Budva, Kotor and Perast

Budva, Kotor and Perast.

Three places in Montenegro that don't trip off my tongue, although many years ago we did enjoy a cruise around Kotor Bay without ever stepping ashore.

First stop was Budva and a visit to the old town. 

It has an old walled town built by the Venetians and is very picturesque. Our guide was a very pleasant lady, but unfortunately she spoke very slowly and I lost the thread of what she said as I was instead really looking forward to a cappuccino break.

Next was on to the old walled town of Kotor. It was also extremely picturesque too, and much more crowded than Budva.

Our slow walking and speaking guide was still with us and my favourite view was of a pretend stork and it's family just in front of the ancient entrance into the city.

Finally, our last destination of the day was Perast, a beautiful and peaceful town on Kotor Bay.

Fortunately we had left behind our Montenegran guide and went on a boat trip to a lovely island in the middle of the bay.

Yet again the Venetians had been here first and had built a church on the island where they would stop and throw stones into the water in honour of the Madonna and child.

Next to it was another island where the monks who used to look after the church were buried. It's forbidden to visit this island, and it stands quietly alone.

Montenegro

On another trip, this time landing in Albania, staying overnight and then we were off on a bus trip towards the border. We stopped at the little town of Lezhë to see a monument to Skanderbeg, a hugely famous Albanian military commander from the 15th century.

He looks an amazingly impressive figure with a giant golden headdress in the shape of a goat on the top. However, our guide assured us that he didn't wear it during battles as it was too heavy.

Then we crossed the border and in to Montenegro, where we stopped at a small seaside town for lunch.

It's still low season so it was quite quiet and we just wandered around the seafront and harbour.

Then it was on to the town of Bar, and our hotel. We are just around the corner from a fantastic church that appears to have partly been covered in Christmas wrapping paper.

It was only completed in 2016 and the inside is incredible.

It was almost empty inside but somehow I still managed to get told off for saying 'wow' too loudly.

Then of course, we managed to find the compulsory 'I ❤️' installation.

We have moved!

What a stress!! I must have checked my phone 100 times every day in Portugal in the hope that we would exchange contracts, but there was nothing.

Then I checked it constantly when we got back, then lots of emails and phone calls with the solicitor, but still nothing.

On the 26th we got up, the removal men arrived and finished packing, but still nothing definite. At 10.30am I spoke to the solicitor and she said it should happen, but she couldn't guarantee it.

So an hour later there we were, unloading all of our belongings on to the driveway of the house that we hoped to buy.

Then the solicitor rang and said that we had sold our house, and to go and wait at the estate agents in Oxford. After about an hour of sitting there Darren rang and said that there was no more room on the drive and that they would soon have to unload on to the street.

Stress, stressed and more stressed, then the phone call came through to the estate agents. The paperwork was exchanged, the money had arrived and they gave me the keys and a bottle of fizz.

I set off running, then rang Darren, and a few minutes later the removal men started taking our stuff inside.

What a relief, as I started to worry that we might have had to put a tent up on the street and guard our things all night.

We're in, it's lovely and lots of work to do.

Chapel of Bones

We had booked on to an optional extra tour to Evora, which is a town about 140 kilometres east of Lisbon. It was advertised as a tour with a wine tasting session and I have to say that as wine tastings go, this was a particularly good one.

It was to a vineyard called Ervideira, and it might have been the beautiful location in the middle of the vineyards, or just the atmosphere, but I think that they were the best wines that I have ever tasted.

However, by far the most interesting part of the day was not really mentioned on the itinerary. It was to the Chapel of Bones.

I was so shocked that I only took this one photo and then wandered around in a daze.

The Chapel is part of a large and magnificent convent and church of San Francisco in Evora, and the Chapel was built in the 17th century. 

It was a large and pleasant looking building, until you looked at it more closely.

Skulls and bones covered all of the walls, pillars and were decorations on the ceiling. They were brought from 44 local graveyards that were associated with the Convent.

Apparently the style was popular at the time and was built 'in order to encourage reflection on the transitory nature of human life and the consequent commitment to living a constant Christian life'.

I am shocked all over again writing this, so will stop now, apart from one final thing.

Our guide says that there is a quote written over the doorway that is translated to something like 'those of us that are already here await you'.

Douro Valley

Today was quite a long driving day as went inland to see where the grapes were grown for the famous port wine.

It is extremely picturesque, and at our lunch stop our guide told us to look at the top of a hill to see a man in a black cape.

She said that it was one of the best advertising symbols in Portugal and they call him 'the man in the black cape'. 

I thought that they could have done better than that and called him 'Gerald', or something similar, but he is the mascot for Sandeman port, and we went to his vineyards.

They were on the steep hillsides on both banks of the Douro river and it was very scenic.

Of course we had another tasting session, then it was goodbye to Gerald and back on the road home.

Porto

We arrived at Porto last night, and had a full day today to explore. We started off with a walking tour of the old town with our guide Maurina. Unfortunately, she has a knack of making everywhere seem very dull and boring, whilst walking very slowly and frequently repeating herself.

She took us to a railway station to enjoy the tiles, and then down a street called Flower Street, but then explained that nowadays the locals don't bother to grow flowers in their large window boxes.

We were feeling a bit underwhelmed, but then we got to the harbour for a boat trip.

This was nice and we cruised up and down the river for an hour enjoying the sights.

Then it got much more interesting as we went on a tour of a port wine warehouse called Calem. This is the biggest Portuguese port producer, and they store it enormous oak barrels.

The one that I am standing in front of had enough port in it to fill 17,235 full sized bottles, and it appeared to have a tap on the front. Fortunately I didn't l turn it, although I was tempted.

Then we had a tasting, and it was absolutely lovely. On the way out we bought a bottle and admired the boats bobbing about on the waterfront.

In the olden days the barrels of port used to be floated down the river to the warehouses, but nowadays they just use big lorries.

On the way back to the hotel we did our own walking tour and walked across this amazing bridge on the low level, then climbed dozens of steps,then walked back on the high route with brilliant views.