May 2009

After an amazing day in the Porto we start back south towards Lisboa. Our first stop of the day is to a lovely winery called Casa da Insua. The winery is behind a manor house that is being turned into a hotel with gorgeous gardens. our tasting took place out in the gardens, which was rather clever. We sampled 3 wines with Miguel the wine maker: a rose made from touriga nacional; a red, made from touriga nacional and cab sauv; a white, made from Moscatel. The white was very refreshing and so was the rose. They served us some of the creamy cheese associated with this region. Casa da Insua is also in the process of building some banquet space and a sales center to fully touristify this endevour. http://www.casadainsua.pt

After this we stop in Fatima: religious site of where the blessed virgin mary was sited 6 times by 3 children in 1917. The site is acknowledged by the Catholic Church and is indeed a very spirtual place. The tour stopped for about 1.5 hours for those to walk in the massive square, light candles, go into the cathedral and, of course, purchase trinkets.

Quiet loomed over the bus as we headed towards Lisboa after this most auspicious visit. Thankfully everyone perked up as we passed the massive wind turbines just outside of Lisboa. The city demonstrated its many red clay tiled roofs as we head into the center of the city. We passed the Estadio da Luz football stadium, a mosque and the famous Marques de Pombal statue. Our hotel is conveniently located within 20 minutes of the harbour and a McDonalds that sells beer. Don't askhttp://http://hotel-amazonia-lisboa.h-rsv.com/

Amaing day today...we travelled to the Douro region and stopped at the famous house of Fonseca Port for a tasting and a lunch. Drive from Porto took us over 2 hours for only 110 kms, not good. HOWEVER, the region of the Douro is brilliant. The landscape is terraced and the weather was smoking hot. At Fonseca we got to tour the vineyard itself. They are smart and have mp3 players for all visitors to use while walking in the vineyards.

The 100 club sponsored today event and we upgraded our tasting to include a bin 27, white port, 20 year tawny and a vintage port- but not a classic vintage (their words, not mine) We also had lunch out at Fonseca and it was lovely. Thank you 100 club...pictures will be forthcoming.

After noon was spent at Casa Mateus. Location has a palace on site for promotional purposes only and lovely grounds. The pollen here was very thick, like snow, good thing I took my antihistimines or it would have been VERY unpleasant. Even though the name includes the word Mateus, they actually do not sell the rose product in the round bottom bottle. We sampled wines in one of the buildings that house the lagares (large open shallow tanks that are used to manually stomp the grapes) and demonstrates gravity fed filtration.

Students all said they ahd a good time today and actually remembered a thing or two from BEVM 210. LOL