Villa do Conde, Portugal

Here we are for the next two weeks, in rural Villa do Conde, Portugal. This is a small seaside village in the north of Portugal (right on the border between the Douro and Minho provinces). Manuela's parents usually spend most of the summer here. As you can see from the pictures, it's absolutely beautiful here. It's a fishing village, so you can get all sorts of fresh fish every day... the bakeries (pastelarias) are delicious and keep baking all day. There are a lot of yummy things I've discovered, like pastel de coco (a mini coconut tart), bola da berlin (a type of cream filled donut), pao de leite (a really soft bread roll that's sprinkled with sugar), and bachelau (dried codfish). Bachelau is really in a category by itself... apparently there are over 1000 recipes for it.

Here are some pictures of Villa do Conde... absolutely beautiful!