October 21, 2012 – Amarante – Dinner at Largo da Paco

On our last night in Amarante we treated ourselves to a tasting menu dinner at the restaurant in the hotel, Largo da Paco. Here’s our experience –

Mary sitting with a glass of wine waiting for dinner to begin

Salud!

The first amuse bouche – lobster quenelle with pineapple, micro-greens, passionfruit and balsamic vinegar. This was too mayonnaise-y and the passionfruit was too much texture!

Second amuse bouche – mushroom ravioli in an intense seafood broth and caviar. I thought this worked best when eaten all together.

Mackerel pate, tartar and confit with roasted peppers, olives, garlic bread, tomatoes, cucumber and watercress. Served with a Vallido rose. This was pretty good.

Broad beans with bisaro pork, egg cooked 62 degrees, broth of broad beans with Portuguese sausage served with Tres Bagos sauvignon blanc 2011. I liked this except the beans were very green tasting. John thought it could have been better.

Then we had ray fish with noisette butter, banana and peanuts, bok choy, and maize with dried tomatoes served with 2010 Tiera, a white blend from Niepoort. Except for the peanut sauce this was very good. I forgot to take a picture.

Next a palate cleanser of mojito granite. They must have stolen the idea from us!

Rabbit stuffed with pistachio, mustard and herbs, celery puree, pumpkin chutney and thyme sauce served with Fagote 2008, a red blend. This was the best course of the evening. The rabbit was a little dry but was perfect with the sauce.

For dessert a pear with white wine port and spices, Portuguese cheese mousse, chocolate pie and lavender ice cream served with Rozes port white reserve. This was dessert. I am not a fan. I especially did not like the cheese mousse.

A lot of small courses. A lot of wine. We enjoyed our evening but definitely wouldn’t want to do it every night!

October 21, 2012 – Amarante, Portugal

John is tired of all the driving around so instead of heading north up twisty mountain roads we decide to stay local and see the sights in Amarante. First stop, picture in front of the hotel.

Mary in front of the hotel

We are looking forward to seeing the church of Saint Goncalo, the museum, and just generally taking a walk around town. Crossing the bridge their is a carving on the side of the church called the Madonna of the Bridge.

Madonna of the Bridge

Mass is still going on so we must postpone our visit to the church.

Church of Saint Goncalo

We walk around for a bit and then try to visit the museum. Unfortunately it has closed for lunch! People in Spain and Portugal take their lunchtimes very seriously!

Finally mass is over and we go into the church. It was built in 1543 and its interior is part renaissance and part baroque.

Interior of the Church of Saint Goncalo

As I mentioned yesterday, there are a couple of things that St. Goncalo helps with such as hemorrhoids and acne and he is also the patron saint of lovers in Amarante. In an effort to check this all out, I visited the Catholic Church’s website and found that the church is pretty skeptical of all the claims about St. Goncalo. They suggested that his biographer could have used a sobriety check. Anyway, the people of Amarante love him a lot and have a special chapel with his tomb in it.

The tomb of St. Goncalo

Giving up on the museum we head back to the hotel to get cleaned up for our fancy dinner tonight. I am really hoping it will be good. We also partake of the tea that the hotel offers around 5 PM. We are hungry from no lunch and our dinner reservation is late.

Tea at Casa da Caladas

October 20, 2012 – Porto, Portugal

After breakfast we have a big conversation with the man at reception about what we should do and how we might get into Porto without being caught in a situation of narrow streets and no parking. No problem, he says. Today is Saturday and there will be parking a-plenty at no charge. We are skeptical. He also suggests that we take a look at the Amarante market across the little stone bridge from the hotel.

Not to let the guy at the desk down, we walk across the bridge to a rather large market. Lots of clothes, shoes, gardening equipment, vegetables, fish, etc. I am, however, curious about an item I have read about in Wikipedia. It seems that Saint Goncalvo, the patron saint of Amarante, is kind of like the cupid of saints. He is also the patron saint of hemorrhoid sufferers, so kind of a multi-tasker. Anyway, on his saint day there is a big festival in Amarante with couples exchanging phallic pastries. And there they are at the Amarante market. I just could not bring myself to buy one of these giant pastries, probably at least a foot long. But I have found a picture of them on the internet that I will share.

Amarante love cookies (Pic attributed to K. Kendall)

We also enjoy looking at the octopus which has been a participant in John’s lunch. We just don’t see a big counterful of octopi at the Pleasanton farmer’s market.

Octopus at the market

Having fulfilled our duty to the deskman, we are off to Porto. We are still worried about finding a parking space but when we get there, voila, right by the cathedral there is a space. Our first stop is at the cathedral where the people inside are waiting for the bride. Maybe she got hung up in the traffic.

This cathedral, like the others we have seen on this trip, is a Romanesque fortress-like structure with crenelation above its rose window. The interior has massive pillars to hold up its stone roof with flying buttresses to help allay the weight of the roof. Using the flying buttress was a major innovation in this cathedral.

John in front of the Porto Cathedral

We wait a bit to see if the bride will show but no luck. Stopping in at Visitor Information, we find out that Porto is built mostly on a high cliff overlooking the Rio Douro. There are a lot of stairs leading down to the river’s edge. The oldest section, the Ribeira, hugs the shoreline. From there one can also access the lower bridge across the river to Vila de Gaia where the port caves are located. There is no way we want to move the car from our primo parking space so we take to the stairs.

One of the zillions of staircases leading down to the river

The bridge over the Duoro River

We decide to have some lunch before tasting some port. We stop in at a family-run restaurant and decide to try local dishes of baccala. Mine is grilled and John’s is baked and they are both horrible. I do not even take a picture. Salty, bony fish with, in my case, greasy, fried, sliced potatoes, some cooked through some raw, and pickled vegetables. John only fares a little better. Tomorrow we are planning on eating a big breakfast and skipping lunch. So far it has been a waste of euros.

As it turns out, now the port caves are closed for lunch and they only port you can get you have to pay for. I have not walked down all those stairs and crossed the scary bridge for nothing and we sit down at Sandeman’s outdoor cafe and have a glass of tawny imperial reserve. It is only three euros.

Sandeman’s cafe

Enjoying a glass of port

Later in the evening after a well-deserved nap, we look for a place for dinner. We walk around the immediate neighborhood but nothing appeals to us. We repair to the hotel bar where we have a glass of wine and split a grilled cheese sandwich. Oh, haute cuisine!

October, 19, 2012 – Viseu, Portugal

After sleeping really soundly last night, we have a nice breakfast at the hotel and are off. We leave a little later than anticipated and realize part way through today’s journey that we are going to have to omit one of our stops. We were going to stop at Guarda and Viseu, Portugal on our way to Amarante but even though we gain an hour when we enter Portugal, there just isn’t enough time. We decide our one stop will be in Viseu.

At the border between Spain and Portugal we are stopped and pulled over by the Spanish police. They are looking for people carrying more than 10,000 EUR. We explain that we only have 300 EUR but they want to look at our luggage. They go through the outside pockets of John’s suitcase. After finding only empty plastic bags (pretty suspicious) and flip flops (less suspicious), they decide we are not drug dealers, terrorists, or money launderers. They let us proceed. We are a bit shaken by this as the last time we were searched was in 1971 crossing the Canadian border. However, since John no longer sports long hair and a beard, we look a little less counter-culture. I decide that taking pictures of this episode is probably not the right thing to do.

The terrain has changed greatly. Where as yesterday we were in the Spanish plain (where quite appropriately the rain mainly fell), Portugal is ruggedly mountainous, sunshine-y and appears poorer.

We arrive in Viseu around lunchtime, negotiate scary narrow streets, find a parking space, and make our way to the cathedral and Grao Vasco Museum. The cathedral is closed for lunch but, yay, the museum is open.

John with Clark and Lewis in front of the Grao Vasco Museum

The museum houses extensive works by Vasco Fernandes, one of Portugal’s great Renaissance painters. We are pretty much followed around by security guards since we appear to be the only visitors. This makes surreptitious non-flash photo taking difficult. I am only able to snag one picture of a reliquary for Sarah (an art form she enjoys).

Reliquary

The paintings are populated by many of the Saints you see in most Renaissance works – Peter, Paul, Catherine, Sebastian, etc. The most interesting painting is in a series of works about the life of Jesus. Painted in 1502, it is of the three kings who travel to Bethlehem. The Moorish king has been replaced by an Indian from Brazil! Here only 10 years after the voyage of Columbus and a humble artist from the hinterlands of Portugal is including an Indian in his works. Discovery of the New World must have been very big news.

“We three kings of Orient are?”

With our visit to the museum completed and the cathedral still closed for lunch, we find a nearby cafe for our lunch. I try to order safely – grilled salmon with vegetables. John is more adventurous – octopus rice. I am learning that vegetables mean potatoes and a garnish of lettuce and tomatoes. The salmon is tasty but full of bones. John’s lunch consists of undercooked rice in a watery pink sauce, some tentacle slices and a bunch of shrimp looking back at him with their beady black eyes. John declares that the watery pink sauce is delicious and goes to work peeling the shrimp and sucking the heads. Yum.

Here’s looking at you, John!

After lunch we visit the cathedral. It is fortress-like on the outside and a combination of Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque in the interior. The most interesting aspect are the trusses shaped like ropes with knots.

Viseu Cathedral

Interesting knot detail

It turns out that we have a very long trip to Amarante. The roads are narrow and mountainous. We are stuck behind a truck carrying rocks who can hardly muster 5 mph up the steep hills. Finally we find our hotel. Our room is nice. There is a pretty view and, surprisingly, a billiards table on our floor.

Nice room

Nice view of Amarante

Who’s behind the eight ball?

We go down to the bar for a glass of wine. A glass of wine and some snack mix will have to suffice for dinner.
John at the bar in the Casa de Calcadas

Then I am done. I must sleep and go to bed at 7:45. Since I am writing this at 3:30 AM, it was probably not the best idea.
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October 18, 2012 – Avila, Spain

After the temporarily lost luggage and the can’t get the GPS to work issue, we are finally on the road in the right direction about two hours later than expected. The skies have darkened and we are experiencing some spitting rain. By the time we get to Avila it is quite rainy.

Avila is surrounded by medieval city walls and the cathedral, a fortress-like structure, is built right into the wall. Our goal is to view the city walls and to tour the cathedral.

John braving the elements outside the city walls of Avila

Once inside the city walls we make our way to the cathedral. Although the cathedral was begun in 1095, most of what exists today spans the 12th to 14th centuries. So it is a polyglot of Romanesque and Gothic architecture.

The fortress-like Avila cathedral

We rent the audiotour and are treated to commentary that ranges from informative to religious. One of the big draws in Avila is Saint Teresa. Saint Teresa decided to become a nun because she felt that she was so much of sinner that being in a convent was the only way she could have a life safe from sin. She became a mystic and was later named a Doctor of the Roman Catholic Church. The most famous statue of Saint Teresa was carved by Bernini. In it she is being pierced by the sword of god. The art historian, Sister Wendy, comments that the statue is one of the most erotic carvings of a saint.

Saint Teresa in the throes of religious fervor. (Thanks to Dr. History for the pic)

After our tour we find a place for lunch and decide to try some of specialties of Avila. I have Barco de Avila which is a bean soup with chorizo. It tastes like bean soup.

Barco de Avila

John tries the patatas revolconas which ends up being a giant bowl of orange-y potatoes with chorizo. It is tasty but way too much.

John’s big bowl o’potatoes

John did find something more interesting than a bowl of potatoes, though. He asks the waiter what callos are. The waiter unsure of how to characterize this dish points to his stomach. Ah, tripe! John must have this. I am just glad that he wasn’t ordering testicles because I cannot imagine the waiter pointing to the correct body part.

John’s yummy tripe

We are really tired by now. John drives on to Salamanca where we stay in a hotel off the freeway. We nap. We eat at the hotel (nothing exciting), and then sleep all night. (yay!) I am not fooled, however, that jetlag is beaten. We shall see.

October 17, 2012 The trip to Spain

This morning we get up really early to get to the airport. Our flight leaves at 6:40 AM. We are so efficient that we end up standing in line for almost half and hour waiting for the TSA people to arrive. I use the extra time to help Clark and Lewis brush up on their Portuguese.

And remember, guys, in Portuguese the “s” is pronounced “sh.” Lewis responds appropriately “sees!”

The flight to Miami is very bumpy. As it turns out the flight to Madrid is very bumpy as well but while the American Airline pilot would barely let us out of our seats at all, the Iberian Airlines pilot is much less stringent. The business class section of the plane is less than a half full and really very spacious. The seats recline until they are flat. I am able to sleep some but John is not.

Business class ghost town

We are served some interesting food. When the flight attendants first come around they ask if we would like nuts or olives. So we get two cupsful of olives. They are good but way too much all by themselves.

I’d already eaten a couple of these with my nice Albarinho wine.

I think the best part of dinner is the salad plate which consists of smoked salmon, a bitter salad, hearts of palm and a veal consomme.

First course

We choose duck for the second course. Lewis is appalled.

Duck entree – meh

Surprisingly as we land at about 7:40 AM it is completely dark outside, not even a glimmer of sunrise to the east. Spain is really far west in the central European time zone. Portugal is in a different time zone.

Then my suitcase does not arrive. One by one people pick up their luggage. Finally we are the only ones left. The carousel stops. Oh uh, this is not good. We go to the window of lost luggage. They suggest we check carousel 6. It is apparently the carousel where the put errant bags. Thank goodness mine is there. It is good we are not in a hurry this morning.

We pick up the rental car and then we cannot get our GPS, Jack, to work. He cannot find his satellites. We drive for a while in what turns out to be the wrong direction. Finally I change his clock setting (which is supposed to be done automatically) and, voila, he is working again. Some more time is lost but as I said we are not in a hurry.

Now it is October 18 and that will have to wait for another entry because I am tired out and going to bed.

October 7, 2012 – Sam and Nathan (and Jonathan) come to play

On Sunday we have a quick visit with Jonathan, Nathan and Sam. We are busy with Sarah’s move to her new apartment so we only have the morning and lunchtime to spend together. Later Jon joins us in helping Sarah get her furniture moved into her new place. Yay! We accomplished it without having to rent a truck!

Most of the morning we spend out on the tennis courts. Nathan is getting so he can hit the ball with his racket some of the time. It is a step up from being a ball boy or his pretending to be the net. Sam, Nathan and I play a spirited game of Mother May I? Sam doesn’t quite get the rules but he is an enthusiastic participant and Nathan is very tolerant when Sam takes at least ten baby steps when he is only supposed to take three.

Before we go out to lunch, I present the boys with their gifts from Hawaii. They are delighted with their junior ranger vests. The vests have so many pockets! We discuss what treasures they might put in all those pockets. Nathan declares that he is going to wear his vest every day. Sam pipes up that he will too. I must admit that it is gratifying to see them happy with something I have selected.

Nathan and Sam in their junior ranger vests (the picture is a little blurry because I just got a new camera and am not quite sure what I am doing yet)

For lunch we go to the Main St. Brewery. It’s Jonathan’s favorite place to have lunch in Pleasanton. The restaurant is decked out for Halloween which delights Nathan and Sam. Our server gives the boys a box of toys to play with. There are many dinosaurs and lizards in it. Sam is especially fierce with his lizard.

Sam being fierce with his lizard while Nathan watches

More fierceness!

John is a little less fierce with his pterodactyl