5 - Porto Weekend

Saturday morning we went down for breakfast and they had a difficult time understanding that we don’t eat breakfast. Bill ended up having a croissant with pumpkin jam and honey. I had a few pieces of fresh fruit and a “multivitamin” juice.

Bill went to the room to work on the blog and I went to Starbucks to buy a mug and a matcha latte.

We had a quiet morning reading and working on the blog.

For lunch we walked a short distance to Tapas & Destapas.  It is a small place and very modern and elegant. The Iberian pork salad with baby lettuce, walnuts, raisins, cheese and balsamic vinegar is one of the best salads I have ever had. The eggs with truffle came in a small pot and was very light and creamy.  The pork belly with a traditional croquet type dish was excellent. This restaurant should be on the Eater 38 for Porto.

We walked around the construction (a big hole in the middle of the street). We walked up Avenida do Alidos and took photos of some beautiful buildings along the avenue including, Camara Municpal do Porto.

Igreja of Santo Anthonio Congregados or St Anthony of Padua had lots of gold around some of the naves, some relics, a dramatic statue depicting one female saint, and some paintings and status of St Anthony.

We arrived just in time for the opening of Igreja do Trinidade. Behind the alter is a large painting of the Baptism of Christ. Many of the naves have beautiful statues with striking halos.

We also stopped at Capela das Almas or Chapel of Souls. The exterior is covered in 16,000 white and blue azulejo tiles that depict scenes of the lives of St Catherine and St Francis of Assisi.

We expected today to be a wash out but we are only walking through a light rain now.

Along the shopping pedestrian street we passed by Cafe Majestic which is famous for the spot where JK Rowlings wrote one of the Harry Potter books.

The next stop on the walking tour is Igreja do Santo Ildefonso. There are 11,000 blue and white azulejo tiles on the exterior. We paid to tour the church and museum and bought some souvenirs too. We saw some more statues and tiles depicting St Anthony, along with other saints and church leaders.  There is a beautiful stained glass window of the Last Supper. We have not seen a lot of stained glass windows in Portugal.

It was clearing up when we arrived at Se Cathedral do Porto located at the top of Penaventosa. The construction of the cathedral lasted from the 12th century until 1737. Attached is a beautiful gothic cloister from 1736 and we were able to pay to tour both sites. Throughout there are many great blue and white azulejo tiles in the cloister. The cathedral itself was almost stark.

I also climbed the tower to have a great view of the city and waterfront.

We went back to our room for a short rest, then headed to Palacio do Bolsa, the Stock Exchange Palace (1850) for the wine festival. It is a beautiful building with a huge glass dome, a spectacular staircase, and rooms that line the one side of the second floor that are each decorated in a different theme and style.

The surrounding was stunning, the crowds were intense, and the wine was exceptional! A great way to spend a chilly and damp afternoon.

We explored both the first and second floor of the main part of the building. The rooms and decor were definitely worth the visit. There were hundreds of wine producers with at least two people at each both. Hundreds of people were wandering through the building and indulging in the wine. There was a lot of human cholesterol. It is surprising that we did not see more raging drunks because once you paid the 30 euros admission, all the wine samples were included.

After a break in our room, we went to Elemento for a late dinner. We had grilled wild boar to start and ox beef tenderloin with braised cheeks and venison loin with mushrooms and crushed macadamia. The stater was a bit tough but the rest of the meal was perfectly grilled and very tender.

We were exhausted from the wine and walking (almost 13k) and crashed hard in our comfy bed.

After “breakfast” at the hotel, I headed for higher ground while Bill chilled and worked on trip photos.

I returned to the “scene of the crime” aka Humphrey Down, to climb the famous Clerigos Tower that we can see from our room.

It was a timed entry so I had a to wait 30 min to enter, which was starting to cut it close for our lunch reservation.

I arrived back at 11:25, with a ton of other folks and was zigzagged into areas that were not the tower. It was cool to see the church from the upper balcony but I sped through it to get to the tower and then came to a grinding halt to wait for the climb. Thank goodness an elderly and obviously physically challenged couple bribed their way to the front of the line. Honestly Bill could have navigated faster on his twisted ankle.

Finally were were allowed to ascend and the walkway was definitely one way only but of course had people ascending and descending on the same winding staircase. 

I am of course losing my mind because it is already 11:40, I have not started climbing, and we have a 12:30 lunch reservation. 

I climbed fairly quickly as the young ladies ahead of me were not interested in wasting time either. I snapped some quick photos on the first level and was able to climb to the second level without any delays.

The upper leveling viewing deck was very narrow and packed. I brushed by a few folks and then got stopped behind a mom, young child, and grandma waiting for selfie takers.

I then had a long and painful decent to the exit behind them. No acknowledgment of my obvious impatient presence and the fact that the tiny child was allowed to take each and every step on their own past dozens of people plastered against the wall to allow us to pass on the way down.

Thankfully I did the trip up and down in less than 20 min and was able to pop into a shop that I visited earlier to purchase a few souvenirs that I had selected.

The 250m walk downhill to our room took half the time as climbing up (google says 8 min walk).

Did a quick refresh and turnaround to be 2 min early for our lunch reservation overlooking the river. So beautiful with the sun, water, and loads of tourists!

Sunday lunch at Casario was a combination of a great view, food, wine, and service. We had the cold veal roast beef with fried capers, pickled onion, baby greens, and Worcestershire sauce, squid stuffed sausage with spinach and mint mashed potatoes, and duck confit with a port and truffle sauce, zucchini and gnocchi. YUM! For dessert we had a chocolate tartlet with berries and pistachios. All paired with a vinho verde and a tonic, rosemary, and white port cocktail.

We crossed the river by walking across the highest bridge.

We climbed higher to the monastery for a great view of the river and city. It was not open to tour so we descended to the bank of the river. We did a bit of shopping at the stalls along the water and snapped some photos.

We had a couple of cocktails and a dried fruit snack (nuts, corn nuts, and raisins) at Sandeman.

We had a good tour of the Sandeman facility that ended with a generous flight of white, ruby, and tawny ports.

We climbed up to WOW to do the pricey cork museum. It is really well done, but not worth the cost. We did get a custom T&B cork though, so that was fun.

We strolled back down to the waterfront and had dinner at Endotecca. We shared the octopus tartare. Bill had truffle spaghetti and we shared a sashimi plate with salmon, tuna,

For dessert Bill had a glass of red and I had a hot toddy.

We had a nice chat with the couple beside us about travel. Mike is American and Myriam is African and admittedly very chatty!

Our walk back to the room was really pretty with all the lights reflecting off the river.

7:40 - We woke up early on Monday morning to finish packing and head to the train station
8:40 - ordered Uber
9:00 - Uber still 6-8 min away and not moving
9:05 - walked the the train station down the street to catch a taxi
9:10 - taxi driver mentions that the rail workers are on strike today and only 25% of the trains are operating
9:25 - arrive at train station - no track assigned for our train
9:30 - line up at the train ticket booth
9:33 - our scheduled departure - no information yet, other than what we are hearing from other English speaking travellers
9:35 - get a ticket at the information desk
9:45 - speak to an agent to find out that this desk is for the metro, not the buses
9:50 - head the wrong direction in the metro and city bus station
9:55 - arrive at the bus station and buy a ticket for the 10:15 Express Bus to Lisbon
10:13 - try to board the wrong bus to Lisbon
10:14 - try to board another wrong bus to Lisbon
10:25 - board the correct bus to Lisbon and depart
2:00 - arrive at the Oriente station in Lisbon (more than 30 min later than we anticipated)
2:10 - hop on the subway to get back “home”
2:33 - arrive back home, only 90 min later than we expected

The rest of the day was uneventful. We grabbed a quick bite of lunch, worked all day, then headed to O Aregos for dinner. It is a local spot and was very busy. I had Secreto Pork and Bill had Pork Loin. Both were very good. I really enjoyed my fresh salad with vinegrette. Bill enjoyed fighting with his crusty bread very much…