Northern Portugal

After a wonderful 5 days in Porto, we bid adieu to the city and took off by car to explore Northern Portugal a bit further. We wanted to track down some of the historical sights of Portugal and visit some of the vineyards that produce the grapes for the Port we so enjoyed in Porto.


Our first stop was Guimaraes, an incredible historical town that dates back over 1,000 years ago. We stayed at a great inn within the medieval centre of the city, which was part of a network operated by the Portuguese government. These inns are called Pousadas, and are located throughout the country, generally in historical buildings that the government wants to preserve but also utilize in a productive manner. From our Pousada (named after the local church, Nossa Senhora da Olivera) we were able to explore the town on foot, including the incredible 11th century castle (pictured above) and the Duke’s Palace (which is a lot “newer” as it was built in the 15th century). Both are a testament to Portugal’s long and storied history and the vast inventory of incredible palaces and castles throughout the country.


We were able to eat pretty well in Guimaraes, with the most interesting being a dinner at Cervejeria Martin, a local bar that is covered in scarves from various football (soccer) and other sports across Europe (above). What made the meal so interesting was that Guimaraes’ local professional volleyball team (Vittoria) was in the Euroleague for the first time and was playing against Moscow that night, a powerhouse of European professional volleyball. The bar was full of supporters and after we left dinner, the streets were quiet save for the sounds of spikes and whistles that we heard from every open door and window. We would have gone to the game had we known the draw of professional volleyball, but were happy enough to watch it with some fans.


Following Guimaraes, we left for the Douro valley - Port country (the actual vineyards this time, as opposed to the Port Lodges of Port). The whole region has been designated a Unesco World Heritage site due to the incredible way that the wineries are all carved out from the hills surrounding the Douro river (Portugal is BIG on letting you know that things are Unesco World Heritage sites - most countries don’t seem to think that this is a huge deal, but perhaps the poorer the country the more they cling to designations like this one). The drive along the local highway N-222 was definitely one of the most incredible car rides we have taken and Kristi did a great job handling some pretty narrow and curvy roads. We ended up in Pinhao, a very small town (population 300) right on the Douro and stayed at a local Quinta (winery) named Quinta de la Rosa. This moderately sized Quinta produces red wine as well as their own port (both of which we tried and both of which I believe are available in Canada). Since it was low season, we were the only guests at the Quinta. Weary of navigating the roads in the dark, we decided to self-cater, and we were able to find the best butcher in town (above) and pick up some fantastic cured meats and local cheeses to enjoy with some red wine and port for dinner. The weather was a bit patchy that night and we ended up spending most of the night by candlelight as the power flickered on and off - very relaxing and romantic.

Our last night of the roadtrip (prior to arriving in Lisbon) was in Coimbra, home to the oldest university in Portugal (second oldest in Europe) and a really fun, lively place. Our hotel was close to a huge wooded park (which was great for jogging) and equally close to the old part of town (which was great for sightseeing). The highlight of Coimbra for us was our dinner. The local restaurant we went to was full with a 25-person group of 30-something ex-students who were enjoying a reunion of sorts. One of them was a local from Coimbra who helped Kristi and I choose all of the house specialties for dinner. These included a dish of fried small fish (like smelts) which were incredibly fresh and served alongside acorda, which is a garlicky porridge made from bread and herbs, as well as the local specialty of chanfana, which is kid (young goat, tastes a bit like lamb) stewed in red wine (tastes better than it sounds). This was definitely one of our best Portuguese meals to date and somewhat redeeming for the country's cuisine given some of the other offerings we had seen in Porto and on our trip.

We ended the road trip in Lisbon, the beginning of a five-night sojourn. Post-Lisbon, we plan on taking a similar roadtrip through Southern Portugal (including the Algarve), ending in Seville where we plan to rent an apartment for approximately 10 days to relax, enjoy the town and enjoy some home-cooked food (we are extremely excited to cook with some of the local products and are a bit tired of continually searching for great restaurants, although we have found many).

The remaining photos of Northern Portugal can be found here (warning: these are a bit repetitive with tons of photos of the Guimaraes castle and the Douro wine region).

As promised in a previous post, it is now time for the Reader Mailbag, where we answer some of the questions from the inquisitive readers of this blog.

Q: How have you been surviving without a cell phone? Specifically, is Jon going crazy without his BlackBerry?

A: While most people figured we wouldn’t last more than 7 days without a cell (and that I wouldn’t last more than 2 days without my BB), we have managed just fine. It’s pretty relaxing not to be checking email constantly, especially after 6 years of being tied to it. Skype has also been a godsend as we can connect with home but also call hotels, restaurants, rental car companies, etc. for only a few cents per minute.

Q: Are you ready to come home yet? (asked several times by M & S Ellenzweig)

A: No. Return date is May 27, 2009.

Q: How many times have you done laundry? How much underwear did you bring? (we received the underwear question from 4 different people, which is a bit creepy)

A: Not sure why the readers are so concerned with undergarments, but we have done laundry a couple of times in our sink and went to a laundromat in Lisbon to do a full load.

Q: What books have you read so far?

A: Jonathan has read The Nasty Bits by Anthony Bourdain and Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai. Jonathan is nearly finished Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer (book is somewhat annoying but I will stick with it). Kristi is just finishing up McCarthy's Bar by Pete McCarthy, in preparation for our trip to Ireland. As far as other media goes, we have finished Season 1 of Mad Men and are part way through Season 1 of 30 Rock. We have also watched a few movies including Kristi's fave, Sex and the City.

We will resume the mailbag in a future post. Please continue to submit your questions to us via email or through the comments on this blog.

Before signing off, we also want to wish a very special 61st birthday to Michael Ellenzweig. Dad, you don’t look a day over 60.

J&K

Porto

Having had enough of the cold weather, and our fill of beer and sausages, we headed south (and west) from Germany to Portugal. We arrived in Lisbon on January 16th, and took a train straight to Porto. We were welcomed with warmer weather, and heavy rains. But, in spite of the wet weather, we managed to keep ourselves dry and warm by taking in the local sights, culture and fortified wine.

On Friday, we went to a Portuguese football (soccer) game at Estadio de Dragao. FC Porto (the home team) took on Coimbra and took the match with a single goal in the second half. Fans were relatively tame, since the match was a cup game (as opposed to the regular season) - however the “supporters sections“ were as enthusiastic as always. In an effort to fit in with the crowds, we followed suit at half time and sampled what seemed to be the most popular snack - popcorn. Though not popcorn with salt and butter like we usually eat it in North America, this was lightly sweetened and crunchy, we quickly realized why it was the most popular snack at the game.

Traveling around town on Porto’s new subway line also helped to keep us dry as we visited two of Porto’s newest buildings: Casa da Música (above), and Fundacao de Serralves (Museu de Arte Contemporânea). Though we didn’t make it to a concert at Casa da Música (disappointing), we did tour the building from top to bottom, and were just as impressed as the Times critics who called the Rem Koolhas-designed building “insane” and “brilliant“. With two concert halls and tickets priced equally for any seat in the house, the building hosts a diversity of concerts from Fado (traditional melancholic Portuguese singing) to electronica.

The contemporary art museum at the Fundacao de Serralves is a minimalist building designed by a leading Porto-based architect, where exhibitions are the main attraction. On display during our visit was an exhibition by a Portuguese modern artist named Juan Munoz, (above) which seemed to attract locals and tourists alike, particularly on a rainy Sunday when entry was free.

Even more impressive than the exhibition however, was Parque de Serralves, the 18-hectare park that surrounds the museum. The park was beautiful enough to entice us to venture out into the rain for a stroll. From lily ponds to special scented gardens and even a small farm area, the park was glorious even in the rain.

Amidst the rain, we were also able to tour some of the historical sights in Porto, including many of the churches that dot the historic old city. In order to keep this post to a manageable length, please feel welcome to browse the rest of our Porto visit in the photo gallery.

In a final effort to ward off the cold, damp feeling , we ventured across the Douro River to Vila Nova de Gaia, where we arrived in the land of Port. History says that 17th century British merchants, at war with France, turned to Portugal to fill their wine demands. After discovering that the Portuguese wine did not travel well on their journey back to Britain, the British added brandy to the grape juice, thereby creating Port. It is for this reason that some of the big names in Port (Taylor’s and Graham’s) are British, rather than Portuguese.

This area is like the Napa valley of Portugal, except here it is possible to walk from one Port Lodge to another, since the actual grapes are grown in a region further east along the Douro (we’ll get to that in our next post). After being picked, the grapes are then traditionally moved along the river (now sent by truck) to Gaia for aging in casks in the Port Lodges. Though there are many Port Lodges to chose from, we restrained ourselves from visiting them all, and we chose to visit Taylor’s and Graham’s. At both lodges, we learned about (and tasted) the difference in ports, from LBV (Late Bottled Vintage) to Tawny to Vintage Port. We have been known to have a bottle of port on hand for late-night guests and now we will be able to supplement our drinking with some actual first-hand knowledge of the product. Pleased with what we had learned (and tasted), we invested in a bottle of Graham’s 20 year tawny to take with us on the next leg of our adventure.

On the food front, generally the food in Porto left something to be desired. For example, in our mind, french fries and rice don’t necessarily need to be served with every single thing on the menu at lunch and dinner, and salad with vegetables other than iceberg lettuce, pale tomatoes and cooking onions would probably be a welcome change. In spite of this affinity for fried potatoes and sad salads, we were able to seek out a few choice meals and snacks including fresh seafood stewed with rice, crispy roasted chicken with piri piri sauce, and an assortment of delicious Portuguese pastries. It’s a good thing we packed our running shoes and have been making good use of them! We did splurge on one night of fine dining at Foz Velha, (photo above is of Kristi's shredded salt cod salad) one of the top restaurants in town, and one of the few that has tailored its menu to 21st century tastes. This was certainly a memorable dinner with some great twists on local traditional fare.

After Porto, we continued on a 5-day road trip through Northern Portugal and ending in Lisbon. Looking forward to updating the blog with the details soon.

Cheers,

Kristi + Jon

Berlin II

Can you guess who is posing with Kristi in this photo?

Those that guessed the Berlin Albatross, mascot of Berlin’s Euroleague basketball team are of course correct. On Thursday night, Kristi and I went to see a big Euroleague Basketball game between Alba Berlin and Union Olimpija Ljubljana (Slovenia), where I was able to convince Kristi to pose for a photo with the mascot. While some decent NBA players have recently defected to Europe, both of these teams largely consisted of washed up Americans (Casey Jacobsen) or slow moving, good passing Euroballers who have mastered the pass-happy international game but will never succeed in the me-first NBA. The game took place at the new North American-style O2 World arena (owned by AEG) and surprisingly was packed (about 15,000 people). While we don’t need to go into the differences between the NBA and Euroleague at this point, there are some pretty big differences between going to a basketball game in Berlin vs. Toronto.

1. When you buy a beer, you also pay a 1 Euro deposit for your plastic cup which you are refunded when you return the cup to the concession stand (there was a huge line after the game of people waiting to return their cups).
2. There is a very large coat check in the stadium that seemed to be quite popular.
3. The snack bar had better espresso and cappuccino than most restaurants in Toronto. Also, the chicken fingers were advertised as from “free range chicken” and there was a wide variety of sausages available. We settled for beer and french fries.
4. The cheerleaders were absolutely horrible. Horrible dances, fat, lazy - definitely not the Irish Spring Raptors Dance Pak.
5. The introductions for the home team looked like something out of 1970’s roller derby. LOTS of dry ice.
6. Similar to the cheerleaders, the halftime show looked like it belonged in pre-reunification East Germany. Two guys bouncing on a trampoline in blues brothers outfits who then proceeded to lose the outfits and jump on the trampoline in their underwear. Not kidding.

We hope to make it to some more Euroleague games in Spain (or at least local Spanish league games) with the hope of catching a glimpse of Ricky Rubio.

Otherwise, over the rest of our stay in Berlin, we got our fill of starchitects as we visited the Libeskind-designed Jewish Museum (interesting building (though not especially exciting from the exterior), good history of Jewish life in Germany since the middle ages), the Gehry-designed DZ Bank building (uneventful from the outside but very interesting interior) and the Foster-designed Reichstag renovation (pictured above, great climb up the dome and incredible views of the city). We also went to the rebuilt New Synagogue which has an interesting but small on-site museum that covers the history of Judaism in Berlin and toured the Pergamon Museum, which is home to many of the Greek / Roman / Arabian antiquities that Germany “claimed” while conducting archaeological digs in the late 19th / early 20th centuries. It seems like there are an endless number of museums in Berlin and while I’m sure that they all have something great to offer, we had both seen some during our previous visits to the city and also, we didn’t want to spend all of our time wandering around museums.

On the culture front, we watched a performance of Schwansee (Swan Lake) by the StaatsBallet, which took place at the StaatsOper, a great facility. Between the ballet and the philharmonic, it always amazes me to see men and women eating giant soft pretzels while dressed up in tuxedoes and gowns. Similar to the philharmonic, we were able to get last minute ballet tickets, which ended up being fantastic seats. Starting 1 hour before the performance, they open up all of the remaining tickets to students / youth under 30 for something like 13 Euro per ticket. This definitely helps increase the arts patronage in the city as there was a huge line-up for the ballet tickets when we showed up and there were some people that ended up with basically 120 Euro tickets for 13 Euro (I think that our tickets were regularly something like 60 Euro).


The food highlight of the past few days was our visit to the foodhall at KaDeWe, the Berlin equivalent of Harrods. After a lot of exploring and debate, we decided to share a gigantic plate of French cheeses (pictured above), which definitely covered our monthly cream / fat intake, but was worth it. We were also able to enjoy some other local favorites, including schnitzel,Turkish doner and currywurst.

We will wait until our next post to address reader mail as this post is long enough already. We have updated the Berlin photos and will likely post later next week from Porto.

Cheers,

Jon & Kristi

Berlin I

Greetings from Berlin!

We arrived on Friday morning from Toronto (via Zurich) and have been enjoying and exploring the city since then. Both Kristi and I (Jon) had visited Berlin while on exchange in Copenhagen, but a lot has changed in the 6-7 years since our visit (both with us and with the city).

Berlin is an incredible patchwork of old and new (and a lot of the “old” is in fact newly rebuilt/restored in the past 50 years, as over 90% of the city was destroyed during WWII bombings). Since re-unification 18 years ago, the former East Berlin has undergone a radical transformation and gentrification is rampant across the city. Beyond “seeing the sights” such as the Reichstag, the Brandenburg Gates, the many museums that abound, the TV Tower, etc. we have really enjoyed exploring these gentrifying neighborhoods, like Kreutzberg, Prenzlauer Berg and Freidrichshain. To us, this is the “real” Berlin and much more interesting than the pomp of Unter Den Linden (the Royal Boulevard) and Potsdamer Platz (not to say that we haven’t also visited those places and will revisit them again before we leave). These neighborhoods were not on the radar 15 years ago but now are packed with hot bars and restaurants, young parents pushing babies in prams and cool shopping.

We have had a great time exploring a neighborhood organic market (enjoying some incredible Turkish fast food and organic soup), relaxing in several great small pubs (including a punk bar that makes you realize the benefits of smoke-free drinking establishments) and enjoying a wide variety of the great ethnic cuisine that makes Berlin such a dynamic place to live and eat (including pizza, Turkish, Vietnamese, contemporary German, traditional German). We still have a long list of restaurants/fast-food joints/cafes/pubs to hit up in our remaining 4 days although we likely won’t be able to make it to all of them before we depart. So far, the food highlights have been 1) Henne, a restaurant that has served ONLY roast chicken for over 100 years (photo at top of post); 2) Brunch in Fredrichshain (who new that Berliners were so competitive with their brunch - our chosen restaurant was packed and since we didn’t have reservations, which surprisingly were a must for this place’s Sunday brunch, we had to “settle” for a neighbouring restaurant which was itself incredible), and; 3) The Gozleme, a Turkish panzarotti served up by what looks like a husband-and-wife team at the Kollwitzplatzmarkt, an organic street market in Prenzlauer Berg.


Beyond all of the great food and drink, our trip highlights have been a trip to the world-class Berlin Philharmoniker (photo above) w/ guest conductor Zubin Mehta (a great deal at 16 Euro for last-minute seats) and an incredibly informative 3 hour walking tour of some of the main sights in central Berlin. We have seen/done more, but the details would belabor this blog post.

We have several more exciting things planned for the next few days, prior to our scheduled departure for Lisbon on Friday. We have posted and labeled some of our pictures to date (click here) and will continue to do so throughout the trip.

Next: The rest of our time in Berlin and some questions from our "Reader Mailbag" (feel free to post your questions/comments to the comments section or email them to us directly).

Pre-Departure

Following our wedding in November 2008, we are fortunate to have the opportunity to take a 5 month backpacking trip to Europe. We have moved out of our condo, returned our car to the dealership, sold off some of our belongings through Craigslist (if any of the buyers have found their way to this blog, thank you) and packed up the remaining items into Michael and Shelley Ellenzweig's basement (thank you). We are also traveling largely sans Blackberry and cell phone. For those that know Jon well, this is a huge challenge in itself and we will both monitor the situation closely.

Our original travel plan involved spending approximately 1 month in Israel at the beginning of the trip, but our plans have been foiled by the current political situation. Instead, we will be starting our trip in chilly Berlin followed by approximately 2 months in Portugal and Spain. We also expect to visit Ireland, Estonia and France during this trip, as well as a few other undetermined destinations.

We are obviously extremely excited about this opportunity and look forward to some incredible new experiences and adventures.

Special thanks to the Elgar Adventure Blog for serving as inspiration.