After our single night in Gibraltar, we went on to Portugal. We explored Lisbon, Porto, Algarve and Sintra.
In Porto, we did a wine cave tour. They grow the wines in the Douro valley about sixty miles away. But for ripening, they place them in caves in Porto. Well, not a real cave, more like a giant cool building. We sampled three ports and we both liked the tawny port.
But, wait for it, waaaayyyyyyyy better than the port wine is the Ginjinha (also called Ginja). This is a liqueur served in a small chocolate cup. The liqueur is made from ginja berries which have a sweet/sour cherry taste. It’s totally delish. And, the best part, you get to eat the chocolate cup afterwards!
We did the usual museums, cathedrals, castle tours, climbed the Clérigos Tower, yada, yada, yada. I will single out one museum – The Pharmacy museum. I know, it sounds like the most boring museum ever. Yet it was absolutely fascinating. We managed to fit in one run along the waterfront in Lisbon and one run along the waterfront in Algarve.
In Algarve, we stayed in the Conrad hotel. The six room suite was probably the largest hotel room we have ever stayed in. We used 180,000 Hilton points (if we would have paid cash it would have cost us $1,297).
