We started heading to the west of Madrid, and first visited Braganca and Porto. Then we headed south and visited a few small towns: Aveiro, Coimbra, Obidos, and Ericeira. We finally arrived in Lisbon and stayed there for 3 nights. We also visited Sintra and Cascais which are just a bit outside of Lisbon before heading back to Madrid.
After 3 hours drive, we arrived in Braganca. There was no particularly reason why we chose to visit this town, simply it is on our way to Porto and it is about time for lunch. Braganca is a small and quiet town with lots of old houses. We wandered around the town, visited the castle and had a hearty lunch in a local restaurant. In fact, since Braganca is so close to Spain, we didn't feel it was too different from home - everyone we met spoke Spanish, and the food is quite similar. We did learn that in Portugal people eat earlier: 12:30 - 2 for lunch, 8:30 to 10 for dinner. But because Portugal is one hour later than Spain, the schedule worked fine for us.
After lunch, we continued our drive and eventually reached Porto at around 5pm. We checked into our hotel, and took a nice walk towards the riverside. Porto is the second largest city in Portugal and it is a beautiful port city. According to the guidebook, people here used to rely on trading for living, so they developed a unique merchant culture. We walked to Ponto de Luis, and watched a beautiful sunset along the lake. We had dinner in a Chinese restaurant nearby the bridge and returned home early to rest.
The next morning, we woke up early and walked around the old town. We visited the market, the San Francisco Church, the stock exchange, and again walked along the river shore. We saw boats carrying wine cellars parked on the river and learnt that Porto is famous for its local wine. The city is quite hilly, so we walked up and down hills and got quite tired in the end. At 11am, we said bye to this beautiful city and departed for our next destination.
0 comments:
Post a Comment