Lamego: Festival of the Stairs
On Friday afternoon, we arrived in Lamego after bus bus train bus from Soajo. The travel went pretty smoothly. We did miss the first bus leaving the train station in Regua for Lamego (note to self, when the train arrives at the station, all the connecting buses leave in a matter of minutes so unless you know the bus schedule get out of the station and find your bus asap) and had to wait an hour for the next one, but it was a pretty afternoon by the river and some emergengy/excitement/unknown activity was happening on one of the bridge pilings that had everyone's attention, but we couldn't figure out what was going on.
Lamego is a beautiful little town in the Duoro that George and Patti and I visited in 1980. It's most notable feature - one that I remember vividly from the last trip and one reason I came back - is an amazing and beauitiful baroque stairway respendent with fountains, monuments, balustrades, and azulejoes (the murals of blue tiles)that climbs the hillside a LONG way up to - of course - a church: Our Lady of the Remedies. Many come here to get healed, and for the lame and the halt that stairway must be a bitch, but hey. CT and I climbed it early the next morning (Saturday) before the tour buses arrived, and had it all to ourselves.
We saw other sights of the town, tried unsuccessfully to figure out where the live music was happening that evening, tried unsuccressfully to find an internet cafe. There were several of these, but they were either broken or only open 9-5 weekdays. So we settled into a beautiful outdoor cafe where the Tour was on the large flat screen tv, ordered a couple of Sagres (local beer) and enjoyed the show. All of our town activity was punctuated by music wafting from the cafes and busses that was solid American pop oldies. Favorites that we have heard multiple times (both here, in other towns, on buses, etc) include "Betty Davis Eyes", various Cindy Lauper, and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" done by the Hawaiian singer with uke whose name escapes me. Who knows why... We had a fine meal that evening in a Brazilian cafe of roast kid, salad, and the ubiquitous delicious french fries.
The next day we took a 5 hour loop hike out of town into the mountains that we learned about at the Turismo. The signage was erratic but we didn't get lost. About halfway along we met a Portuguese couple who have an online publication dedicated to hiking and were having the same signage vexation as we were. We all hiked together for the next hour, and with our permission they took some photos of us "on the trail" to use on their site. Will add a link later. The trail took us up to near some on the big wind farm towers that top many of the ridges, where we had a picnic lunch. We have discovered that the box table wine in the market is quite nice and only 0.75 Euro per liter - that's right, cheaper than bottled water. We split a box into two 50 cl water bottles, and that is our beverage for two picnics - along with a lot of water too. There are still beautiful fountains dispensing drinking water everywhere - another thing I remember fondly from the bike trip. It's getting warmer now, sunny with highs in the low 80s. Back to town in time to catch the last hour of the tour and see Tyler take second by a wheel. I think he was gaining on Cavendish. Dinner was delicious grilled chicken at the Restaurant of the Chicken Grill, rice, salad and of course french fries.
Yesterday we took the bus down to Regua and the train up the river to Pinhao in the heart of the Port producing region. Terraced vineyards climb the steep hills everywhere. We had a hearty lunck of fried cod with an amazing cabbage with beans and rice dish, visited three Quintas - Port producing wineries - where we tasted some nice wines tho none we like as well as the Koepke in Porto, and caught the train back to Regua. This time we hopped the bus immediately and were back in Lamego in 30 minutes. We spent the rest of the late afternoon on our balcony overlooking the plaza and facing across to the front of the Sè (cathedral) amused by the menage-a-flock activity of the randy pidgeons loudly frolicing on a large ledge over the main doorway.
Today was relaxed. I did put in a couple of laps on the stairs to help burn off the morning pastries. We went to the laundromat, had a picnic, visited Reposeira - a winery just out of town where they make very respectable sparking wine, and got back in time to watch Garmin triumph again. Tomorrow we will take a 5 hour bus ride to Lisbon where Vasco and Vasco and Holly and Jane are arriving, and we start the next phase of the trip.
SC
Lamego is a beautiful little town in the Duoro that George and Patti and I visited in 1980. It's most notable feature - one that I remember vividly from the last trip and one reason I came back - is an amazing and beauitiful baroque stairway respendent with fountains, monuments, balustrades, and azulejoes (the murals of blue tiles)that climbs the hillside a LONG way up to - of course - a church: Our Lady of the Remedies. Many come here to get healed, and for the lame and the halt that stairway must be a bitch, but hey. CT and I climbed it early the next morning (Saturday) before the tour buses arrived, and had it all to ourselves.
We saw other sights of the town, tried unsuccessfully to figure out where the live music was happening that evening, tried unsuccressfully to find an internet cafe. There were several of these, but they were either broken or only open 9-5 weekdays. So we settled into a beautiful outdoor cafe where the Tour was on the large flat screen tv, ordered a couple of Sagres (local beer) and enjoyed the show. All of our town activity was punctuated by music wafting from the cafes and busses that was solid American pop oldies. Favorites that we have heard multiple times (both here, in other towns, on buses, etc) include "Betty Davis Eyes", various Cindy Lauper, and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" done by the Hawaiian singer with uke whose name escapes me. Who knows why... We had a fine meal that evening in a Brazilian cafe of roast kid, salad, and the ubiquitous delicious french fries.
The next day we took a 5 hour loop hike out of town into the mountains that we learned about at the Turismo. The signage was erratic but we didn't get lost. About halfway along we met a Portuguese couple who have an online publication dedicated to hiking and were having the same signage vexation as we were. We all hiked together for the next hour, and with our permission they took some photos of us "on the trail" to use on their site. Will add a link later. The trail took us up to near some on the big wind farm towers that top many of the ridges, where we had a picnic lunch. We have discovered that the box table wine in the market is quite nice and only 0.75 Euro per liter - that's right, cheaper than bottled water. We split a box into two 50 cl water bottles, and that is our beverage for two picnics - along with a lot of water too. There are still beautiful fountains dispensing drinking water everywhere - another thing I remember fondly from the bike trip. It's getting warmer now, sunny with highs in the low 80s. Back to town in time to catch the last hour of the tour and see Tyler take second by a wheel. I think he was gaining on Cavendish. Dinner was delicious grilled chicken at the Restaurant of the Chicken Grill, rice, salad and of course french fries.
Yesterday we took the bus down to Regua and the train up the river to Pinhao in the heart of the Port producing region. Terraced vineyards climb the steep hills everywhere. We had a hearty lunck of fried cod with an amazing cabbage with beans and rice dish, visited three Quintas - Port producing wineries - where we tasted some nice wines tho none we like as well as the Koepke in Porto, and caught the train back to Regua. This time we hopped the bus immediately and were back in Lamego in 30 minutes. We spent the rest of the late afternoon on our balcony overlooking the plaza and facing across to the front of the Sè (cathedral) amused by the menage-a-flock activity of the randy pidgeons loudly frolicing on a large ledge over the main doorway.
Today was relaxed. I did put in a couple of laps on the stairs to help burn off the morning pastries. We went to the laundromat, had a picnic, visited Reposeira - a winery just out of town where they make very respectable sparking wine, and got back in time to watch Garmin triumph again. Tomorrow we will take a 5 hour bus ride to Lisbon where Vasco and Vasco and Holly and Jane are arriving, and we start the next phase of the trip.
SC
posted by Axolotl at 9:08 AM
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