A Portuguese Christmas

For the Christmas period, Smee and I decided to go to Lisbon and Porto in Portugal. Thankfully, our flight wasn't delayed by the annual fog that affect many flights at this time of year and we jetted into Lisbon with no issues. After checking into the hotel, we pretty much went immediately to Oriente Station where we caught a 3 hour train to Porto.

We'd been invited to experience Christmas the 'Portuguese' way, whereby large family dinners are held on Christmas Eve.

The first course consist of boiled bacalhau (codfish), potatoes and cabbage. Sounds plain but very tasty combination especially when served with olive oil and onion.

The fish and potatoes were enough but the second course of lamb came along and we all had a nibble.

One of the nicest red wines I've had - Chryseia 2004.

The excessive desserts. There were more than this! I made sure I sampled a bit of each one as I'm a big fan of custards, cinnamon and eggy desserts.

(T-B, L-R) A milk custard with cinnamon. Bolo Rei - a traditional Christmas cake. Creme brulee - no idea what the Portuguese word is. Malasada donuts - ooh, so squishy!
There were also some rabanadas, similar to french toast which were just delish!

Father Christmas then came at the stroke of midnight to distribute gifts to the kiddies. He spoke fluent Portuguese and a bit of broken English. We retired slightly tipsy and full from all the goodies.

The following day, we followed our Portuguese buddies for Christmas Day lunch at the in-laws. It was just a repeat of the previous night's feast except at midday rather than dinner. But first, we stopped by the sandy beach.

It's so nice to see a sandy beach again. A bit chilly but you couldn't tell from the blue sky.

Lunch was again a huge feast of fish, meats and desserts. Mmmm I could just live on creme brulee, creme caramel, custard flans.....

We fitted in the minimal tourist stuff with a night tour of Porto.

The purdy Christmas lights.

The following day, Boxing Day we thought we'd try something different, Churrascaria. Ok, it's not that different, it's just feasting on barbecue meats.

Smee outside Churrascao Gaucho. The meat variety here was one of the best we've been too. The garlic beef was just mmm.. mmm....mmm!! Too bad I can't find a website.

After lunch we boarded a train back to Lisbon. Touristy stuff to do!