We arrived in Porto, Portugal via Ryanair, the original European discount airline. But as many people know, you don’t get much more discount than Ryanair. I’m honestly surprised they don’t have a walking billboard skipping up and down the aisles to accompany the in-cabin perfume and lottery ticket sales. Oh wait, the luggage bins have advertisements. Close enough.

Porto is located on the water, with a port and is unsurprisingly home to Port wine. Of course, we being the “vino rosso de la casa” people that we are, had no idea that Port wine is generally drank as a pre-meal aperitif or post-meal digestive.  The blank look on the waiters face when we asked for a glass of Port for dinner makes a whole lot more sense now than it did at the time. Regardless, we had our Port and its darn sweet, a bit too much if you ask me. Regardless, our one day in Porto revolved around another fantastic walking tour and dining on the infamous Francesinha (aka little French girl) sandwich. Apparently, the conservative Portuguese were awe struck with the scandalous outfits of young Parisian women visiting Portugal in the 1960’s and took the French staple Croque Monsiuer, added various sausages and doused it in spicy sauce and came up with the “Hot and Spicy” sandwich, named after the infamous French ladies parading the streets. Our guide really hyped us this sandwich beforehand, but in reality it was rather mediocre. However, we did appreciate the 1 Euro SuperBock beers that appear to be ubiquitous throughout Portugal.  We should also note that Portugal has such a different feel to it than the squeaky clean and organized countries we left behind in Central and Northern Europe. It had a rustic, if not rugged feel to it, not so much different than Southern Italy.  A term used often by Anthony Bourdain we like to refer to Portugal as “artfully shabby”.

Next up, we traversed to the university town of Coimbra, about an hour south of Porto by train. Coimbra’s main draw is its famous University de Coimbra, which is housed in a former 14^th century palace. It’s quite a beautiful site, but even more so could be the traditional student garb. Both males and females sport dark, prep school attire accompanied by a long cape. Sound familiar? Harry Potter fans hold on to your shorts because apparently JK Rowling spent several years living in Porto and was influenced by her surroundings. If you stop by a bookstore in the center of town, you will find yourself looking up at a spiral staircase that looks oh-so similar to something you would find in Hogwarts. Even for non-Harry Potter fans such as us, it was a sight.

Shortly thereafter we trained it down to Lisbon where we spent the next four days exploring the surprisingly diverse neighborhoods. Lisbon doesn’t have a true city center, but instead a few main squares or shopping districts, a somewhat rare occurrence for a European capital. Regardless, we enjoyed two different walking tours spanning most of the old city. One night a few of us wound our way down to Alfama, a neighborhood famous for its Fado performances. Fado is traditional Portuguese music usually performed with two guitarists and one or two singers. The songs usually revolve around a melancholy story, such as the grueling trek transporting water from the river on your head. You certainly don’t have to be Frank Sinatra to sing Fado as long as you’re passionate about it. We sat in a hot and crowded dive and listened as various singers positioned in the alley outside rotated in and out of the line up like boxers waiting for a bout to begin. At one point the two aging female cooks appeared from behind the kitchen and wallowed out quite a duet. I don’t think either of them had smiled since 1996, but they put on a heck of a show.

We also made a couple of day trips from Lisbon during our stay. We realized our base tans had been fading quickly since our SE Asia days and we made a trip to the quaint town of Cascais and nearby Guincho beach. The beach is located on the Atlantic, nearby the most western point in continental Europe. In addition, the beach is famous for its high winds which bring scores of wind surfers to the area. Strangely, while it was 80 degrees in nearby Cascais, the wind chill on the beach made it quite cold. We never warmed up enough to jump into the Atlantic, but it honestly doesn’t look much better from this side of the pond than it does from the other side.

We also took a trip to nearby Sintra, a now tourist bloated town which houses the former Summer Palace of the Portuguese monarchy. While there a variety of castles, museums and gardens to visit in Sintra, we chose to spend our time at Quinta da Regaleira. This beautiful mountainside garden and palace complex was a stunner and well worth the trip. There were various ponds, underground tunnels and old defense outposts that have been impeccably maintained. It’s a truly magical place and highly recommended.

We certainly enjoyed out stay in Portugal and could definitely see us back here in the future exploring the South. There is a great diversity of landscapes and coastlines, great seafood and gritty but engaging cities. Sadly, Portugal is our last European destination before we head back to the US. We aren’t done with our trip quite yet and have plenty more to discuss in the coming weeks, but the end is in sight. Yikes.