Anyone for some port?

Last October, with winter fast approaching, we took a short weekend away to Porto (Portugal) for a last dose of summer sun.

Porto is best known as the home of port and is built on hills that overlook the Duoro River. On one side of the river is Porto, and on the other is the city of Vila Nova de Gaia, where most of the port houses are located.

We spent a weekend enjoying some great food (so much chorizo) and learning about port production at the various port houses (which all offer some kind of tour and tasting). We discovered that the port that we know (tawny) is not really consumed in Portugal as locals prefer ruby port which is lighter and sweeter as it has not been aged in oak barrels. Many of the producers are now marketing a white port as a summer drink (mixed with sparkling water) which was quite nice. The local wine, Vinho Verde, was also great.

Click here to see our photos from Porto

Punting in Cambridge

Taking advantage of some group-saver train fares, we took a day-trip to Cambridge with Clare & Chris.

We headed straight to the River Cam, hired a punt and set off for a leisurely cruise (well, at least for Clare and I) along The Backs (the area where several colleges from the University of Cambridge back onto the River Cam).

We then did a walking tour of the University, exploring several of the colleges including the famous King's College and it's Chapel.

You can see the photos here

Denmark

From Greenland we flew to the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. And then the sun set. It seemed rather strange after the never ending daylight of the past month.

Although Bornholm is a part of Denmark it is far closer to Sweden, Poland and Germany and has in the past been strategically very important. We enjoyed a few days exploring the island including Hammershus, the oldest fortress in Northern Europe.

It was then on to Copenhagen where we had a great time seeing the local museums and also Tivoli, the oldest operating amusement park in the world. This was great fun and everyone who visits should check it out. For some reason we got free entry when we told the ticket seller that we had come from Greenland!

While staying in Copenhagen we even managed lunch in the Swedish town of Malmö via the spectacular 13km Oresund Bridge/Tunnel. It is amazing to think that you can do something like that, or even commute to work in another country.

Of course we also managed to visit the Carlsberg Brewery and sample some quite nice beers (much better than the standard stuff you get in a pub).

After more than 5 weeks it was time to return to London and end our Scandinavian summer holiday.We had an amazing time and can't wait to see more of northern Europe, in particular the frozen dessert centre of Iceland.

Click here to see the final photos from our summer holiday

Greenland Part 2

Ilulissat was our final stop on our Greenland trip, and the real reason that we were here. The town of 4500 is something of a tourist destination given it's close proximity to the most productive glacier in the northern hemisphere. The glacier is moving forward at a rate of 30 metres a day, which means that large chunks of ice (up to 1km high) are continually breaking off (calving) and moving out in to the bay. The first night we stayed in an aluminium igloo at Hotel Arctic before heading in to the town for the rest of our stay. The weather was great while we were there (200km inside the Arctic Circle) and we were able to do a hike to the glacier (minding the icebergs) as well as take a few trips to nearby villages and to another glacier at Ice Camp Eqi. The highlight though was the midnight boat right across the front of the glacier. Seeing the massive expanses of ice (and the different shapes and colours) under the midnight sun was an amazing experience.

We went back to Hotel Arctic for a dinner on our last night in Ilulisat. The bbq included musk ox, seal, whale and reindeer. We rounded out the dinner with a Greenlandic Coffee. You can check out the recipe here.

You can see the second installment of our Greenland photos here.