25 January 2010

Portugal

It's incredible where you can go and what you can see in one weekend when countries are small and close together. This past weekend we took a trip to Porto, Portugal.

We left Santiago Friday afternoon and were on the train for a little over 6 hours. We had to change trains in Vigo, and we arrived in Porto around midnight, 11 in Porto because they're one hour behind. After we checked into our hotel and ate something we slept because it was a long trip (and every one of us was out late Thursday night). Saturday morning we ate breakfast at the hotel, and I set out with Juliana to get to know Porto.

We did more walking in Porto than actual visiting places, but we went to several different churches, took a tour in a boat, and ate at Adega do Conde, a wonderful little restaurant we liked so much we had lunch there both days. Saturday evening Juliana and I took a train to Aveiro, about an hour away by train. Aveiro is much smaller than Porto, and it's beautiful. I want to see it in the daylight because we went back to Porto that night and only saw everything in the dark.

Sunday morning we got up and headed toward the beach and El Castillo de Queso (which is the name in Spanish, I don't know about the Portuguese), which translates to the castle of cheese. It was a little fort very similar to the castle we saw in A Coruna, but smaller. After that we went to one more church for a tour, walked a little more, and ate again at our restaurant. Our train arrived in Santiago just after midnight.

I had absolutely no concept of Portugal before this trip, but it is a beautiful country, and I'd love to return and see more. And for you to see, there are pictures.

1 comment:

  1. It is so hard to imagine cities like that. I'm sure we have them in the US, but I've never seen them. The streets over there are beautiful alone, let alone with the surroundings. It looks like you are having a wonderful time and getting to see some really neat places. I hope you are still running, the food looks wonderful and definitely calorie heavy. I would have liked to try to desserts in Portugal with you. I'm glad you are having such a great time. Love you and miss you!!

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