Ahhh……picturesque Porto! What a beautiful city this is. After a 2 hour flight from Bologna, we landed around 2 p.m. to sunny, warm weather. The city got points from us right away when we were able to hop right on their beautiful new metro train at the airport which whisked us right into town. Talk about any easy way to get to the hotel! After checking in at the Hotel Ibis (Talk about a great rate - 39 euro a night!!) we hit the streets with our map to start exploring. Porto is a city built on hills and this was readily apparent to us as we made our way down to the Douro River, where the guy at the front desk told us were some great riverfront restaurants where we could eat lunch outdoors. Well, he was right - the river was lined with lots of little cafes so it didn’t take long for us to find a table where we could soak up the sun and enjoy a light meal. What a nice treat that was after chilly Bologna!! The river is really beautiful with several elaborate bridges spanning it. One of them was actually designed by Gustav Eifel, the very same one who designed the famous Eifel Tower in Paris. The city must have been so impressed with the results of his work that they named one of the boulevards along the river after him!
Given that it was late in the day and we didn’t have a lot of sleep the night before, we decided to head back to the hotel early and just have a bite in the lobby for dinner. The trick was getting back up the steep hill - fortunately, the helpful guy at the front desk pointed out the funicular on the map, which goes from the top of the hill down to the river. Luckily, our metro card which we had purchased at the airport covered the funicular as well, so we just strolled down the street after lunch and were able to hop on the funicular just on the other side of the bridge and up the hill we went. Too convenient! The funicular also looks really new and clean, just like the metro streetcars and provided us a gorgeous view over the river as we went up the hill. All in all, a picture perfect ending to a long travel day!
DAY TWO
We had done some research prior to getting here and discovered a cool sounding musical performance that was happening at a place here in Porto called the Casa de Musica so we headed over there first thing in the morning to get tickets for that night. What a cool building!! It was built in 2005 and has a really futuristic look, which is right up our alley. The tickets were only 10 euro which is a great price but it wasn’t until 10 p.m. so we were going to have to pace ourselves! After getting our tickets, we headed back down to the river, where we had planned on taking a riverboat tour. The tour boats are actually old commercial boats that used to ferry barrels of port wine from the distributors on the other side of the river (more about that later) to the restaurants and stores on the other side. Again, an absolutely flawless day weather wise and the boat tour was everything we expected…..except……we were told the tour was offered in English as well as other languages but once on the boat, the recorded information was only in Portuguese, French and Spanish. When I asked the guy about the English translation, he said the disk (or whatever) was broken and it wasn’t working. Well, that was a drag because we didn’t get to hear about all the bridges and other points of interest along the river (although I did my best to translate the Spanish information for us). Long story short, we decided to go to the boat tour office to see about at least a partial refund since we really didn’t get what we had paid for. Upon entering the office, we found the woman who we bought the tickets from and explained the situation to which she immediately became defensive and explained that they do not guarantee an English translation (even though we clearly had seen it advertised on the brochure) and that it was offered in three languages. It wasn’t looking like we were going to get anywhere but then, clearly exasperated, she called her boss who told her to just giver our money back so we got a full refund. Yay!! So, successfully refunded, we headed across the river to visit the port wine houses, (there are about 17 altogether with Sandeman being one that I’m guessing most people might be familiar with) where you can tour them and get free samples. Well, we hit the first one we came to which was Calem Port and for 4 euros each we got a great tour of the cellar with lots of information about how they make port wine. And, we got a generous tasting of both white and red port wine. Love the port!!! We could have easily continued on down the riverfront visiting a few more of the port houses, but we knew we had a 10 p.m. performance so we decided to play it smart and head back to the hotel to rest up a little before the show. So we headed back towards the funicular only to find out it was having maintenance done for the next two days - yikes! - so we had to walk up the 5000 or so stairs that go up the hill. Talk about a cardio burn…….anyway the performance was quite interesting - it was an American group called the Dave Levin quartet and they specialized in, how should I put it, wildly discordant music. Dave Levin plays the cello and the other guys played the trumpet, base, and bells. Can’t say I’d necessarily want to see them again, but it was still a very interesting show. And the Case de Musica…..well, it was worth it just be in such a cool performance hall!
DAY THREE
Our last full day in Porto and we decided to take the tram out to the beach on the west side of town. The trams here are much like the ones in San Francisco so it was a really fun, nostalgic way to head out along the waterfront. For our Northwest friends, the area here where the Douro River empties out into the Atlantic is much like where the Columbia River empties into the Pacific between Washington and Oregon. The area of Porto along the Atlantic side is really picturesque, with condos and beachside restaurants hugging the coast. Since it was another beautiful sunny, day we walked from where the trolly dropped us off out to the spit of land where the river meets the ocean and there is a concrete spillway you can walk out to a now defunct lighthouse. It was so cool to be out there on such a gorgeous day and watch these HUGE waves crashing over the rocks and up onto the beach! In many ways, it reminded us of walking around Alki Beach in West Seattle. So we sat on the seawall for an hour or so and enjoyed the warm sun as we looked out over the ocean.
We have certainly enjoyed our first days in Portugal and if Porto is any indication, Lisbon should be just as enjoyable! One nice thing is that prices are MUCH lower here than in Italy - maybe it’s due to the financial struggles the country is facing, but you’d think the whole place is on sale. Oh and for the absolute first time yesterday, we were looking at a map trying to get our bearings when a man actually asked us if we needed help finding our way! We have been traveling throughout Europe for a month and a half and have been on many city street corners studying maps and this was the first time anyone has ever offered to help us out. You go Portugal!!
Given that it was late in the day and we didn’t have a lot of sleep the night before, we decided to head back to the hotel early and just have a bite in the lobby for dinner. The trick was getting back up the steep hill - fortunately, the helpful guy at the front desk pointed out the funicular on the map, which goes from the top of the hill down to the river. Luckily, our metro card which we had purchased at the airport covered the funicular as well, so we just strolled down the street after lunch and were able to hop on the funicular just on the other side of the bridge and up the hill we went. Too convenient! The funicular also looks really new and clean, just like the metro streetcars and provided us a gorgeous view over the river as we went up the hill. All in all, a picture perfect ending to a long travel day!
DAY TWO
We had done some research prior to getting here and discovered a cool sounding musical performance that was happening at a place here in Porto called the Casa de Musica so we headed over there first thing in the morning to get tickets for that night. What a cool building!! It was built in 2005 and has a really futuristic look, which is right up our alley. The tickets were only 10 euro which is a great price but it wasn’t until 10 p.m. so we were going to have to pace ourselves! After getting our tickets, we headed back down to the river, where we had planned on taking a riverboat tour. The tour boats are actually old commercial boats that used to ferry barrels of port wine from the distributors on the other side of the river (more about that later) to the restaurants and stores on the other side. Again, an absolutely flawless day weather wise and the boat tour was everything we expected…..except……we were told the tour was offered in English as well as other languages but once on the boat, the recorded information was only in Portuguese, French and Spanish. When I asked the guy about the English translation, he said the disk (or whatever) was broken and it wasn’t working. Well, that was a drag because we didn’t get to hear about all the bridges and other points of interest along the river (although I did my best to translate the Spanish information for us). Long story short, we decided to go to the boat tour office to see about at least a partial refund since we really didn’t get what we had paid for. Upon entering the office, we found the woman who we bought the tickets from and explained the situation to which she immediately became defensive and explained that they do not guarantee an English translation (even though we clearly had seen it advertised on the brochure) and that it was offered in three languages. It wasn’t looking like we were going to get anywhere but then, clearly exasperated, she called her boss who told her to just giver our money back so we got a full refund. Yay!! So, successfully refunded, we headed across the river to visit the port wine houses, (there are about 17 altogether with Sandeman being one that I’m guessing most people might be familiar with) where you can tour them and get free samples. Well, we hit the first one we came to which was Calem Port and for 4 euros each we got a great tour of the cellar with lots of information about how they make port wine. And, we got a generous tasting of both white and red port wine. Love the port!!! We could have easily continued on down the riverfront visiting a few more of the port houses, but we knew we had a 10 p.m. performance so we decided to play it smart and head back to the hotel to rest up a little before the show. So we headed back towards the funicular only to find out it was having maintenance done for the next two days - yikes! - so we had to walk up the 5000 or so stairs that go up the hill. Talk about a cardio burn…….anyway the performance was quite interesting - it was an American group called the Dave Levin quartet and they specialized in, how should I put it, wildly discordant music. Dave Levin plays the cello and the other guys played the trumpet, base, and bells. Can’t say I’d necessarily want to see them again, but it was still a very interesting show. And the Case de Musica…..well, it was worth it just be in such a cool performance hall!
DAY THREE
Our last full day in Porto and we decided to take the tram out to the beach on the west side of town. The trams here are much like the ones in San Francisco so it was a really fun, nostalgic way to head out along the waterfront. For our Northwest friends, the area here where the Douro River empties out into the Atlantic is much like where the Columbia River empties into the Pacific between Washington and Oregon. The area of Porto along the Atlantic side is really picturesque, with condos and beachside restaurants hugging the coast. Since it was another beautiful sunny, day we walked from where the trolly dropped us off out to the spit of land where the river meets the ocean and there is a concrete spillway you can walk out to a now defunct lighthouse. It was so cool to be out there on such a gorgeous day and watch these HUGE waves crashing over the rocks and up onto the beach! In many ways, it reminded us of walking around Alki Beach in West Seattle. So we sat on the seawall for an hour or so and enjoyed the warm sun as we looked out over the ocean.
We have certainly enjoyed our first days in Portugal and if Porto is any indication, Lisbon should be just as enjoyable! One nice thing is that prices are MUCH lower here than in Italy - maybe it’s due to the financial struggles the country is facing, but you’d think the whole place is on sale. Oh and for the absolute first time yesterday, we were looking at a map trying to get our bearings when a man actually asked us if we needed help finding our way! We have been traveling throughout Europe for a month and a half and have been on many city street corners studying maps and this was the first time anyone has ever offered to help us out. You go Portugal!!
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