Road trip through North Portugal

Let’s go on our next Road Trip to the North of Portugal! That was my plan for my sister and best friend, who were coming to visit me. Let’s go to the North and let’s do that during the coldest season. OK, that was not the reason, it was just the time that they could get days off from university and work. And it was not as cold as though. But let me start from the beginning. My sister and friend came for almost two weeks and wanted to see a bit more than just Lisbon, which is honestly nice but also not very big. So, we decided together with my Ukrainian friend that we would rent a car and start our trip on the 28th of December early on the morning. Guess, who was driving? Yes, me! Because as the others say, I am already used to a lot. We were avoiding paid roads as I had informed myself and it should come expensive. And I already had noticed that if you take the smaller roads, you see more of the country.

Day 1:

Our first stop was Castelo Branco, at about one third of our way for the first day. There, we went to see the beautiful Jardim da Paco espiscopal. With its orange and lemon trees, the small labyrinth, its statues and Azulejos it was indeed worth the visit. The city itself is nice, but relatively calm.

We then continued to the North. The driving was honestly nerve wrecking. The roads are not very good maintained and the Portuguese drive like all the Southern people like they never really learned it. The rules of the roundabouts I didn’t get until today. Noone sticks to the speed limits and everywhere hide animals that love to jump on the road, when you pass, people do the same. Also, I never know which lines say what, where I am allowed to go or if it is only for busses and when the hell did the road become a one-way road? To take a faster road is always a guessing game as all of them say: Direction Lisbon/Porto. Which of them is it? Porto is in the North and Lisbon on the exact opposite side in the South. It was a real test for my nerves, which I didn’t pass. You cannot even imagine how many times I sat angrily screaming in my car, when I got honked at or people sticked too close to me, just for no reason.

Next stop was the city of Guarda, the highest city in Portugal, located in the Mountains of the Serra de Estrela. I have to admit, for Germans the word mountain is a bit exaggerated, but yes it was high and a hill. The city was really idyllic with old houses and churches. We visited one of them, which was beautiful, but sadly I don’t remember the name. Directly next to it, we found a cute Café, where we drank Marzpan Latte, Hazelnut Latte, Banana-caramell Latte and chocolate Cappuccino.

It already got dark and we continued our way to Braganca, where we had booked a hostel. On our way, we had eaten our sandwiches and already all the way the others had drank Tetrapak wine. I didn’t get any as I was driving. We just went shopping and then wanted to cook. And there, I directly have to talk about the only negative thing in the hostel: the kitchen: it was just disgusting. Probably because of the students that live there in the residence. We cleaned everything before using it and tried to touch as less as possible. The rest was good. We stayed in a 10 persons’ bedroom only the three of us and also had a clean bathroom for us. It was only slightly cold in the night, even though we had turned on the heater. Wow, they had a heater, what a luxury.

Day 2

Breakfast was inclusive in the accommodation and also delicious. We had everything that we wanted, but it was limited to two breads per person and some other amounts of the other ingredients. In the morning, we drove up to the Castelo de Braganca and enjoyed the view over the sleeping city and the morning fog in the mountains. It looked very enchanted with the frozen street and the white trees from the morning ice… well, until we noticed that our car had summer wheels and we started sliding over the streets, down the hill. Wow, of course, we hadn’t thought about the wheels, when we left Lisbon by 20 degrees. It snows very rarely in Portugal and normally only in the mountains. Well, we were in the mountains and just started driving more cautiously.

Now, we continued to the west. Braganca is on the north east of Portugal almost at the Spanish border. It was very funny, when our German navigation system tried to pronounce the words and we were always driving in the Direction of Braganka/Espanha instead of Bragansa/Espanja. On our way, we stopped at a very idyllic looking village. It seemed to be straight out of a fairy tale. Next destination was Guimaraes, the birthplace of Portugal. On one building, it is written in big letter: Aqui Nasceu Portugal, which means: Portugal was born here. The city has a castle, in which the first king of Portugal lived and a very beautiful monastery to visit. But the city itself is even more beautiful than the rest. With its picturesque houses and places, the many people strolling around the city or drink coffee. The sunshine let it shine even more and we fell immediately in love with this city. We also sat down in one of the cafes to drink something and eat Pasteis de Guimaraes, which were filled with pumpkin and almonds, very delicious. Even me, who never drinks coffee, drank one. The going late to bed, nerve wrecking driving and walking a lot, does make tires.

Next stop was Braga. When we arrived there, it already got dark, what was a pity as we couldn’t see much. We were not really convinced about Braga, but I am sure that it would have been much nicer during the day. It had some beautiful parks and old buildings and everything was decorated for Christmas. Here is also the oldest church in Portugal, which we went to see, but it was nothing special. It got cold and we just wanted to go somewhere warm.

So, we went to our last stop on this day: Viana do Castelo, where we would also sleep. On the way to there, we came into strong fog and couldn't see more than 50 metres. We drove really slowly and even with the fog lights on it was hard to see other cars. As if the roads itself were not already nerve-wrecking enough. When we finally arrived, we firstly had a problem with finding a parking lot. So, two of us stayed in the parking prohibited zone, while the other two went to search our hostel and ask where to park. It took them three quarters of an hour to find our hostel, which apparently is in a small street. We drove to a parking lot, a bit outside of the city and then went back to the hostel, it was really very much hidden. It seemed very nice and tidy, but without heating and with bad isolation, we would freeze the whole night. We all slept with pullover and scarfs around our heads. We wanted to cook, but couldn’t find a kitchen. So, we asked. They were surprised, why would we need a kitchen? Maybe for cooking? Just a guess. There is none. OK, then we will go to a restaurant, but for breakfast a kitchen would be really nice. They asked what we needed. Our friend answered: a microwave. We asked him: a microwave? What for? So he told the woman that a herd would also be ok. We asked him: A herd? What for? We were allowed to use the kitchen and she asked us when we needed it. We said at about 8. No 8 is a bit early, what about 10? No, at 10 we wanted to be gone for a long time. So 8 was fine. Once again we asked our friend, why we needed a herd or a microwave for breakfast. I mean, for milk and cereal. And he said yes and we have to heat the milk. We just stared at him.

Then, we went to have a pizza and were so happy to hold something warm in our hands.

Day 3

Ok, we really had a kitchen with a herd, but which doesn’t help if you don’t have bowls or something to eat your cereals in and that was, why we wanted kitchen. What do we do with a herd if we have nothing to put our food in? After a long search, I found some cups, which we used for the cereals with some plastic spoons that we still had. I mean hot milk, you don’t need always, but bowls are another level of necessity.

In the very cold of the morning, we went to discover this place. Viana do Castelo is truly beautiful, located at a hill and with a nice church on the top. There is a funicular to get up there and what we really wanted to do, to enjoy the view. It goes about every 15 minutes. We bought tickets, set in there and then waited. And waited. We were the only ones, but it would also be the first drive of the day. After 20 minutes of delay, we asked the responsible, who was only on the phone, why we weren’t going. He said it doesn’t work. How it doesn’t work? It just doesn’t work. Ah wow, and like when did he plan on telling us? He just let us sit there and wait. We could have used the time much better. We didn’t get an answer, but at least we got our money back. We then just took our car and drove up, because we didn’t have the time to walk. It was absolutely worth it. The church is wonderful and the view was even better. Underneath was the sleeping city and the winding river, in one direction the ocean and in the other the mountains with lots of fog.

We then continued to Porto. Big cities are even worse to drive. Only one-way streets and very strange rules, which no person can ever understand. Super narrow and steep streets. Horror. Eve more, if you don’t know the city. Luckily, we found a free parking spot close to our hostel. The hostel was beautiful, tidy and very practically organized. This must be the most thought-through hostel, I ever saw. The staff is very friendly and helpful. It was relatively cheap and breakfast was included. For everyone looking for a great place to stay in Porto, I can strongly recommend the Rock’n Porto Hostel.

Our first thing to do, was to walk through the city and to the river Douro. On the way, we already got many impressions of the city: wonderful Azulejos, old churches and also run down and abandoned houses. I really love the streets as you often have a view from the top down to the river, while the clothes hang drying on front of the colourful houses. But the best place in the city, is down at the river. There are the most beautiful houses and you can see the whole city. There are some small markets and during nice days, there are so many people strolling through the streets. We were so lucky with the weather and hadn’t been prepared for such a “heat” of 17 degrees in December and were quite sweating in the sun. Porto has the oldest train station in Portugal, decorated with many Azulejos and very famous. Another sight is the Torre dos Clerigos.

The first and most important attraction for today, was booking a tour in the wine caves in Câlem. Before our tour, we still had time to eat some snacks and have a walk in the city. This was my second wine tour, but even though, we all learned something new. You smell the sweet wine strongly in the caves and in the end, we got to taste a white and a red port wine. Both were very good and I am especially a fan of sweet wines.

We started liking it and so went to a wine tasting in a small wine bar, with very kind staff. We just went to eat something before, to not drink so much wine on an empty stomach. Finding something vegetarian to eat for my sister and friend, is always an adventure in Portugal. Everything that is not meat is fish and the other way round. In restaurants, you rarely find something vegetarian that is not pasta, which we can also do on our own. Finally, we found something, but is was very bad. We then, went to the Livraria Lello, the famous library, where J-K.Rowling had the idea about the library in the books of Harry Potter. Also their uniforms were inspired in Portugal as they actually look a lot like the uniforms that the Portuguese student associations wear. The book shopis very uniquely painted from the outside and also inside decorated nicely. The most significant part is the winding stairs leading to the next floor. Sadly, it is so crowded that you cannot really enjoy it. You also have to pay entrance, but then get a discount on one book that you buy there. What we directly had to take advantage of.

The wine tasting was a highlight. The French owner had reserved some places for us, after we talked in French to him, what had surprised him a lot as our first conversation had been in English and Portuguese. Now, we spoke English so that everyone could understand the explanations, which we got from a Moldavian guy. Later, he talked with our Ukrainian friend in Russian and was impressed how many languages we speak and also asked us for advice, which language to learn next and how to do it best. Together with our wine, we got cheese. We got two white port wines, two rubys and two tawnys. After that, we also wanted to try the Rose, which we liked very much. It was a very pleasant evening, we had lots of fun and already felt like wine professionals. But, until now, we already forgot everything we know about port wine. The last wine and cheese was even for free, because the staff had liked us so much.

Day 4:

After we came back very late last night, we overslept and started late into the day. After having had a great breakfast in the hostel. Then, we started again to discover the city. We walked through many beautiful streets, big parks, along the riverside and for a last, on top of the iconic bridge. After a last snack and visit of the cathedral, we started our long way home. That day was New Years Eve, which we wanted to celebrate in Lisbon. It took us four hours on paid roads to get back to Lisbon, which we spent mostly silent as we were all tired. Everyone except me, slept big parts of the trip. It had been a great four days, even if they had been exhausting. Our highlights were Guimaraes, Viana do Castelo and Porto.

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