After lunch, it was back in the car for the last leg up to Porto. The highway started to get busier, but it was still easy driving as we continued north. Porto is the region and city associated with the production of port, a fortified wine. They have been making port here since the dawn of time, and many of the port producers go back to the 1700s, some as far back as the 1500s. Both Justine and I love port, and for some reason I have never been here. After spending a bit of time here, it’s amazing that I missed this one in my travels.

The spectacular view from the balcony of our apartment.

The river Douro splits the city. We were staying on the south side of the river, in an area called Gaia. It looks across the river to Porto proper. Justine outdid herself with the find on our accommodation for our time in Porto. We had an amazing second floor, 2 bedroom apartment on the Gaia side of the city that had an amazing little balcony with the Douro river spread out in front of us, looking out over all of Porto. But most importantly, an amazing view of Porto’s famous iron bridge that crosses the river. There’s a park nearby that is know as the place to go to watch the sunset - we had our own private view of the same. It’s hard to imagine finding a better place to stay.

Looking down towards the river and the ports houses along the Gaia side of the river.

Jose, the owner of the apartment gave us directions to a parking lot where we could leave the car and was waiting for us, and showed us to the apartment on our arrival. Jose was amazing - he walked us through everything, marked up a map of the city with restaurant recommendations, the location of local grocery stores and the best sites to see in the city. He was such a nice guy and really looked out for us. We also used many of his recommendations at various times during our stay.

JOse left us a small bottle of port as a welcome gift, which was a very nice touch. We had some on our first evening.

A pano of the river and the sights from our balcony. It’s pretty amazing.

After getting checked in and settled, we decided to hang out at the apartment and watch the sunset. We were not that far off - enough time to have a glass of the welcome bottle of port that Jose had left us, and to have a small snack. The view from our balcony was stunning, and we could watch the sun go down behind the hill to the west, behind the signs of Grahams and Dow and Fonseca, and the rest of the port houses up on the hill. It was spectacular.

After the sun set, we did need to find some dinner, but also wanted to explore a bit. All of the major port producers have facilities right along the river on the Gaia side, and so this stretch is understandably the most popular. We walked up the river a little bit, getting a lay of the land and reference for further exploration. To get down to the river, there is a path that leads to a crazy staircase, and then another narrow lane down to the waterfront.

One of the restaurants Jose suggested was in this second lane, close to the water, so we tried it for dinner that night. And it was great! I had the baked octopus, and it was easily the best version I’m had of that dish anywhere. So tender. Everyone enjoyed their meals, and as it was getting late, it was time to call it a day. We headed back to the apartment and had a second glass or port and called it a day.

The view from the balcony at night was just as great as during the day.

The bridge is a spectacular piece of architecture.

Saturday - Exploring the City

Saturday was planned as our day to explore the historic city of Porto. And it ended up being a big day of walking - and Porto is not an easy city to walk with its cobblestone streets and lots of hills. But it was worth it, as we got to see quite a lot.

The map of our wandering around Porto on Saturday.

THe view in the morning light was also quite nice. There was some odd fog hanging over the river in the early morning.

We started the morning by walking up the hill behind the apartment, up to the "sunset park" and the entryway to the bridge - Pont Luis I - on its upper level. You can see in the pictures that there are two walkways across the bridge. The upper level is pedestrian and tram only; the lower surprisingly also allows cars. We had decided to start by climbing up, crossing the upper span, exploring the upper part of the city before going down to the river on the Porto side to cross back to home. But that was much later in the day.

After walking up to the top of the hill, we were afforded some different views of the bridge.

Looking down the river from the bridge deck. The ocean is out past the bridge you can see in the distance.

You’ll notice a lot of pictures of the bridge…

The pano of the whole city - it’s just beautiful.

At the upper crossing, you also have one of the end points of the small gondola that can take you from here down to the river on the Gaia side. It seemed like a lot of work for so short a distance, but it seemed popular with the tourists. And there are a lot of tourists. One of our main takeaways/surprises was how busy it was, this late in September. I would have expected this is July or August, but we were pushing the end of September. Not at all what I expected, and a bit annoying.

We crossed over the bridge and enjoyed the expansive views out over the city. After crossing the bridge, we climbed further, stopping to have a look at the Se (cathedral) on top of the hill. From there, we just wandered a bit randomly. We were looking for some place to have brunch, and our wanderings led us to a small cafe in this narrow little alley that had exactly what we were looking for. The food was excellent, so we stopped for a bit and had some food. In this same alley was an old church, Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Terco e Caridade. The outside of the church was covered in amazing tiles, and we stopped to admire and take some photos. We were not able to go inside, but I suggest looking it up for the photos of the alter - it’s crazy.

The church had caught our eye and took us up this narrow street. It led us to the cool little cafe where we stopped for brunch.

Like many of the building in Portugal, this one was covered in amazing tile work.

The streets are so narrow you can barely get a photo of the place.

From there, we worked our way down to the Porto train station. The inside of the station is a work of art, with the main reception area tiled with amazing art. It was crazy busy, and there was some weird religious ceremony happening in the middle of the usual train station craziness, but it was still worth a stop.

The inside of the train station was spectacular, if a little crazy.

After the train station, we made our way back up towards the main commercial street. It was quite busy and we explored a bunch of the shops, and there was another crazy church covered in tiles. As we made our way back towards the river, we found this amazing covered market.

The artistry that goes into these buildings is amazing.

It was like Granville Island in Vancouver, at a slightly larger scale. It was filled with vendors - lots of meat, cheese, seafood and flowers. But they also had beverages, and so we shortly found ourselves walking around with a glass of rose in a proper glass wine glass. So civilized - I’m not sure why we can’t do that in Vancouver! We picked up a plate of cheeses and some olives and had a proper little snack while enjoying the atmosphere of the market. It was quite lovely.

We had approached the market from this end. We were up at street level, affording this view down into the market that unfolded in front of us.

So civilized - a glass of wine to stroll the market.

It was a lot like Granville Island, just larger and with wine. Lots of fruits, veggies, meat and flowers.

After having a snack in the market, we continued to explore the city. The main commercial street was interesting, and it led us to other areas that were equally worth exploring. Around every corner you would find a cool building, or another church.

There were a few sites that we wanted to see. One was this crazy bookstore that was supposed to have channelled Harry Potter, but you had to buy a ticket to enter and there was a line, so we skipped it. Another was Igreja e Torre dos Clérigos (Clerigos Church and Tower). A tall, narrow tower sitting up on one of the highest points in the city with a 75-meter-tall bell tower, you could see it from just about everywhere.

A bit of an awkward pic of the Igreja e Torre dos Clérigos.

The church was built for the Brotherhood of the Clérigos. Construction of the church began in 1732 and was finished in 1750, while the bell tower and the monumental divided stairway in front of the church were completed in 1763.

At this stage, Justine and I had split off from Michael and Maureen to explore a bit on our own. In doing so, we discovered this amazing outdoor bar, across from the church, sitting in a grove of olive trees. IN the middle of the city. Now to be fair, it was obviously artificial, as the park was on top of a parking garage, but the trees were ancient and it gave the whole area this great vibe. We ended up having a drink in the bar, enjoying the warm fall afternoon and the amazing scene and scenery.

We found this great outdoor bar with an amazing view of the church. You can see the ancient olive trees in the background.

It was a great spot to spend a bit of the afternoon in the sun.

After our drink, we continued to explore and wound done the narrow streets, heading towards the river. The Rua dos Flores was very cool - lots of restaurants and bars, and we found this one artist that does amazing pen and ink drawings of Porto. We found one that even had the building we were staying in, and that was enough for Justine to agree to buy one. So we have a nice momento (that we’re not going to drink) from Porto.

The narrow streets funneled us down into the riverfront, on the Porto side and we had a chance to wander and enjoy the madness! This area is called the Cais de Ribeira, and is a historic district, full of bars and restaurants. There was also a market set-up, very touristy, but it added to the mayhem. We stopped at one of the bars for a drink and some people watching, and it was a lovely time.

The riverfront on the Porto side was even busier than on the Gaia side. It was a lovely day.

Stopping for a drink on a riverside patio.

Looking across the river, you could easily pick out the building where our apartment was located.

Hanging out on the river!

But eventually we had to cross back over the bridge to the Gaia side and head for home.

Back in the apartment for another sunset.

Eventually we crossed over the lower part of the beautiful, iron bridge and made our way back up the hill to the apartment. We rested for a bit and watched another glorious sunset.

I warned you that there will be lots of pictures of the bridge.

We had a number of great sunsets while we were in Porto.

After the sun went down, we walked back down the hill and tried another restaurant that Jose had recommended. This one was a bit more touristy, but still quite good. They sat us upstairs inside, and it was amazing to see the original stone and wood framed structure up close. It was hard to tell from the waitress how old it was - I got either 1200s or 1400s, and even found out that an original sailing ship had crashed into the the building in the 1800s requiring repairs. Amazing. The food was good and so I think it makes Jose 2/2 on his recommendations.

By this point, it was time to call it a night, and it was off to bed.