Porto

We took advantage of a holiday-packed early May to spend some time in Portugal.  After a day filled with a two-and-a-half hour flight, a fraught 40 minutes getting from the airport to the train station in Lisbon, a two-and-a-half hour train ride up to Porto, and a hilly walk to our hotel, we found ourselves on our balcony enjoying this view of the city:

Sadly, the weather was gray and rainy most of our days in Porto and we did not get to enjoy the pool at the hotel.  Our hotel was located in the middle of the cellars and tasting rooms of a number of port wine houses.  We did tours and tastings of two different houses as well as a tasting of red, white and port wines from the Douro region at our hotel.  

As always, I loved the technical aspects of the tours.  One of the houses we visited told us that the grapes are crushed by foot!  The people stomping on the grapes sing traditional songs so they all maintain the same rhythm and the grapes are crushed uniformly.  We did not make it out to the Douro wine region, where the grapes for port wine are grown, but I would love to do that on a future trip.

We spent most of our time exploring the city despite the dreary weather.  We even made it out to the coast to see the Atlantic Ocean.  The waves were huge and it was a cool day, so I just dipped a hand into the water and J observed from a safe distance. 

Centre Pompidou

The national museums of France have free admission on the first Sunday of each month, something that we've taken advantage of to visit several different museums. This month we visited the Centre Pompidou, which houses the Musée National d'Art Moderne (National Museum of Modern Art).

The Pompidou is in a modern building that was designed as an inside-out structure, with the ductwork, steel skeleton, elevators, escalators, etc. all on the outside of the building.  The result is an unusual-looking addition to central Paris with clean, open, uncluttered interior spaces.  The architect that designed the Pompidou also designed the Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago.

We went to the Pompidou for the Nuit des Musées last year (a night where museums offer free admission in the evening), but spent most of our time on fourth floor seeing the contemporary collection (post-1960 works).  This time we split our time between the phenomenal views offered by the exterior hallways and terraces of the building and the fifth floor collection of modern art from 1905 through 1960.  We both thoroughly enjoyed our leisurely walk through the museum and I left inspired to make a list of other museums we need to visit (or revisit) before moving back to the U.S.

Résistance! Résistance!

We were walking home from a visit to the Centre Pompidou and lunch out when we ran into a huge protest in the Place de la Bastille with people marching down our street.  Needless to say, we had an interesting time getting to our apartment!

Rooftop garden on the Île Saint-Louis

One of the things I like about walking along the river is the chance to see some of the buildings on the Île Saint-Louis from afar.  On the island the streets are too narrow to afford the glimpse of the plants on balconies and rooftops that you get from across the river.