So – you might guess that a week in Porto & the Douro wine region of Portugal was slightly more up Mr H's street than mine, but hey ho – as long as the sun was out there was something in it for me too.
Started off at a fab hotel called Quinta do Vallardo in the Douro – H practically drooling as he surveyed the rows and rows of grapevines along the hills and valleys.
Luckily for me, it had a very nice pool (spot the small figure in blue by the pool umbrellas) and a man serving drinks from a giant barrel pool bar… H loved the wine & port tasting and was soon converted to the (apparent) delights of white port, who knew?
From there, off to Porto – what a fab city! Massively hilly, with an incredible iron bridge allowing you to cross at either the top of the city or at river level, great trams & a metro to get around, and an unexpectedly cool and creative vibe – musicians everywhere, nice buildings (albeit quite a few needing some cash spent to do them up) and restaurants coming out of your ears. Rooftop bars, crumbly churches etc etc – good to have finally been there.
And port producers – obvs. Buildings everywhere with Sandeman, Grahams etc on them, even our hotel was a converted port gaff (white building on several levels behind the bridge here). H managed to score a midnight tasting in the aptly named 'Wine Box' – made him very happy.
Definitely plenty to do for a few days, and we lucked out in heading over to Matesinhos, a fishing village/small town about 20-30 mins away. Enormous beach and a fantastic lunch of sardines, squid, prawns etc, all cooked on an open bbq next to our table. We weren't sure what the round dishes of
creamy beige stuff were – until they shook lots of sugar on it, heated a round metal circle on a long pole in the bbq and pressed it into the sugar – cue steam and burning sweetness smells, eh voila – a creme brûlée!
Even went back the next day to do the – yes really – tour of the sardine factory, where fish are still prepped by hand and tinned mostly that way too. Actually very well done – even some interactive bits and videos – and included us folding paper round our own tin of sardines (did I mention that I like sardines?!) and then a tasting at the end. Apart from the total twat of an Asian influencer from LA videoing the whole thing loudly and over-excitedly, including himself slurping on the 'amaaaazing, wow, yeah', oh my gaaaaad' fish – zero self-awareness, what a nob.
Got back late last night – and am delighted to be home for a whole month now. Mojo seemed equally pleased as she insisted on kneading my legs for a good hour as I was trying to go to sleep and woke me up at 6am to repeat the process. Still, I bloody love that cat x