Guimaraes looks beautiful! An elegant city. Love the shots of the streets. You’ve aced the weather!

OK, I had to google it and this is what I found:
Among Portugal's thousand recipes for codfish, the Pastéis de Bacalhau (literally codfish pastries, but known in English as codfish fritters) are a typical Portuguese dish made of potato puree, onion, parsley and steamed codfish amassed together in a ball and linked with eggs and milk, and then deep-fried.

Port and chocolate sounds soooo much better!

A little bit of port sampling, a lot of walking, a lot of sunshine, a lot of people...one last bottle of sparkling Rose at our new favorite hangout, some gelato...a big banana...it's been busy...it's been fascinating...it's been crazy chaotic...it's been damn fattening...
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Wow!!! Love the photos especially that Big Banana photo!!!:)

How many nights are you spending in Porto?
What's the rest of your itinerary?

Adelaidean

Portugal is truly lovely. Heaps to see and do, not expensive, and on a smaller scale, with fewer crowds.

Mel, I’m absolutely enjoying your photos and how your capturing the many different views! 😉

Mel, trust me, Vinho do Porto (Port wine) is to drink alone. Well, not exactly, we drink it with "pão-de-ló", a tyoical cake for Easter season. But never with cheese or chocolate. But... well, it's a tourist thing, if one likes it, one likes it.

xyz: codfish cakes - no milk. Just codfish, eggs, potatoes, onions, parsley, and with two spoons you make the thing.

Off to Pinhao this morning. Then Coimbra, then Evora, then Sintra, then Lisbon.

Helena -

I'll take your word for it. We haven't eaten anything with our port, but I do like those port wine chocolates! Thank you so much for your recommendation of Eurostars Porto Centro - it's been the perfect base for our visit - very central and incredibly quiet! You'd never know we were smack dab in the middle of the city.

Actually, this sounds fine (with some nice white wine), but chocolate and port sounds much better.

I have no idea where this notion that one should not eat food with port came from. Far from being a tourist invention, port and cheese - preferably blue cheese and even more preferably Stilton - is a standard pairing in Britain. And the wine trade with Britain was responsible for the development of port in the first place.

See: https://www.taylor.pt/us/what-is-por...istory-of-port

And: https://www.wine-tastings-guide.com/...d-stilton.html

Have a great time in Pinhão, Mel. Hope the weather gods keep up the good work for you!
Helena, I love "pão-de-ló". I had a great version of it in Coimbra.

Ditto to what Maribel says, Mel! I'm loving this and can't wait to see what Pinhão brings!

Maribel, where in Coimbra? -Pão-de-ló looks really good!

Helena can correct me but I think it may be a specialty of Coimbra (??), although I did have a great version of it in Lisbon too.

In Coimbra they make it at many of the pastelarias and padarias, and there's even a competition for who makes the best version.

I had mine at Loggia, the restaurant run by the Quinta das Lagrimas on the loggia of the wonderful Museu Nacional de Machado de Castro.
But any pastelaria or padaria should make a nice cake.

In fact (insert drum roll........), I believe that "Tertúlia de Sabores", very close to the Quinta das Lagrimas, at Amorim Girão 6 on the Santa Clara side of the river makes a very good version.
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Mel, it's not perhaps for you because it does contain eggs, lots of them!

My wife Liliana and I will be visiting Lisbon.
We would like to get nice local privet driver to show us around
Please help.
Any suggestions ???

Thank you
Alex

Just when we didn't need another (gulp!) monument to visit in Sintra, I just read that another 19th century treasure, the neo-Gothic and Romantic Palacio Biester, which dates back to 1880, will reopen to the public on April 30, beautifully restored. It was closed for many years. It's apparently not far from Quinta da Regaleira, on the Estrada da Pena, has fabulous views of Sintra and is surrounded (not surprisingly) by a vast park with beautiful flora (camellias, Australian acacias, beech trees, North American firs, etc.) and a well, Gruta da Pena, that visitors can "dive into".

Tickets will cost 10 euros or 5 for seniors and children 12 and under.
There is currently no info in English about it but you can view a gallery of photos here:
https://www.nit.pt/fora-de-casa/turi...a-primeira-vez.

Melnq8-Thanks for sharing! I’ve not been to Portugal yet but I remember we both love the Swiss Alps. Have a wonderful visit!

Following along to relive a great trip we took in 2015. I wish I had written a trip report. I think I missed doing that because at the time so many of our friends were planning trips that I just kept copying them on an email I had written. As you are going to Lisbon later in your trip I'm copying some of my notes below.

Beware of closing days. We didn't get to do all we wanted in Lisbon because I hadn't figured that in when putting our itinerary together. We had to choose between the tile museum and the Gulbenkian. We were blown away by the well curated collection at the Gulbenkian. It is a short walk from the metro, spend a few hours then cab to the Ourique neighborhood for a great lunch at Peixaria da Esquina and gelato at Giallo. After spending a few days in the thick of touristic Lisbon, we loved this neighborhood, the food was great and it was also Italian style gelato which we ate in a little park (Jardim da Parada) across the street. Peixaria has a sister restaurant called Tasca da Esquina in the same area. You can catch a tram back to the center from here.

thursdaysd wrote: "I have no idea where this notion that one should not eat food with port came from. Far from being a tourist invention, port and cheese - preferably blue cheese and even more preferably Stilton - is a standard pairing in Britain."

The notion came from portuguese, that don't drink vinho do Porto with food. But I must say that the British citizens created Port wine. As the oldest ally in Europe, we were saved several times by UK, we even have a tribute to them, the obelisc at Praça Mouzinho de Albuquerque, aka Rotunda da Boavista. If British people like their Port with cheese or whatever, than I completely agree.

I'd like to add that many monuments in Porto were only possible with the influence (and money) of British. Like for instance, Palácio da Bolsa.

Muito obrigada, Helen. Interesting that the Portuguese don't eat with port. So the nibbles available in the Port Institute in Lisbon were for tourists? (I would think the Americans got the idea from the British - I know that port tastings I have been to in the US definitely provided eats.)