't go to any really fancy places either. It's safe to say that there is no need to dress up too much for dinner here.
• Walking shoes are especially important while travelling in Portugal. Why? The streets and sidewalks are all made out of small cobblestones and walking in heels (for women) would be a challenge for sure, especially taking into account the hills in Lisbon.
• Cities here are NOT on a grid system--nothing is at 90 degrees so you require a map and need to know where your heading as it's easy to get lost. Even with a map as we experienced :)
• If you do get lost, remember that the street signs are not on posts at the corner like we have in North America. Street names are posted on plaques attached to the sides of buildings.  Sometimes, you really need to search to find the street sign!!!

Saturday, September 5th - Back in Lisbon/Lisboa

We set our alarm for 07:30 and check out of our hotel so by 08:30 we are in our car with the address of our hotel in Lisbon. An overcast sky and very few cars on the road as we head west to the big city. It isn't until we get closer to Lisbon that we start to see any traffic and then it is a huge volume of traffic. An uneventful drive to our hotel and then to the rental car place. Yayyyyy!!!!

We have seen these huge nests throughout the Alentejo region. We believe they are Cattle 
Egret nests. These white birds are seen walking among the cattle and close to their mouths as they graze. We couldn't figure this out until I check online. These birds accompany cattle and other large mammals to catch insects and other prey disturbed by these large animals.

Huge Cattle Egret nests.

Cattle Egret. This one looks mean.

From the road you see many of these Cattle Egrets beside the cattle.

This is Lisbon's "Golden Gate Bridge" that we crossed on the way into Lisbon. The same designer that did San Francisco's bridge. It looks very similar!

We had reserved HF Fenix Urban through Booking.com as I got a great price and it was about 20 metres from our Europcar rental return. We have three very heavy suitcases (courtesy of our wine purchases) so the closer the better. Plan was to unload our suitcases at the hotel first before returning car prior to 11:00. We arrived at the hotel before 10:00.

This is where things did not go according to plan. The hotel desk clerk verified our reservation and we provided our passports. She then asked for my credit card. The credit card did not match the credit card number that I paid with online. I made the original booking back in April, but my Visa card was compromised in July so I received a new Visa card with a different number. Well, this contravenes their policy as they need to see the credit card that the booking was made with. She wanted to see our bank statement confirming the original credit card number. Grrrr, by this time I am trying to withhold my temper. I confirmed the story, our identity and the fact that absolutely no other hotels asked for this verification. No matter. In fact, they were talking about refunding the old number and using the new number. That wouldn't work as we wouldn't have been credited for a stale number. Lana had me pulled out my Macbook and eventually found the Visa transaction for April 26th on our online bank statement thus satisfying their dogmatic policy. We left our luggage as check in was not allowed until 14:00.

I had read about a great brunch place located not too far away so off we went with Lana plotting our route on the map. It was quite a walk and up some very steep streets and stairs. Welcome back to Lisbon! Sadly, Orpheu Cafe no longer exists. What was a disappointment turned into a great surprise. We were at Praça Principe Real park where there was a large market. Many goodies, crafts and vegetables like a farmer's market.

First stop was a Crepe place. Two crepes for 5.50Euros. Very sweet crepes which worked for my order of Nutella, but Lana put off by the difference with her order of ham and cheese (savoury filling) in a sweet tasting crepe.

One kiosk had a huge collection of tins of seafood - incredible variety. We bought two cans of Octopus in garlic and olive oil. Can't wait to eat these in Vancouver! Plus, the owners knew of Sol e Pesce Restaurant (we talked about this place in an earlier blog entry) that serves nothing but.

More cans...Lana loved these and thought they looked like art!!

We couldn't resist this pastry called Bola de Berlin Brigadier for 1.50Euro. Three flavours - all chocolate. Like a brioche bun with a chocolate creamy filling and a buttery sugar bottom. Great sugar hit and very unique.

Close up of our 'Berliner'.  :-)

Many many many spices at this kiosk. Lana had never seen an actual piri-piri pepper before but it's a critical ingredient to pier-piri sauce for chicken. 

More spices...

More spices....

We watched this couple for quite some time working with these doughy pancake/bready objects on the grill. Soft on the inside. We have no idea what they are and it looks like you could eat with savoury or sweet. If you know, please let us know por favor. We waited to see if someone would buy one so we could see how it was served but after 5 minutes, no takers. 

We believe this a Banyan tree. Our Airbnb host told us about this tree when we were staying at her place.

Its limbs reach far out and are stabilized artificially with the metal grid.  It was a huge tree.

We are not sure if this is a fruit or vegetable?

After the market visit we checked out a local street that had smaller independent retailers sharing bricks and mortar buildings. Cooperatives? Lana found their products interesting as she had a great opportunity to window shop. She did purchase a small ceramic St. Anthony figurine = represents the Saint of Marriages.

We decided to head back to our hotel to drop off my very heavy backpack at check-in and then head up the street to a department store called "El Cortes Inglés, Grand Amazons, S.A. Store". Yes, that is a mouthful! It was my goal to check out their collection of Haglöfs shirts. One of my friends swears by their shirts for hiking and the fact you can travel with them and they never wrinkle in your suitcase. Took us a while to figure out which floor, but alas they haven't carried their stuff in a couple of years and their other store didn't have any. Apparently they only carry them in their stores in Spain. Oh well, another trip to Europe as you can't buy these in Canada. 

We returned to the hotel at 14:00 which is when you can check in to your room. We asked for a room in the backside so we are away from the busy traffic on the main street in front of the hotel. No problem. We got Room 1107 which happens to be on the third floor. Hmmmm. Plus, we were advised to choose -1 in the elevator to take us to this floor. It was explained that this is in a building on the back side and different street levels than front side. Yes, we choose -1 and found our room.

Our room is decent size with a desk and a small fridge. Everything is clean and updated. Lana is happy that there is a bathtub! No password for the free wifi. Plus, we paid for breakfast in the morning. Very quiet on the backside.

Lana is reading a Lisbon Convida magazine which has an ad for Shoes You - a handmade leather shoe store located about a 30 minute walk away. The day is now sunny and blue skies. Brilliant! On the way, we stop at Starbucks for an ice chai latte. Trying to find this store not easy as Lisbon's streets can be so confusing. We do locate the shop and Lana is in shoe heaven. As luck would have it, they have her size in two pairs she tries on.  She can't decide so I tell her "why don't you just buy both pairs?" Hey, I've been well trained by now. So she buys the two pairs of Ladies Oxford brogues and is so happy. One pair is blue and brown, the other is patent red and white.  

We are walking up the main avenue and encounter this kiosk cafe that is making hot dogs. We had to take a pic!

Many choices but expensive hot dogs!

Dinner plans are next. In the book "Where Chefs Eat" Cervejaria Ramiro is listed. Plus, Anthony Bourdain ate here and featured it in one of his shows about Portugal. It is a 25 minute walk and we need to be there early to ensure we get seated. Very casual beer house with excellent seafood and steaks. 

We left in the sun and got lost about 3/4 of the way. There was the same name on two streets which intersected - kind of a problem. Along the way, we saw these three buildings with giant graffiti art on them.

Lana used her iPhone Google Maps to figure out our location relative to the restaurant. We found it no problem and there was a queue of at least 10 customers ahead of us at 19:45. We got a table within 20 minutes so that wasn't too bad. We are happy that we waited as it was a fantastic meal! If you are in Lisbon and want a great meal in a casual setting with fresh and tasty seafood this is it.

Inside the restaurant - definitely a nautical theme.

Our order of Garlic shrimp (Gambas a la Aguillo) arrived still sizzling! Lots of garlic, tender and juicy shrimp and even better for dipping your bread to soak up the juices! The Sagres beer was a good pairing.

Garlic Prego steak sandwich (Carne Lombo). Thick chunk of perfectly seasoned steak as a sandwich. Good feed right here.

Goose barnacles (Percebes) recommended by Bourdain. The server showed Lana the technique for twisting off and then out the long barnacle meat piece. Unfortunately for me, I didn't learn and my first attempt squirted a large amount of pink fluid onto my new white shirt. Of course this stuff stains. Used our carbonated water to dab and rub and got some off. Lana pulled out the remainder. Unique taste and you either like it or you don't. Lana didn't. 

Tank of many fresh and kicking lobsters. You can pick your own lobster and quickly it will arrive on your plate. We didn't order lobster--they were gigantic!

This lobster was just picked and our server just pulled it out of the tank. Huge or what?

Our order of two large Tiger Shrimp (Gamba Grelhada) recommended by our waiter. Wow, so delicious and the butter enhanced its natural flavours.  Plus, a hint of spice. This was probably our favourite dish here. That says a lot.

Almost all the seafood choices are priced by their weight so you won't know your total bill until you see it. Our total bill, inclusive of two Sagres beer and a bottle of carbonated water, came to 38.37Euro. Within five minutes of ordering your food it arrives at your table. The server was excellent; informative and personable. At the end of your meal, they bring you handy wipes. A great touch. Their washrooms are clean. One of our favourite meals in Lisbon.

Another beautiful night to stroll home. On our way we came across this small local restaurant that is making the traditional roast chicken on a spit:

A perfect conclusion to our last full day in Lisboa. Tomorrow we have reserved a taxi to pick us up at the hotel at 10:30 for our 12:50 flight to Toronto and then on to Vancouver YVR about two hours later. Breakfast is included in our room rate so we will fill up before departing in the taxi. Our total walking for today was 20.5 kms. This is the highest daily total for our trip. Lana is very happy with this. 

Friday, September 4th - "And then were none"

No rush to get up this morning. Lana went out for a power walk to help her meet her goal of 10,000 steps today. Perhaps the most valuable item we have had during our stay in the Alentejo region is a fantastic free little map titled "Rota dos Vinhos do Alentejo" we got at Herdade dos Grous. This map lists various wineries in the specific wine areas of the Alentejo. For each winery listed it provides their name, full address, phone number, GPS coordinates, email address and website. Invaluable in contacting the winery and inputting the exact GPS coordinate using our vehicle GPS unit.

 Valuable!

 Map when fully laid out.

Lana's picture of a "grab and go" store she saw on her walk this morning.

Previously we covered how there are no flag persons working in Portugal. Instead, they have these traffic lights set up when single lane traffic is needed. The lights are coordinated between red one way and green the other when there is only one lane available.  Then after a certain amount of time, they change so traffic the other way can proceed.  Brilliant no?

Our first destination is near a town called Cuba.  :-)

Our destination is the Vidigueira region. This wine region in the Alentejo provides a natural demarcation between the north and south area of Alentejo. It was recommended by Pedro (from our visit to the Herdade Do Grous/and map giver) as a unique geographical area with wines that offer a unique approach. It is a valley and very flat. We had about 5->6 wineries to visit theoretically. I did get a response from Rocim, A Groindustria, LDA winery that they were open today for a visit. 

When we arrived we were advised that the girl (Inês) I had been communicating with was ill today there was no chance of a tour. A wine tasting was offered and we accepted. The girl spoke minimal if no english, but easy to point to which wines we wanted to taste. This winery is absolutely beautiful and no expense spared.

Entrance to Rocim winery.

Lights outside of the wine tasting room. Lana liked these as they looked like giant hanging olives.

Table decoration of rosemary in a glass.

Our wine tasting comprised of a Branco (White), Rosé and a Tinto (Red) which happened to be their 2011 Reserva. Very good pours and all for free. We didn't purchase any wines, but they were all drinkable.

Interesting architectural mixture of stone and wood. The stones were contained in metal mesh which were made into cubes.  These cubes lined the walls and must absorb the sunlight to keep the building cool.

Inner courtyard and entrance to the wine tasting room.

Very interesting abstract art throughout this beautiful winery. At the bottom, you can see the sampling bar made of glass, concrete and wood. 

Inner courtyard.

Countryside surrounding the winery. Basically, this area is very flat.

We are the only visitors to Rocim. That is our car parked in the minimal shade.

GPS stone marker on the side of the road. You can see a physical marker along the road on occasion that has the coordinates we've been using for the GPS.

The Alentejo has a large number of cacti. This 6' one exists outside of the Ribafreixo winery.

We had a lunch reservation for this afternoon at 13:00 at Ribafreixo Wines and their Restaurante da Adega. Another winery located near Vidigueira. We are looking forward to another winery lunch experience. Total cost for our lunch was 22Euro not inclusive of the wine flight.

Leftover stems in a bin and now leaking red grape juice.

Appetizer of Paio de Porco Alentejano (Pork filled sausage). We have eaten this dish at a number of Alentejo restaurants/wineries and it was very delicious here.

Our lunch entree was the Polvo no Forno (Octopus in the Oven). Super tender octopus, lots of olive oil, very tasty and a fantastic lunch meal. This could be the second best octopus I have ever eaten. Lana was laughing at the english translation on the menu because she was picturing the chef trying to stuff a giant octopus into the oven with tentacles coming out everywhere :) How do you get an octopus in the oven? Very very carefully.

This is our dish of baked Octopus within onions, potatoes, garlic, bayleaf and parsley. We need to figure out how to duplicate this at home. We dipped some of our bread into the sauce and that was magnificent.

Lana ordered a dish of grilled vegetables.

Our dessert of Barrage de Preira (Nun's Belly). Our server told us this was a mix of cinnamon, eggs, almonds and sugar. Yeh!!!!

In addition to the awesome lunch, I had the medium-priced wine flight (15Euros) that included five different wines that were great pairings with our lunch. In fact, they leave the wine at your table and you can continue pouring. Mostly white wines. We purchased two white wines to complete our wine purchases; Gáudio - Verdelho (sweeter/tropical fruit about $6CDN) and the Gáudio - Alvarinho (brilliant and also about $6CDN). Yes, fantastic white wine at ridiculously low prices.

Antonio Caetano (server and wine guide). Check out the colour of this Rosé.

We decided to head back to Évora as the chances of getting into another winery during harvest season without a reservation/appointment were slim and zero. We had a very successful day with a visit to a stunning winery and then a memorable lunch/wine pairings. We now have purchased 19 bottles of wine which exceeds our original budget of 18 bottles. My fault.  ;-)

Lana is wanting her last dish in the Alentejo to be Arroz de Pato (duck rice) which is one of the top regional specialties of this area. Back to Cafe Alentejo that we ate at a few nights ago; great food and not good service. According to their website and our experience it is open at 19:30. Nope, we get there like other potential diners and they are closed. A server pokes his head out and says they are one at 20:00 tonight. We provide our name for a reservation. Head out to walk around Évora in another beautiful night.

When we return slightly before 20:00 but the sign on the door still says closed. Hmmm... we notice people already in the restaurant so we head in. Anyway, we get the same table we had before and order Pica Pau for an appetizer (yummy) and then the main event of duck rice.

Arroz de Pato (the picture doesn't do it justice). Cooked rice with duck meat and chunks of chorizo. Very delicious and worth the wait! Flavourful and cooked in a duck stock?

After dinner we went for a walk in what is now darkness. We came across this pizza place. Check out the pizzas you can order. Definitely, a Portugese take on pizzas. Some examples of topping below: tuna, chorizo & pimento, salted cod, salted cod with egg, fruit (banana and pineapple)...

We returned to our room to pack our suitcases with the 19 1/2 bottles of wine and other purchases to weigh in advance of check in. We need to be below 50 pounds per piece of luggage or the charge is extravagant. Our three suitcases weighed in at 40, 45 and 46 so it appears we will be below the weight for each suitcase! Yeh!!! Phew!!!! 

Walking for today totalled 7.5 kms. Another day of indulging. Our time in the Alentejo has been everything we hoped. Superb food/cuisine, excellent wines and friendly people. 

The title of today's blog references our wine purchases and the fact we have no more 'slots' open for wine.