Today, we left the comfort of the big city and began the northward trek to Porto (Oporto, if you’re Portuguese). To break up the monotony of a four-hour bus ride, we made three stops: one for “comfort” (after all, you’ve got a bus full of “mature” individuals); one for lunch; and one at a museum containing the collected works of one winemaker, José Berardo.
Our meal stop was at the Nova Casa Dos Leitõs in Mealhada. “Leitõs” are suckling pigs and they are a regional specialty. Our group was seated at one long, continuous table (think the “La Boheme” number in “Rent”) and the food was brought out in courses.
And such food! Olives and paté to start. A salad and fresh orange slices for the health-conscious! Then, the pièce de résistance: the meat and potatoes. The baby oinker was delicious: crispy skin on moist, succulent meat cooked to perfection. A second helping was required! And, second only to the delicious signature dish, were the home-made potato chips (or crisps, if you’re British!) that beat the pants off of any snack chip that comes out of the Frito-Lay industrial complex. Yum!
Aliança Underground Museum
Our post-lunch stop was in Sangalhos at the Aliança Underground Museum. Situated in the traditional cellars of Aliança Vinhos de Portugal, the museum offers 8 distinct collections covering archaeology, African ethnography, Zimbabwean contemporary sculpture, mineralogy, paleontology, azulejos (Portuguese tiles), Caldas ceramics, and Indian art. The only thing that wasn’t offered, considering the museum is attached to an operating winery, was a wine tasting. But there were a lot of phallic symbols, especially in the African collections.
The first exhibit upon entering the museum was a recreation of an excavated African burial ground. (Images of Emporer Qin’s terracotta army in China came to mind.) Here, the phallic containers were for male corpses, the spherical ones were for deceased females and the smallest ones held the remains of children. I’m guessing the one on the wall was a tribal leader due to its prodigious size. Obviously the tribesmen saved their last bragging rights for eternity.
There does seem to be a theme to Senhor Berardo’s African collection, eh? (Or is it just my camera?)
Leaving the museum, having learned nothing of the facility’s wine-producing business, we headed north for Porto–or, more correctly, Vila Nova de Gaia, on the opposite shore of the Douro–to board our ship and floating home for the next seven nights.
Porto at night
A little nighttime stroll along the Gaia waterfront.
<Happy 56th Birthday to our Baby Girl, Doreen.
Portugal: Lisbão to Oporto 