The Luis 1 Bridge over the Douro River in Porto
Six years ago we met our dear Portuguese friend Helena, during a two weeks vacation in Portimão/ Praia da Rocha, in the Algarve. Ever since we have wanted to visit her in her hometown of Porto and check the city out for a potential retirement move there.
After dropping the rental car off at Eindhoven Airport in a screaming rain storm, we were facing a 6 hour layover before Ryan Air would lift off for Porto in Portugal, where we would arrive shortly before midnight. The reason this is brought up is, that you don’t get to see much of this city’s beautiful setting from a taxi in the late evening hours. That’ll have to wait until the next morning when 1.3 million people seem to embrace your privacy all at once when the city comes alive.
Made in Brazil; a clever cover!
Our AirBNB was located a couple of minutes walking from the old town center and the first thing we saw when getting out of the Über was a window front that says “Made In Brazil”, a clever euphemism for a beauty shop that operates a brothel and stays open until the wee hours of the morning. Later we noticed there are two brothels on the same street. No bother to us, as they were fairly discreet, however dressed in skimpy clothes.
Our modern condo apartment however was fabulous. Airconditioning, nice little kitchen, comfy bed in separate bedroom, hurricane shutters and an elevator to the 3rd floor. Everything you may need from a bakery with breakfast to a well appointed supermarket were within a 3-4 minute walk, all of which we visited the next day. Arriving at midnight you only want a comfy bed and a cool room. We closed our eyes and went to dream.
Convenient breakfast right next door
Since Helena works in the marketing department of the City of Porto, she needed to work the next day, but the day after that she was off. We would meet her at the famous Sea Life Aquarium, in the northwest part of town for a visit TJ had been looking forward to. So on our first day in Porto we went for a leisurely breakfast at the Coffee shop Padråo Doce directly adjacent to the Airbnb. Here we were introduced to Portugal’s favorite sweet treat pastel de nata, a rich, creamy egg custard baked in a perfectly flaky, blistered puff pastry crust. A touch of cinnamon over the top and you’re good to go of course with a good cup of coffee. We are now huge fans of this fattening little delicacy.
Breakfast in Porto
We used the Google street map app to find the grocery story Continente Bom Dia which was just 3 minutes from there. An amazingly well stocked grocery store with a wide variety of goods. We walked out all set for our days in Porto. The original stay was supposed to have been 8 nights, but some recalculating of the Schengen Shuffle Allowance told us that we had to leave the Schengen zone on July 5 the latest, when TJ’s 90 days were up. We cut our Porto stay down 4 nights, so our next stay in the countryside we could stay our full month because of the pool feature and it all worked perfectly.
Warning: Make sure you calculate your allowance correctly, because since Trump immigration policies in the States, has European authorities also getting stricter.
Anyway our first day in Porto was quiet and relaxing and TJ quickly figured out the ÜberEats App and we had goodies delivered to the apartment.
Sea Life Aquarium Porto, Portugal
The next day we took an Über to the Porto Sea Life Aquarium where shortly after 11am there was a warm reunion with Helena, and the six years of not seeing each other melted away in seconds. TJ and Helena were actually in tears, surprising both of them.
Truth be known The Sea Life Aquarium actually deserved more of our attention than it got, since we were completely in awe of seeing Helena again and spent only little time with all that is offered in marine biology and the important research they do. Especially the Coral Maternity Center, the first national breeding project of coral for the SEA LIFE network of aquariums around the world, contributes majorly to endangered species breeding programs and the conservation of coral organisms on a global scale.
TJ: I was too busy watching the penguins and being Peter Pan, flitting all over the place. I even let Helena talk me into (I would have done it anyway) crawling hands and knees through a little tunnel to reach a bubble in which to stand up in, so it appears you are inside an aquarium with cute fish all around. Even I, at 5’2” was still just a tad too tall for it, but did it stop this big kid from posing, being silly and enjoying it? Absolutely not! Helena had insisted upon treating us to the Aquarium, so I bought her this cute little stuffed red octopus keychain.
We spent a good 2 hours in the facility and shop before we called a taxi to take us to an outstanding fish restaurant for some of Portugal’s favorite grilled Sardinhas. (oh the irony!?)
Grilled Sardines, Portugal’s National Dish
After intense discussion with our taxi driver we were taken to a restaurant in the Matosinhos Dockland areas, famous for the Fish and Sardine canneries. Matosinhos is Portugal’s historic seafood capital, once landing 86% of the country’s catch, it used to be a small fishing town just 20 km northwest of Porto and is now integrated into the Porto Metropolis. It still has an industrial air to it, due to its 19th-century harbor, and its past prosperity connected to the fish-canning sector, which peaked during World War II and declined from the beginning of the 1970s. But then advancing tourism needed nightlife and during the 1990s, clubs, bars and restaurants found a great a fertile zone for its needs as old buildings were restored and new apartment buildings, shops and neighborhoods were erected.
We sat outside on a terrace, filled with other visitors – many from neighboring Spain, as they were enjoying a national holiday and we ordered grilled sardines (what else duh??) And TJ set aside her natural distaste of fishy fish and ordered grilled sardines as well. And guess what? She loved them. Proud of that girl. And then we talked for several hours into the late afternoon with the promise to meet up again the next day for a shopping mall experience. All three of us took a taxi back into the city to our Airbnb, and relaxed and talked some more about our plans to move to Portugal until Helena got a phone call that her sister was in the hospital. A quick goodbye and hugs later, she had promised to update us and if the plans for the next day were still a go.
The next morning we learned that sadly she was not able to meet up with us again as her sister was still in the hospital emergency room. What now? We only had this day left to get to know Porto a bit more. We quickly sat down with our laptops and devised a walking tour in the center of town, that would at least encompass 5 or 6 must see attractions and we went on our way.
Capella The Santa Caterina, a piece of art in tile
With a general directional sense of the city center’s layout we walk to the blue tiled facades of Capella de Santa Caterina (Chapel of Souls) and find that even though it’s Sunday, Porto is hosting a lot of visitors this weekend.
Slowly walking down the pedestrian Rua de Santa Catarina cobble stoned shopping street, taking an occasional left and right aided by Google Street Maps, we ultimately climbed up to arrive at Praça da Liberdade (Liberty Square), the central square where old and new Porto meet. It is here where the American fast-food invention McDonald’s now occupies the old art deco Imperial Café that opened in 1936. It is reputed to be one of the most beautiful McDonald’s in the world!. We have seen this ‘sacrilegious’ behavior in many cities in Europe (Budapest, Prague, Vienna etc), where magnificent old buildings have been sacrificed to become fast-food eateries. Still don’t like it one bit. This one is located at the southeast corner of Liberty Square. Its real state-of-the-art focus point is the stained glass mural along the back wall, depicting the cycle of coffee: growing it, harvesting, processing, shipping, and finally drinking it. I have to admit it’s beautiful.
Just south of the Square is the important São Bento Train Station intersection, where we take our first sidewalk café stop for some refreshments and people watching. The last one is almost as good as Paris or London.
The waiting Iines are long for the Lello Library
Next on the list of “Must-See” is Livravria Lello & Irmao, the world-famous book shop, kitty-corner across the street from the UNIVERSITY OF PORTO, that demands at least a day visit. Admission is $30 per person. And guess what? There were about a thousand people waiting in the street to get in. We’ll come back in a real off season time to do this one. Now if you really have your mind set on this than consider buying a combo ticket that includes a visit to the Monastery of Leça do Balio, home to Livraria Lello Foundation and discover medieval architecture and provocative temporal exhibitions. Tickets include the Monastery, the Open sculpture, the Garden of Thought and, if selected, the Lello Bookshop. A National Monument since 1910 and a historic landmark on the Caminhos de Santiago, the Monastery of Leça do Balio is today home to the Livraria Lello Foundation and a vibrant cultural hub. Very interested but this will have to wait until our next trip to Porto.
We “quickly” walk further up the hill to peek at the Igreja do Carmo church and the surrounding square, which seems to be a center of all kind of transportation activities: Homemade small tuk-tuks built on mini chassis of old American model cars, an old tramway, busses and taxis. We took it all in, shot a couple of pictures and started on our way down to the river in search for the majestic D’ouro River and maybe some lunch. D’ouro by the way means ‘of gold’ in Portuguese.
Great Spot for a perfect lunch
Carefully easing our way down the narrow cobblestoned streets we ended up in the old Porto Ribeiro district of the city, where we had a marvelous lunch in a 5 Star hotel with a street side terrace. It was also a great feeling for our resting undercarriage that had already close to 7,000 steps on the clock. After lunch we kept on going down passing the Cathedral of Porto and ending at the river landing near the Luis I bridge across the river to the famous picturesque overlook Miradouro da Serra do Pilar. The bridges over the Douro have a high passage and a low passage. From the high level we walked to the middle of the bridge, took a bunch of pictures and walked back. Back in Porto Ribeira with its gorgeous old houses, we walked through the car tunnel to get to the bottom overlook point of the Douro River.
After a while taking pictures and just looking at the high passage we took the funicular back up to the city level for our walk by to the apartment. There are some stunning views to be seen from Miradouro da Vitória and you quickly realize why Porto is such a popular destination. It has magical vistas, great restaurants, a culture steeped in all the classics and architecture to go with it. The people are a delight; international, friendly, helpful, and the city has an overload of attractions worth seeing. And we have to visit many more. And even though the city is considerably more expensive than rural Portugal, it is still affordable. But it is a city for young people, full of energy and in good physical shape. We were close to our 10,000 steps and not looking forward to the trek back to the apartment.
The side streets were made up of steep streets, mismatched stairs and/or uneven cobblestones are seriously an accident waiting to happen (at least for us). Slow and steady are your best bet for anyone and supportive shoes. With a little luck and Google Maps we actually took the shortest route back and less than 2,000 steps later, the elevator took us up to the third floor where walking shoes ended up in the corner and tired feet soaked in a bath tub. We realized that Porto would not be our choice to live in Portugal. Too busy and too pricy. But it was definitely a city to revisit often. Love Porto, but many times it made walking through Edinburgh, Scotland feel easy at times.
TJ surprised me fairly late in the evening with an Über delivery of our newest treat, the pastel de natas, because she said we deserved them after such a busy eventful day. Who am I to disagree with such logic?
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