Back home again: so much to say about Portugal, what should I write about first?
Now that I’m back home in Southern California, everyone’s asking me about Portugal. As soon as I start talking about one thing or another, people are so full of questions, I never seem to finish as story when I’m off on a tangent and another and another!
I am realizing just HOW MUCH I learned in one jam packed week. There is so much I want to say, so many stories I want to tell that I see I will need to spend some time just figuring out how to present it here in this medium.
I’m tempted to start off by writing a post about my last day in Lisbon when we visited the ancient city of Belem, the castle at Sintra (pictured), read more…
My bags are packed
I’m ready to go
I’m really not ready to leave Lisbon Portugal, to end my trip sponsored by Enoforum Wines. But then, I love to travel, I love new roads. I love the castles, the countryside, the coast, the history, the rolling cork oak covered hillsides of the Alentejo, the historic buildings at Belem in Lisboa like this tower which was originally out in the water, protecting the people from invaders from the sea.
I love Portugal. These explorers are my people–they are the earliest Art Predators!
My trip here to Portugal has been an amazing experience. I had absolutely no idea what to expect last month when I wrote a 200 word essay about why I wanted to come here. I didn’t know the first thing about Portuguese wine and cuisine. I just knew it sounded like a great adventure and I wanted to go! read more…
Yesterday, we didn’t go to any castles. Sorry to disappoint you.
It’s not like we ran out of castles or antiquities to visit. Portugal is so full of cool castles it seems to me I could fill a whole vacation just roaming around them, climbing stairs, exploring, marveling, and eating in quaint cafes, mingling elbow to elbow with the people who live in them.
Nope, no castles yesterday.
And no, we didn’t visit one of the many Stonehenge like ancient ruins. Did you know the landscape of Portugal is littered with these monolithic statues erected 6 or so thousand years ago? I didn’t; one is pictured on the bottle behind the glass.
This I found out while tasting some of the wines from Redondo, a huge cooperative which sells several of the most popular and most consumed wines in Portugal–for obvious reasons–they offer the Portuguese version of Two Buck Chuck–except their wines aren’t chemicalized (made drinkable through the use of chemical additions and manipulations) and Redondo’s wines have a wonderful flavor for about the same price which is typical of Portuguese wines in general.
Redondo’s labels celebrates their Portuguese heritage in such a way that our visit there allowed my hosts to share even more of Portugal’s rich heritage and history with me–and which I look forward to sharing with you at a later time.
So what did we do? Something equally amazing but different and completely unexpected to me. In the later afternoon, after our visit to Redondo and lunch along the road (even the Alejanto cuisine and espress offered there was excellent!), we checked into our Hotel Olissippo which is near the water in the Parque Nacional
The Parque Nacional was the home to the 1998 World Expo. Portugal took the opportunity of hosting the event to revitalize a contaminated dock area full of decrepit rundown warehouses and abandoned buildings. The area now is full of beautiful public art which celebrates Portugal’s traditions: tile, light, the sea, and exploration. It’s a pleasure and a joy to walk along the water’s edge, and many do: even on this cold fall night, people congregated on bikes and walking, and even a running club which acted like Hash House Harriers (I didn’t ask).
So while I can’t see the ocean from my room (sorry Ganesh!), we are so close that a pro baseball player could land a ball in it.
And, it turns out, an aquarium was constructed as part of the 1998 expo–the largest in the world at the time, although one in Japan is now larger.
Larger smarger–this aquarium, the second largest in the world, was certainly big enough for me and fabulous too. It’s not the size that really matters, but what you do with it you know.
The Oceanario de Lisboa has a HUGE central tank that you circle and then examples of four aquatic ecosystems: Atlantic, Indian, Pacific and Antartic. Otters and then a few minutes later, penguins delighted us with their antics. Seabirds flew past our noses and then I walked a wooden boardwalk to find tropical birds hidden in the trees. In the middle, central tank, we were fascinated by a sunfish, at 2-3 tons as bigs as any fish I’d every seen, and fascinating to look at too. Bright tropical fish darted in other tanks. I tried out my new video camera (the results remain to be seen!) while Jo shot hundreds of images–turns out she loves fish and aquariums.
When the aquarium closed at 6pm, we strolled the boardwalk looking for someplace to eat. According to Delfim Costa, my host from Enoforum Wines, the best restaurants are downtown but traffic would be horrible for another 2-3 hours and we were all getting hungry. The area offers many international restaurants so we chose an Italian one for a change. I’ll just say that the highlight of the meal for me was the Portuguese olive oil and wine–and I desperately missed the Portuguese bread I’ve come to love!
For today, we intend to see several important cultural sights near Lisbon: Belem and Sintra for example. We leave so soon that I will 
miss out on the amazing spread they offer each morning at the hotels here in this country. Lunch and the dinner of Portuguese cuisine and I will be packing and leaving–I’m even buying a new suitcase to put some of the wines I’m bringing back!
But back I’ve got to get, no matter how tempting it is to stay and attend the Wine Futures conference next week in Rioja Spain with luminaries of the field like Jancis Robinson and Tom Parker. I have a First Friday ArtRide and Bikers Ball to lead tomorrow night Nov. 6 back in California! And a small boy has a birthday coming up too.
I woke with this Cat Stevens song in my head as the rain gently falls on the Roman ruins outside my room, the wind howls, and the morning traffic honks. Voices murmur outside my room in Portuguese and English. I open the curtains and the sun flashes on the dark wet ruins and white plaster walls. As much as I try, my little camera can’t capture the intense contrasts of light and dark. These images of Evora are from yesterday morning and show how the people here have integrated the Roman aquaduct into their very houses. 
“Miles from Nowhere
guess I’ll take my time
oh yeah to reach thereLord my body
has been a good friend
oh yeah til we reach the endI love everything
it makes me feel glad
I love everything
my honey I sing to that
I sing to that”
Don’t quote me on those exact lyrics; they are easy enough to find on the internet. These are the lyrics I was hearing Cat Stevens sing this morning in my head–in more or less the way I remember him singing it recently on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic–sometimes with the variation “I’ll drink to that.” But I couldn’t find that version on the internet for you!
Don’t we all do that? Make the lyrics say what we want them to say anyway?
So what’s up for today? If it clears enough, I am going to put some coffee in my thermal cup I brought from the States for use on the plane (ever notice how much waste happens on planes? Just imagine how much less it would be if people just brought their own cups!!)
And downstairs at breakfast I will grab some flaky croissants, some beautiful fruit from the bowl (so beautiful that yesterday I had to double check to make sure it was real and not fake!), and borrow one of the hotel’s bikes to ride around on the narrow cobbled streets inside the walled city of Evora. Every hotel should offer up bikes free to its
I would love to spend more time here in Evora. It’s gorgeous, yes, but there’s an energy here that I am in love with. Yes the town has possibly the best restaurant Fialho in Portugal and certainly the best they say when it comes to Alentejo gastonomy (and where we ate last night! wow, the octopus was so tender! and the goat defies description!); the restaurant is so famous that today, a book is being launched featuring its recipes and story. I was presented with a copy last night and I look forward to experimenting with its recipes when I get back home.
There are many more wonderful restaurants featuring the delicious regional cuisine, but there is something else here, something to feel about the pace of the place, the genorousity of heart in the people. This older woman pictured and I waved and exchanged evening pleasantries. More investigation required!
I need to finish packing up this morning as we will drive today to our third and last winery, Redondo, in the town of Redondo. Redondo is another large cooperative of grape growers which Enoforum works with so we will once again taste the local winery’s offerings as well as Enoforum’s. Then we’ll drive back west toward Lisbon where we visit Belem which is the most well-known historic site in Portugal and offers a particular custard pastry which is shared elsewhere but this is where it is done best.
As Enoforum is sponsoring my trip, you’d expect me to tell you their wines are great. But let me say, that so far what I’m most impressed with is how much wine you get for the price. These Alentex wines will retail for under $10 a bottle. When these wines get into the market in the United States, like at Trader Joe’s, they are going to knock people’s socks off. They have so much flavor, character, and complexity for the money, and they go so well with a range of foods that they will fly off the shelves. It will be fun when people start telling ME about these wines!
You can learn more about Enoforum Wines, including the ones I mentioned, here.
Yep, it’s my blogoversary time once again. My blog is another year older today.
And what a way to celebrate! Because of this blog, and because of my rabid blogging in general about wine and adventures, I have not only made new friends around the world, but right now I am halfway around the world in Evora, Portugal, visiting castles and wineries by day and staying in a beautiful hotel M’Ar de Ar with views of an ancient Roman Aquaduct from my bed at night. I took that sillouette of myself yesterday at the castle at Monsarez so far east of Lisbon it is almost in Spain.
As I write this, I listen to fado singer Mariza, sip some intense Sandeman’s 2007 Porto which was given me at my third Wine Blogger’s Conference, and reflect on how I am on a tour of the Alentejo Wine region on a trip sponsored by Enoforum where I have been wined and dined to my heart’s content. (And I haven’t held back–letting myself be my wild Art Predator self. Can you hear me howl at the full moon?)
So how did I get here from where I was two years ago? How did I go from averaging 30 pages views a day to 6,000 in one week a few weeks later to settling into an average of 100 page views a day for my first year and 350 a day for my second year?
Thanks to you, dear reader! You are the answers to my prayers offering friendship, support and an audience! Thank you!
I really couldn’t do it alone–I am sure I would have been discouraged it I hadn’t found it gratifying to meet an unmet need, to discover and write about wines and food, adventures, music, and travels, ideas and poetry that YOU wanted to know and read about.
So it’s a partnership. I write about what interests me and I write about what I think interests you. I try to tell as many stories as possible because I know that it is through stories that we learn about others and ourselves, that we learn what it is to be human and to be part of humanity in all its glorious complexity.
Unless you’re writing about a topic that’s wildly popular–and you’re the first and possibly only one writing–it’s going to take time and commitment. It can also be a fluke: the week I had 6,000 page views in my fourth month of blogging I wrote about the lunar eclipse and people were interested in the breadth of what I wrote about–astronomy, astrology, and ritual.
My writing about the Burning Man Project has also been wildly popular over the years. This recent September, I averaged over 550 page views–mostly Burning Man related. When I saw some cool photos by my friend Alan Sailer, I wanted to post them because I liked them–not because I thought they’d draw so many page views to my blog.
Since I started this writing project, I have blogged on average well over a post a day. Most months for the past year I have posted around 40 times; this will be my 838 post in 730 days. That’s a lot of writing and a lot of page views. That’s translated to over 200 subscribers.
Not bad for an eclectic blog which follows a dictum of Coleridge’s: the aesthetic is that which engages the whole soul.
Below I have the most viewed posts. They’re not necessarily my favorite posts or the ones I think are the best, but the ones which have been viewed in the past two years over 1000 times.Which ones do I think are best or are my favorites? I think that should be answered another day but during my first year I did a page “Greatest Hits” which still represents some of my better work here. I also like the poetry I presented in a reading in September 2009 which featured poetry I first published here. Which ones are your favorites?
As if yesterday’s castle at Monsarez wasn’t a spectacular enough experience, today we are going to Borba and we will visit another castle for lunch.
Tromps in vineyards. Olive oil tastings. Castles for lunch. Dinners at the best restaurants in Portugal. Views of a Roman Aquaduct from my bathtub as I soak and dream and from my bed as I write for you…
I am definitely enjoying this. Each day is full of so many new experiences, new foods, wines to swirl and discover its nuances. The land here is so beautiful, so full of rich stories, full of personable people I am thrilled to know.
By now, halfway through my trip, I have hundreds of photos, all of which I want to share. Today, I am going to try to shoot some video. In time, I guess, in time, I trust, I will get some of them out from my imagination and out into cyberspace to share with you.
For example, this photo is of the bullfight ring at the castle at Monsarez. In the distance, you can see the church. In the middle distance sits Delfim Costa of Enoforum Wines which is hosting my trip. Delfim has been an exquisite and knowledgeable host, and no question goes unanswered and unappreciated. For anybody who knows me, that’s saying a lot!
Right now, it’s breakfast, a shower, and a new day of adventures. Each day has been so full of unexpected pleasures. I so look forward to sharing more of them with you soon.
NOTE: This post will have photo illustrations in a few hours, I promise!
Lord Ganesh wanted to travel. You don’t
say no to Lord Ganesh. I said of course.
First he wanted to go to read more…
The only castles I have ever seen were produced by Walt Disney.
But last night when I saw the walled city of Evora for the first time, I realized that this was REAL! I was NOT in Disneyland! And certainly not Kansas!
And today, I will get to see a REAL castle. Snow White and the Dwarves may not live there, but that’s fine with me. I went to Disneyland last month.
Since this is a wine trip sponsored by Enoforum Wines which produces wine from this, the Alentejo region, today will also feature tasting Carmim Wines at the winery we will see the vineyards and also learn also about their olive oil production. Then back to Evora for dinner.
I promise to take as many pictures as possible and share them! But if I don’t get going soon, I am going to be very late!
In the meantime, here’s one of the Roman aquaduct that I can see from my room in the Hotel M’Ar de Ar…not just from my room but from the giant luxurious bathtub as well!
Walt Whitman: I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable, I sound my barbaric YAWP over the roofs of the world.
“I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable, I sound my barbaric YAWP over the roofs of the world.” ~ Walt Whitman
That is exactly how I am feeling tonight here in the ancient walled city of Evora, about an hour east toward Spain from Lisbon on this adventure to the European Wine Bloggers Conference and to a tour of the Alentejo wine region on a trip hosted by Enoforum Wines. The wind is wild and the rain mists and the moon dodges the clouds. Portugal is a land full the of ghosts of previous civilizations–the Romans, the Moors, the peasants, the feudal kings, the explorers, the plunderers– and they are all out and about today, All Saints Day. Say hello and welcome home.
Soon I will update you with a post and photographs about my visit to the Tejo region’s cork forest and wineries, followed by travel to Evora for a delicious dinner of tapas and setting into the beautiful and luxurious hotel M’Ar de Ar where I have a view of the Roman Aquaduct from my jacuzzi bath and my bed–which is calling me! Time to get some rest.
Charles Metcalf’s Grand Tasting of Portugal: a live blogged account from the EWBC 2009
Next up at the European Wine Bloggers Conference: Charles Metcalf’s Grand tasting of Portugal. Metcalf wrote a book on wine and food in Portugal which makes him somewhat of an expert and certianly a worthwhile guide for a tasting of a variety of Portuguese wines. Certainly he has a lovely accent and voice.
Organizer Ryan Opaz asked Metcalf to present wines that really tell a story about Portugal. As a wine writer from the UK, he’s trying to present a greater understanding of the unknown wines of Portugal. Which means there will be no wines from the Douro.
WINE #1: We’re starting with a sparkling alvarino, similar to the spanish albarino, from the vino 
verde region. Forgive me if I butcher some spellings especially as I am live blogging very unfamiliar wines, regions, and who knows what else!
Thankfully, we’re assisted with the Adegga.com site which tells me I am tasting a Coto De Mamoelas Bruto Reserva Alvarinho 2006. It’s similar to albarino, and it’s quite aromatic. Aha! It’s a vino verde–in that that’s a blend. Here’s my ignorance showing–hope it’s a a sweet slip, showing my naivete. It’s only 11.5%! If I could find this wine, I would.
So many firsts this trip! Just today I’ve tasted about 6 new varieties, maybe more. No definitely more.
WINE #2: Next up, a wine from Covela which is in vino verde country but just on the verge near the Douro. It’s a biodynamic vineyard read more…
