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Month: April 2014

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Who Wouldn’t Give?

All over Europe, main shopping streets are pedestrianized. Rather than dodging cars, holding your breath while buses go by, and yelling above the sound of rumbling trucks, you live in a world of pause-a-moment buskers, where jaywalking is impossible and the only thing you have to dodge are the tripwires of locals taking their dogs out for a stroll. Here’s just a moment on Porto’s Rua de Santa Catarina, as a local school choir is out raising money for a concert tour.

If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.

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Europe’s “Second Cities” — Like Portugal’s Porto — Come in First

I am really into “second cities” these days. For generations, several European Industrial Age powerhouses (Antwerp, Hamburg, Glasgow, Bilbao, and so on) were what we would call “rust belt,” as their elegant “first city” counterparts enjoyed the luster of the Information Age. But over the last decade or so, the rust has become an accessory, bohemian can be chic, and places where people once joked “the shirts are sold with the sleeves already rolled up” are in vogue and bursting with creative energy. The obvious example in Portugal is Porto, three hours north of Lisbon by train. Here are some photos from my fascinating time in Portugal’s second city.

Ribeira View with a Port Buzz Lens Porto ages happily on the Douro River, along with the most of the world’s port wine. The harborfront, called the Ribeira, faces Porto’s sister city, Vila Nova de Gaia, just across the river, where traditional boats that hauled the wine to the port lodges for aging and distribution decorate the scene. After visiting a couple of port lodges for a tour and tasting (as is the ritual for visitors to Vila Nova de Gaia), this view across the Douro of Porto's Ribeira looks even better.
Ribeira View with a Port Buzz Lens
Porto ages happily on the Douro River, along with the most of the world’s port wine. The harborfront, called the Ribeira, faces Porto’s sister city, Vila Nova de Gaia, just across the river, where traditional boats that hauled the wine to the port lodges for aging and distribution decorate the scene. After visiting a couple of port lodges for a tour and tasting (as is the ritual for visitors to Vila Nova de Gaia), this view across the Douro of Porto’s Ribeira looks even better.
Porto Life Cobbled Together When exploring the back streets of Porto, depth, light, well-worn people, and once-dazzling facades ferment into a nice glass of port for the eyes.
Porto Life Cobbled Together
When exploring the back streets of Porto, depth, light, well-worn people, and once-dazzling facades ferment into a nice glass of port for the eyes.
A Room with a View My choice of hotels, restaurants, cafés, and bars in a city like Porto are places where the patina of the past comes with a little broken glass and rusty edges. Opening the window of my hotel room, I saw a view some would complain about. But this is why I come to Porto. Authenticity and heritage are the swizzle stick of my Porto experience.
A Room with a View
My choice of hotels, restaurants, cafés, and bars in a city like Porto are places where the patina of the past comes with a little broken glass and rusty edges. Opening the window of my hotel room, I saw a view some would complain about. But this is why I come to Porto. Authenticity and heritage are the swizzle stick of my Porto experience.
Something Fishy About His Smile Hardworking tour guides (like Ricardo Brochado) know how to make your stroll through their hometown memorable. Porto is a city with a steady sea breeze, a seagull soundtrack, and sardine smiles.
Something Fishy About His Smile
Hardworking tour guides (like Ricardo Brochado) know how to make your stroll through their hometown memorable. Porto is a city with a steady sea breeze, a seagull soundtrack, and sardine smiles.
Sausage Man in Porto Old Industrial Age markets (like Bolhão in Porto) are busy with activity under 19th-century glass-and-steel rooftops. You can be on a diet, but your camera will eat this up — sausage man and all — with gusto.
Sausage Man in Porto
Old Industrial Age markets (like Bolhão in Porto) are busy with activity under 19th-century glass-and-steel rooftops. You can be on a diet, but your camera will eat this up — sausage man and all — with gusto.
Porto Food Tour — For an Edible Education All over Europe, food tours are trendy. They cost between €50 and €100, go at an early lunch or early dinner time, last around three hours, come with over a mile of walking, and include four to eight stops. The style varies: Some are standing and sharing a plate of little bites, while others feature more sit-down dining experiences. All will fill you up, and should be considered a meal as well as a tour, wrapped up in one (making the splurge easier to justify). Here, André of Taste of Porto Food and Wine Tours brings on dessert.
Porto Food Tour — For an Edible Education
All over Europe, food tours are trendy. They cost between €50 and €100, go at an early lunch or early dinner time, last around three hours, come with over a mile of walking, and include four to eight stops. The style varies: Some are standing and sharing a plate of little bites, while others feature more sit-down dining experiences. All will fill you up, and should be considered a meal as well as a tour, wrapped up in one (making the splurge easier to justify). Here, André of Taste of Porto Food and Wine Tours brings on dessert.
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Surround Sound Lisbon-Style in a Fado Restaurant

Each time I visit Lisbon, one of my projects is to review the many fado opportunities so those with my Rick Steves Portugal guidebook get the best late-night memory. Fado is traditional folk music that reflects Portugal’s bittersweet relationship with the sea. You can go to a fancy show in a fancy upscale restaurant for lots of money. But I like the free shows, deep in the characteristic and rough-edged neighborhoods. Here (at Restaurante A Baiuca in the Alfama, listed in my guidebook) the woman who owns the place is joined by her cooks, while the headwaiter sings at the door (along with a neighbor in the middle of the restaurant who dropped by tonight for the open mic). And they even invite the tourists to sing along “in English”…la, la, la, la, la.

If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.

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Open Mic at the Fado Joint

When traveling in Europe, we seek out the living traditions. And many of them survive only as clichés for tourists watching tacky stage shows. But Portugal’s fado (traditional, mournful folk tunes) can still be enjoyed in rustic, authentic settings like this characteristic little eatery (Restaurante A Baiuca, recommended in my guidebook), deep in Lisbon’s Alfama. I filmed in this joint years ago, capturing a magic moment for our TV show–and it’s been in my guidebook ever since. I was anxious to return, afraid that the magic would be gone. Thankfully, it survives. This is “fado vadio”–open mic where any amateur (like the man here) is welcome to share a song. Eating dinner here, with a line of neighbors hanging outside the restaurant door waiting their turn to sing, makes a delightful memory. The cost? Just buy dinner–about $20 with lots of wine.

If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.

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Uncovering Hidden Meanings with a Local Guide

I’ll be researching, filming new TV shows, and enjoying our Best of Europe in 21 Days tour in the next two months. Each day of my research time I’ll be paling around with a local guide. This is my luxury as every minute spent with an expert and translator and friend at my side is filled with learning and insights I wouldn’t enjoy otherwise. Anyone can hire local guides to brighten their travels. In Portugal it costs about €100 ($130) to have your own private guide for four hours. Here, my guide Alex is taking me on a little scavenger hunt through Lisbon’s castle town (built back when nobles needed a safe place within the castle walls). She’s showing me new things I never noticed even after 20 years of visits to Lisbon.

If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.