Porto to Paris

Portugal was one of the best countries that we have been in. The hostels were all very nice, the food was good, there was so much to do and everything was cheap (probably the cheapest we have found in Western Europe). We started in Porto, it is an older looking city, much less modern than Lisbon, but it has a lot of character.

It is a city build on a large river. On one side is most of the old city and on the other are all of the port cellars.

We did a tour of a couple of them. Taylors was the best, good port and it was a free tour with tastings at the end.

Plus we got to watch two guys empty out a 1000 liters of tawny port that they were going to blend and bottle, it smelled pretty good. We found a neat little port house and did a tastings of a bunch of different ports from smaller producers. The guy who was working was really knowledgeable, he spent a while talking to us about all of the ports we tried and port in general. We definitely know a little more about port now. The next day we went back and bought a bottle and with a bit of luck it will make it back to Canada in one piece. After a couple more days hanging out in Porto we took the train to Lisbon.

Lisbon is a modern city, very different from Porto.

But it was still very nice to wander around. There were also a number of day trips around, including a trip to the western most tip of continental Europe, Cabo da Roca.

 

  

  

  

  

  

After Lisbon we flew to Paris. Paris is not one of our favorite stops of the trip. It is expensive and a little dirty. Very different from Portugal, and many of the other places we have been. However, after doing a walking tour we have a bit more of an appreciation of the the city, or at least its history. We spent a couple of days wandering around seeing the major sights.

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

The Eiffel tower is pretty cool. We spent a day at the Louvre (so much art) and a day at the Musee d'Armes (weapons and armor from the stone age to the world wars).

Ramey leaves for Toronto tomorrow (originally this post was written January 17th, it just took me a little while to post it) morning and Justin leaves for London in the afternoon.