Summary: An unlikely meeting forms a new international friendship
Forty years ago I spent one summer in Finland as an exchange student. It was in a small, beautiful town of about 30,000 called Savonlinna. Located in the Saimaa Lakeland area of Finland, the town is a series of interconnected islands with a beautiful 15th century fortress, Olavinlinna.
I have been back only once, way back in 1989, and I have never met anyone from this town since.
Olavinlinna Castle in 1989, the last time I was in Savonlinna
Finnish is an unusual language, related to no Slavic, Germanic, or Romance language, it’s distantly related to Hungarian. Finns and Estonians can sort of understand each other.
Finns, like most Scandinavians learn English (often speaking it better than some native English speakers). So their language is rarely heard and even more rarely recognized and understood.
During my summer in Finland, I learned a few basic phrases, how to count, and how to swear (swearing in Finnish is really handy — I’ve only been busted once in 40 years).
So, what has Finnish or Savonlinna to do with Madeira? Nothing. Or so I thought.
While on Madeira, we enjoyed a lovely private tour of the north and western portions of the Island. We viewed the rugged sheer cliffs on the north side of the island, felt the mist and spray of a waterfall, and visited several quaint towns on the north coast.
Machico, Madeira; note the edge of the elevated tarmac of the airportCascata da Aguage waterfall near SantanaFaial, MadeiraBird of Paradise flowers grow freely around Madeira
Finally, our driver delivered us to the beautiful Quinta do Barbusano winery in Sao Vicente, Madeira. Sao Vicente has under 6000 inhabitants and at the northwest corner of Madeira is at the opposite side from Funchal.
Tables in the tasting room. Note the bars for hanging espetada.
The tasting room of the winery enjoys a gorgeous panoramic view of the valley and the steep hills covered with rows of grapevines.
I often listen to hear what languages I can recognize. On our trip, the most common non-Portuguese languages I heard were mainly English, German, and Spanish. On occasion I’d hear French, Swedish, Norwegian, and Italian.
As we waited for the group to assemble for a tour of the hillside vineyards, I heard an unusual, yet vaguely familiar tongue. Could it be Finnish? The more I listened, the more certain I was.
I approached one fellow in a group of four and asked, “Suomalainen?” (“Finnish?” — maybe not the most polite or proper wording, but it was the best I could muster).
When they nodded yes, I explained that I had spent a summer in Savonlinna, Finland, when I was in high school
“We’re from Savonlinna!” his wife exclaimed, and we both laughed and marveled at the unlikelihood of our meeting. As we chatted, more Finnish words and phrases came back from the recesses of my memory, and I recognized ruefully that I knew more Finnish than Portuguese.
We hiked through and under the grapevines together. On such a steep and uneven terrain punctuated with stone walls, the grapes can only be tended to and harvested by hand. I had to duck constantly; this workplace definitely favors a shorter stature.
We returned to the tasting room to escape the sun and heat.
Couvert: bread, cheese, meat, and jamEspetada!Lovely Madeira wine
During a lovely lunch we were served several wines, both white and red. Our espetada was delivered on bay laurel skewers. With dessert we were served 5-year-old Madeira wine.
Toasting with our new Finnish friends. “Sisu!”
I went over and chatted with the four Finns at the next table. The wife of the Savonlinna couple came to meet and chat with Annie. They are retired and spend their summers in Finland and winters in Valencia, Spain.
We delighted getting acquainted, and truly hope to meet them again.
Summary: Alcoholic beverages are plentiful, varied, and tasty in Portugal
On average, Portuguese alcohol consumption is slightly higher than Americans, though less than their European neighbors.
Neither of us usually consumes more than maybe a single glass of wine per week. While in Portugal, we had at least 2 drinks every day including wine, port and other spirits and cocktails.
Beer
Neither of us drinks much beer, but we took a liking to a Portuguese Beer called “Super Bock.” You could order a “mini,” which was just 20cl (a little under 7 oz.). Bottles and beer glasses in this diminutive size were readily available, and we enjoyed several during our trip.
Super Bock Mini bottle and glass
Liquor, Cocktails, and Other Fun Drinks
I developed a taste for Licor Beirão, which is the most consumed spirit in Portugal. It is made from a double distillation of seeds and herbs, including mint, cinnamon, cardamom and lavender.
It has a colorful history going back to the 19th century when it was originally sold as a medicinal cure for stomach aches. I consumed Beirão at least once as a digestif and found it satisfying and effective.
Licor Beirão or simply “Beirão”Enjoying a Beirão at sunset
I was greatly dismayed to find that Beirão has only a couple of distributors on the east coast of the U.S. So, I will have to carefully ration the one duty-free bottle I carried home until I can find a way to obtain more.
Ginja(or Ginjinha) is another popular liquor in Portugal. Often made from sour cherries and served in tiny, edible chocolate shot cups, you can see ginja bars and windows on the sidewalks of busy Lisbon and other Portuguese cities.
Ponchais a popular traditional drink on Madeira. It is mixture of liquor made from sugar cane, honey, white sugar, and usually a citrus juice, although we also tried some that had passionfruit juice. Beware this tasty drink as the alcoholic content is much higher than it tastes!
Enjoying a poncha break in the midday sun
Another cocktail popular on Madeira is the Nikita. This blended, frozen drink is made from fresh pineapple and/or pineapple juice, vanilla ice cream, and either beer or white wine. It tastes somewhere between a Piña Colada and a Pineapple Julius.
A delicious and refreshing Nikita
At one cafe we ordered a “white wine sangria,” which we’d never seen or tasted before. It was so delicious that we asked for the recipe, which the server readily wrote down:
The white wine sangria recipe we couldn’t read
Unfortunately, we could not read her writing, so we had to have our hotel concierge rewrite it for us.
Wine
We are not knowledgeable about Portuguese wine. We did enjoy sampling wine and port in city tasting rooms as well as at a couple vineyards. We visited one Douro Valley vineyard that has been owned by the same family going back at least 300 years!
View of the Douro Valley from their tasting roomTiles showing the winemaking processSome of these barrels are well over 100 years oldA fabulous wine and port tasting at Quinta de Santa Eufemia
This winery still crushes the grapes by pouring them into a large stone basin and having people crush them underfoot. They know that mechanical crushing is popular, but they believe physically trampling better exposes and mixes the grape skins, pulp, and juices and releases more flavor. I would love to be present to watch this centuries-old tradition!
After finding out there are over 250 wine varietals grown in Portugal, we realized we’d have little chance, even after three weeks, of getting to the point where we could recognize and choose a suitable Portuguese wine to go with our meal. We simply asked our servers for recommendations, and they always delivered.
Port Wine (vinho do Porto)
Port is the only Portuguese wine I had ever seen in U.S. markets.
I knew a little about port before this trip. I knew it was a “fortified wine” and that the two main types were tawny and ruby. The ruby ports I had tasted were sweeter. The few tawny ports I had tasted before this trip hadn’t really appealed. That was to change.
Like Champagne, authentic port may only be produced in a specific region — in the case of port, it must come from the Douro Valley of Portugal. Although Wikipedia claims, “In the European Union as well as in the United States, only wines from Portugal are allowed to be labelled ‘port,'” I know for a fact that there are U.S. winemakers selling fortified wine called “port.”
Basically, port wine is made by adding a neutral, high-alcoholic content grape spirit (something like 70% alcohol) to the wine to halt fermentation. Some call the spirit “brandy,” but since it has no flavor, I find this misleading. The wine is often aged in barrels, and the result has both a higher alcoholic and sugar content than typical wines.
Over 100 varieties of grapes may be used to make port wine, and the difference between ports depends on whether they aged in stainless steel, concrete, or wooden barrels, whether they are allowed to oxidize before bottling, the type of grapes, etc.
White and Rosé Port
Before this trip, we were completely unaware of the existence of white and rosé ports.
White ports are made from white grapes and are not made every year. The growing season has to be ideal (colder winter and hotter summer) for the winemaker to choose to make white port. We tasted several and fell in love with them.
White port tasting in Porto
Rosé Port was invented recently in 2008. It starts out like a ruby port, but the amount of time the wine is exposed to the grape skins is limited (I think I recall in one case it was just 24 hours). This gives the port its lovely rose hue.
Madeira Wine is a fortified wine made on the island of Madeira and predates Port wine by a couple centuries.
Madeira has a winemaking history going back to the 1400s, and was a major port of call for ships travelling to and from the New World. Wine barrels were exposed to heat and movement on voyages, and so merchants started adding grape spirits to help keep the wine from spoiling en route. When an unsold shipment of wine returned to Madeira, it was discovered the wine, fortified with spirits and exposed to the heat and movement actually improved the taste of the wine.
In the modern production of Madeira wine, I have learned that younger blends (3-5 years old) are produced using artificial heat to accelerate the aging process. Older blends, because of how they are made, may last years or decades, and will still be good even after opening.
Madeira wine was popular in colonial America, and it was a favorite among America’s founding fathers. We were reminded several times by proud Madeirans that Madeira wine was used to toast the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
The fruit stands in Madeira were especially impressive (all the fruit you see in this picture was grown on the island of Madeira):
Fresh fruit at the Mercado dos Lavradores (farmers’ market) in Funchal
Seafood
The Portuguese also consume a lot of seafood, and we ate some seafood almost every day, which included some items we’d never seen before. Here are just a few dishes we were served and readily consumed:
Garlic ShrimpCocklesGrilled ScallopsMusselsPrawns with PastaSea Bream
Cheese
We ate beautiful cheese every day in Portugal. Cheese is made on the mainland and on the Azores, but not on Madeira. Cow’s, goat’s, and sheep’s milk cheeses were served nearly every breakfast. Every dinner started with a couvert, typically a basket of bread and butter, sometimes including olives, olive oil, and/or cheese. Cheese was also offered as dessert after several dinners.
Toasted Azorean cheese Cheese fridge in a supermarketTasting cheese in Queijaria da Avó, a shop selling only products from the AzoresCheese for sale in Porto’s Mercado do BolhãoBreakfast in Ponto do SolBreakfast buffet in Lisbon
Pastel de nata
Of the many desserts we had, we of course ate many Pastéis de nata (plural form of Pastel de nata). These miniature egg custard tarts are best dusted with cinnamon and maybe a little sugar. There are friendly debates over who makes the best Pastéis de nata. We ate many and even hand carried a dozen home with us. Sadly, I just consumed the last of them last night.
The good news is that my wife purchased a stack of Pastéis de nata tins, and a pastry cookbook, so with luck, I may get to enjoy good Portuguese egg tarts without having to wait until I’m back in Portugal.
Meat
The meat we had was delicious and well-prepared.
One special dish we enjoyed a couple times was espetada, which is meat cooked on skewers. On Madeira, it is common to use bay laurel branches instead of metal for the skewers. The laurel branch imparts flavor into the meat.
Tables with skewer hooksPreparing for my first biteCloseup of the bay laurel skewerRoasting the Espetada at Restaurante Santo António
Each table was equipped with tall bars with hangers on which each skewer could be secured. One must use a knife and fork to slide the meat vertically off the hanging skewer.
One thing I noticed, when ordering meat dishes, we rarely were asked how we wanted the meat prepared. In those cases, it was usually served medium-rare (which happens to be our preference).
At restaurants that catered to tourists, we were asked. Their assumption was we would want it medium or medium-well and they were a bit surprised when we asked for “medium-rare.” I don’t know, but do our British compatriots prefer their meat cooked a bit longer?
The francesinha(pronounced approximately “fra-nsi-sinh-uh“) is a special sandwich originally from Porto. A stack of many different kinds of hot meats is sandwiched between toasted bread, topped with slices of cheese. Hot tomato and beer sauce is poured over the tower, melting the cheese.
A square about a block from our hotel in Porto had at least 4 restaurants all advertising Francesinhas. Our first one was so big we had to split it in half to share between the two of us.
Tip #1: Ask for restaurant recommendations
We received suggestions for restaurants from our drivers, tour guides, and shop keepers, and they were all excellent! People are happy to give you suggestions and you are well advised to heed them.
Be sure to have them write down the names for you. Unless you familiar with Portuguese, hearing the name doesn’t mean you will come anywhere close to spelling the name correctly on your own.
Tip #2: Ask your server for suggestions
Consistently, whenever we asked our server for a recommendation, they offered it without hesitation, and they never steered us wrong.
At one restaurant, Annie asked whether she should get the roasted chicken or the BBQ chicken. The answer was immediate: “roasted chicken,” without explanation or elaboration.
At another restaurant I couldn’t decide between any of the meat entrées. The server indicated that “Granny’s Roasted Veal” (slow roasted and sweetened with wild chestnuts) was the chef’s actual grandmother’s recipe. It was excellent!
We were advised on more that one occasion when they thought we were ordering too much food.
Tip #3: Let your server choose your wine
Having little hope of becoming sufficiently knowledgeable to select a Portuguese wine from a wine list, we simply asked our servers to choose our wines for us. We were always offered a taste, and our servers consistently made satisfactory selections for us.
I photographed the labels of many wines I tasted and enjoyed. But given how little Portuguese wine we see in stores at home, I doubt I will see them again until I return to Portugal.
In another blog post I will list our favorite restaurants including one in Lisbon so good we had to go back a second time!
In the past when preparing to travel, I’d make a concerted effort to learn some basic words and phrases as well as basic pronunciation. Often, I’d pick up a phrase book and practice learning the basics.
For this trip, I went so far as to purchase a stack of Pimsleur European Portuguese conversational language CDs as well as a deck of Lingo Portuguese language playing cards.
My wife did some online language lessons only to realize too late that she was learning Brazilian Portuguese.
Alas, work, life, sloth, whatever — I found myself flying across the Atlantic with vocabulary limited pretty much to “hello” and “thank you.” (“olá” and “obrigado,” respectively).
Fortunately for us, the vast majority of people we met in Portugal knew at least some English. There were only a couple rideshare drivers and a shopkeeper here or there that could not speak English. A quick usage of a translating app on my phone got us through those infrequent situations.
Beautiful street art in Lisbon
I felt bad about arriving so linguistically ill-prepared, but I decided the least I could do was to improve my pronunciation as best as I could for what little I did know and later would learn.
I had heard from someone that any word ending with “o” should be pronounced “oo.” So the city of Porto should be pronounced (“Por-Too”) and thank you (“obrigado” if you are a male) should be pronounced “oh-bri-ga-doo.”
An additional challenge with European Portuguese is that many of the written letters are not voiced. In contrast, I heard that Brazilian Portuguese has simplified its spelling to be phonetic like Spanish and German.
Learning One Phrase
I decided to look up one phrase using the Deepl app on my phone (I prefer Deepl to Google Translate). I wanted to know how to say, “we our on our honeymoon.” Deepl reported the translation as “estamos em lua de mel.”
Listening to the audio pronunciation, the dropped/skipped letters made it sound like:
“SHTAH-moes eh-LOO-a d’MELL.”
I first drilled it into my head using this mnemonic device:
“(John) Stamos (K)ahlua (Cecil B.) DeMille”
I shared this memory device with my wife, who later tried to recall it, but hilariously came up with “Tony Danza….???”
People we met were already friendly and welcoming, but whenever my wife or I would utter this phrase, their eyes would light up and the enthusiasm bubble over. Several restaurants gave us complimentary flutes of sparkling wine with our dinner, and twice we found chilled bottles of sparkling wine awaiting us in our hotel rooms.
Simply saying “olá,” (hello), “bom dia” (good morning), or “boa noite” (“boy noit” – good evening) was enough to stop locals from immediately pegging us as English speakers.
If we said “estamos em lua de mel,” however, they assumed we were fluent and often barreled forward in Portuguese. I’d have to sheepishly admit that this phrase constituted about 50% of my Portuguese vocabulary, but it made me feel proud every time they told us our pronunciation was really good.
On one of the last days of our trip, we were in a baking supply store buying little cups needed to make pastéis de nata, the famous Portuguese egg cream tarts.
I spoke the phrase to the lady at the counter, and she launched into Portuguese. I had to stop her and admit the severe limits of my language proficiency. She responded that my wife and I were speaking better Portuguese than immigrants from the UK, Ukraine, or Russia who had been in Portugal for three years. That was sobering and disappointing to hear.
The Portuguese are warm and welcoming, and they have a great history of exploration (and yes, colonization). I want to return to Portugal, and when I do, I will prepare much more to show my appreciation and respect through their language.
Summary: Chance timing leads to an amazing, unforgettable moment of music and email.
The weather the last week we were in Portugal was especially rainy and windy.
Duoro River rising uncomfortably close to the level of the banks
In fact, the Duoro River separating Porto from Gaia flooded its banks the last day we were there. We saw the rising river the night before. But on our last day the winds and driving rain kept us close to our hotel, so we didn’t see the flooding firsthand.
Annie wanted to brave the elements to visit the Santa Clara Church (Igreja de Santa Clara) which was just a 6-minute walk from our hotel. It was supposed to be a spectacular Baroque style cathedral.
The wind blew hard and turned my sturdy umbrella inside out at one point, but we made it.
Upon entering we were told that visiting hours were just now closing due to a concert. Well, could we attend the concert? Yes, for €5 each. We paid and entered a cathedral entirely gilded from floor to ceiling. It was breathtaking.
Interior of the spectacular Santa Clara Cathedral in Porto, Portugal
The organ was playing and an unseen ethereal soprano voice was heard singing a lamentation. The sound emanated from the choir loft.
After the song was finished, a woman invited us up the stairs to a room where nuns had gathered and sung, unseen, during prior centuries. The front of the room had a large window into the cathedral. A gilded wooden grid prevented those in the cathedral below to see into the room.
Nun’s sanctuary above and behind the main cathedral; organ case visible to the right
A wooden box the size of a large wardrobe housed the organ keyboard, and our guide, who turned out to be the organist/choir director told us about the music (composed by an 18th century Portuguese composer) the organ, etc. She addressed the assembled audience in three languages: English, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Organist/Choir director speaking. The main cathedral is visible through the gilded grid behind her.
Two young woman stood by, and after the organist finished talking, she sat down and they performed a couple more pieces by the same composer.
After the concert, the organist answered questions, then invited people up to play the organ. A few visitors poked a single key here or there. I couldn’t resist.
I quickly pulled up a simplified arrangement of Allegri’s incomparable Miserere mei, Deus on my cell phone. I stumbled slowly through it, squinting at the score on the tiny screen balanced on a rickety, 300-year-old wooden music rack. The sound of the organ was subdued and warm as the prior performance had just been for just the small room we were in.
The choir director, apparently pleased either that someone was playing an actual piece or with my musical choice (or both) leaned in close and said, “don’t be scared” — and literally pulled out the stops.
Suddenly, the sound of the great organ boomed forth filling not just our room but the entire church below. The sound felt like it was resonating in and through my body. I struggled to keep playing, self-conscious of my many mistakes and emotionally and physically shaken by the aural bombast.
I played only a page of the music before stopping. That was enough — and an actual church service was about to begin.
We thanked the organist profusely for the opportunity (how often does one get to play an 18th century organ?). When she found out it was our honeymoon, she was effusive in wishing us happiness and was glad to have made this memorable experience part of our celebratory vacation.
Descending the stairs and exiting out into the driving rain, my hands and body continued to tremble for several minutes in the aftermath of such a physical and aural musical sensation.
What were the chances?
Had we visited just an hour earlier, we’d have seen the spectacular church interior, taken photos, read some plaques, then left. Annie laughed when she noted that the regular admission was €4. By mere chance of timing (and €1 extra) we got this amazing and unforgettable experience.
I would have to say this experience was, in the accurate use of the word…awesome.
As I recover from jetlag, I am collecting and organizing scores and scores of pictures and videos along with many thoughts and memories which I plan to share here.
A. Where We Went
We spent a week in each of three locations: Lisbon, Madeira, and Porto. From each location, we toured locally and made day trips exploring the area and nearby cities.
B. When We Went
It was winter in Portugal, which meant cooler and more gray and rainy days. Being from the Pacific Northwest, the weather didn’t bother us, and we were glad to avoid the hotter temperatures of summer. Also, we were glad to go during the low season and avoid many of the crowds of tourists that come during the warmer months.
The exception was Madeira. At the same latitude as Marrakesh, Morocco, Madeira enjoys springlike weather 12 months a year. There is no “low” season as tourists flock to the “Hawaii of Portugal” to escape cold and dark winters or escape the heat of summer.
Ponta de São Lourenço, Madeira, Portugal – location of the recent Star Wars series, “The Acolyte”
One to four massive cruise ships docked every day during our week. We were told cruise ships mostly come during the winter, bringing visitors mostly from north and central Europe.
During New Year’s sometimes ten cruise ships will arrive. Most anchor offshore. The visitors watch the fireworks show, and at midnight all the cruise ships blast their mighty horns.
This year was an especially wet winter for Portugal, with consecutive storms bringing heavy rains and causing severe flooding in areas. We saw flooding on the news but didn’t experience anything worse than driving wind and rains a couple days.
Flood level Duoro River, which separates Porto from Gaia, Portugal
We witnessed the waters of the Duoro River getting uncomfortably high during our last few days. The river apparently flooded its banks the last day we were in Porto, but we didn’t venture out much due to the wind and rains so we didn’t see it ourselves.
C. Why We Went
We have both traveled quite a bit. But neither of us had been to Portugal. We’d heard great things from friends who had been, saw mouthwatering dishes on travel shows, and wanted to learn about Portuguese wine and port. We didn’t travel abroad at all last year, and so we chose Portugal for our delayed honeymoon. We were not disappointed. We loved our trip and already are thinking about what we’d like to do and see the next time.
Over the next month I expect to post a number of articles about our trip including travel tips, recommended food and restaurants, places to see, and more. Check back, share, and comment – especially if you have any questions.
Blatant Calm 