Porto, Portugal

October 9 – 13, 2019

Wednesday, October 9

Easy flight from Barcelona to Porto with beautiful scenery from my window seat!

I arrived late afternoon and then managed to get the train from the airport into the center of town, about a 45 minute ride.  It was then about a 10 minute walk to my Airbnb, a cute top floor room with its own private balcony and a nice view towards the Old Town.  Sunset got progressively more beautiful as dusk settled in.  I was feeling relaxed so I just walked to the local market for groceries, made a nice salad and watched some Netflix!

Thursday, October 10

Porto is small but it’s brutal to walk on a hot day.  I didn’t bring my hat and I felt the sun burning my face even though I was wearing SPF 50.  The hills and steep steps around this old city are really fascinating but also tough on the knees!  As you walk around and see all the old locals making their way about, you have a lot of respect for their ability to navigate around even for small errands!

Intricately detailed tiled facades make each home so unique!

Porto is a town with a magnificent church around every turn it seems.  However, it would be a more enjoyable and photogenic experience without thousands of tourists climbing everywhere with their selfie sticks.  Maybe I was in a grumpy mood or maybe it was just the heat, but I got progressively more annoyed with the over-tourism as the day went along.

I don’t feel I was really taking the time to soak up all these beautiful structures because I kept getting pissed off by all the people shoving and walking in front of you or into your picture.

Impressive City Hall, however this Porto sign is an annoying tourist magnet

Igreja da Santissima Trindade

Igreja dos Clérigos

Clerigos Tower

Igreja de Santo António dos Congregados

Porto Cathedral

Igreja de São Lourenço

Igreja Monumento de São Francisco  and  Igreja da Venerável Ordem Terceira de São Francisco

My take by the end of the day, Porto would have been amazing to visit 10 years ago, even 5 years ago, but it was almost too much for me.  It was then and there I decided I was booking a tour out of the city for the next day!

Friday, October 11

Airbnb Experiences, take me away!  I booked a day trip to Douro Valley to do an olive oil and wine tasting tour.

It was about a two hour drive from Porto to the Douro Valley.  As we got closer to our first stop, the scenery really got unbelievably gorgeous!  The Romans began growing wine here during their occupation and the Kingdom of Portugal established vineyards here as far back as the 12th Century.  These terraced properties where painstakingly curated by hand over hundreds of years.  I was so impressed driving through the region!

Our first stop was to D’Origem, a family-owned company that has been making olive oil and wine here for 4 generations.

View from the balcony of D’Origem 

Next, we traveled down into the valley for an hour-long boat cruise on the Douro River.  I was in a small group of only three of us total, joining a couple from Sunnyvale of all places!  We purchased a bottle of rose from D’Origem to take on our river cruise!

A really neat and unexpected bonus to our lunch was we were able to walk around the garden of the home of Magellan the explorer.  The house is privately owned by four old women and is closed to the public and only used for government functions.  But the gardener was there and saw our guide, Andre, talking to us about it so he offered to let us walk around inside.  In all his years of doing tours, Andre said he’s never been able to get inside the gate so it was a huge privilege!

After a full lunch in our bellies, we drove to the lovely village of Amarante.  It was time for another wine tasting and this one came with an insane plate of cured meats and cheese.  They never stop feeding you in Portugal!

Ponte de São Gonçalo bridge over Tâmega River 

big ole cup of wine

look at these cured meats!!!

I’m definitely feeling buzzed at this point.  So let’s go to church!  This fabulous cathedral, Igreja de S. Gonçalo de Amarante was just across the bridge by our car so we popped in.  Stunning interiors!

And this concludes my delicious and entertaining day trip to the Douro Valley!  I’m so glad I got out of the city to experience Portuguese wine country!

Saturday, October 12

I felt I really saw most of what Porto had to offer on Thursday with my full day of walking.  It’s not a huge place, so it’s pretty easy to hit the high points on your own in a day.  After my successful day trip the previous day, I decided to book another Airbnb Experience!

This time I went for Eat Your Way Through Porto!  Our first stop was Cafe Piolho D’Ouro where we had a traditional Portuguese kale soup called caldo verde which I loved!  Loved so much apparently I ate it without taking a picture!  Oh well, I hope to make this at home for myself when I have a kitchen again, so there should be bowls of this delicious dish in my future!

Second spot was Conga das Bifanas for their very famous and super duper delicious bifanas sandwich and a beer.  (not usually my choice but I did as João instructed!)

Third stop was Taxca, a little restaurant with delicious food, jamon hanging from the ceiling, and really interesting drinks!  João ordered us a garbanzo bean and onion dish as well as octopus and vegetables.  I loved both so much!

Also, not to be missed was the sparkling wine we had 2 glasses of here.  Listed here as espandal, it was probably my favorite wine I’ve had so far in Portugal!  Best part, it was on tap here at Taxca!

Final stop was sweets at Padaria Ribeiro where they are a local favorite and always busy. The egg tarts are a Portuguese tradition but the croissants and almond cookies were really good too!  A great way to end about 4 hours of eating and drinking!

Then I was just trying to keep myself occupied until 8:30pm.  It’s Saturday, and that means game day!  So I walked around for a while, tried to find an Irish Pub that might have college football but kinda gave up because it was a pain in the ass.  So I found a really cute wine bar and ordered a wine and cheese board to make the time go by!

Finally, I made it home to stream the game on my computer and watch back in my room.  I’m sure my neighbors were wondering what all the shouting was about!?!  Go Tigers!

Sunday, October 13

Early morning train ride from Porto Campanhã to Lisboa Oriente.  It was a nice ride though and took about 3 hours.  I had a window seat and took a nap on the journey.  I love train travel!