The air in Porto when we arrived this morning was
delightfully mild. We are after all at 41° north. The weather remained fine all
day as many of us went on a city tour, river cruise and port wine tasting (more on this below). Yes,
Port wine got its name from Porto, which in Portuguese simply means “port” in
English. The port in Porto is small so
the Fram docked at Leixões a little to the north.
Porto itself is a sprawling city with a very “Latin” feel.
Despite being an early member of the EU, Portugal seems to have retained its
very special culture, with strong connections to fish and the sea.
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| Wonderful salted sardines being grilled on the street |
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| The bustling Porto train station. Note the beautiful tiled walls |
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| Cruise along the River Douro |
Port is a wine loved the world over. It is classed as a fortified wine because of its high alcohol content. It is made only in the Douro Valley area of Portugal. To make it they start the wine fermenting but stop the fermentation early by adding 70% wine alcohol, which kills the yeast and fortifies the wine up to about 20% alcohol. By doing this some of the grape sugars have not been converted to alcohol, which gives the wine it’s natural sweetness. The conditions along the Douro River in Porto itself are perfect for cellaring or maturing the wine, and we had a chance to visit a few of the old cellars in the city. The smell alone when entering the cellars is intoxicating!
We left Porto in the late afternoon and headed south along
the west coast of Portugal and for the Canary Islands. We will take on a lot of
passengers there, and then continue south and west across the Atlantic,
finally arriving at Buenos Aires, Argentina, to start our Antarctic season on 1
November. Follow along on this blog to find out what adventures the Fram and
her passengers will experience over the next three weeks.
