Daniel and I were in Porto for a little less than three weeks and in all honesty, it was a pretty low-key three weeks. We did a couple of day trips, which I’ve written about; we did a couple of tours and made an effort to see some of the landmarks, but there was also…
Near the end of our time in Portugal Daniel and I decided to take the train to Aveiro. We picked this city by looking at maps of the train lines going in and out of Porto and Googling the different stops to see if any looked interesting to us. Aveiro is a coastal city south…
Portugal has amazing pastries, and they are everywhere. It seems like every street has a bakery, and the bakeries are affordable and have huge selection. (The bakery we visited most often was this one, which was near where we were staying.) Most of the pastries we saw were completely new to us, so it was…
When planning our time in Porto, Daniel and I decided we wanted to learn more about the production of port wine, as making port is unique to the area and an important part of the economy. Porto and the surrounding Douro Valley region is where all port wine is produced. In the same way that…
Based on recommendations from some locals, Daniel and I decided to take the train for a day-trip to Guimarães and Braga, two cities to the north-east of Porto. The train fares from Porto were very cheap: it was less than four euros for the hour-long ride. We did have a terrible time trying to figure…
After thirteen days in Spain, Daniel and I flew from Barcelona into Porto, Portugal. The flight was only an hour long, and since both countries are part of the Schengen Zone we didn’t need to go through any border control checks, which was convenient. As the plane descended I was amazed at how green the…
Daniel and I spent a little less than two weeks in Spain, and most of that time was in Barcelona. Since it rained on and off and was a little cold, we didn’t visit the beach and instead we spent most of our time in other parts of the city. Here are some of our…
Daniel and I took the train from Barcelona to Valencia where we spent two days, arriving early the first day and leaving late the next evening. Valencia is a little less than three hours south of Barcelona by high speed rail, and like Barcelona, is on the Mediterranean coast. The weather was much warmer in…
We did very little research into Barcelona before visiting. The decision to travel here was based on two things: we found really cheap flights out of San Francisco as part of a Black Friday sale, and we knew it wouldn’t be cold. There was no itinerary beyond booking flights and a place to stay—we were…
Daniel and I wanted to get out of Barcelona for a little bit, so we decided to take a day trip to Girona. Girona is a much smaller city (100k residents) about 60 miles north-east of Barcelona and is a popular tourist destination due to its historical architecture. By high-speed train, the trip was only…