Couple of Days in Porto (Oporto)

March 5

We got to Porto about 2pm yesterday and settled into our beautiful flat. It’s large (at least by European standards) and is very nicely decorated. It’s just north of the city center so it’s only about a 20-minute walk to the main Se (Cathedral) Square.

Once we got settled, we headed out to get a late lunch. Just about everything in Portugal is closed on Sunday so we had a hard time finding a restaurant but eventually found one that was serving all day brunch. It was more than we usually spend (22.5 euro each) for a meal but there wasn’t much else open. The brunch was nice, but Lynn wasn’t wild about the Eggs Benedict, which is usually one of her “let’s splurge for brunch” favorites. The eggs weren’t quite poached enough, and the sauce was cold. And then there was some type of green leafy thing all over it. It wasn’t lettuce and it didn’t have much flavor so not sure what it was. She ate it but this will go one her “don’t eat away from home” list. The best part of the brunch was the sparkling wine “punch” they served. The wine was mixed with a fruit puree of some sort, a splash of 7 up and some other secret ingredients the bartender wouldn’t share. It was quite delicious. Lynn’s going to experiment with it when she gets home.

In spite of cloudy but dry weather on the drive, as soon as we hit Porto it started to rain. While we were at lunch it stopped, and the sun actually came out for a little while. We took advantage of the nicer weather to walk the pedestrian street that had shops that were open. We didn’t go into any of them, but we enjoyed the walk. We had a 3-hour drive, so it was good to stretch our legs a bit especially after a big brunch.

Enough though Porto is in the hills, the streets aren’t as steep as Lisbon. So that was a nice change. The houses are painted different colors and are really quite pretty.

In the evening Lynn was busy uploading pictures to the blog while Peter watched a bit of TV. We’ve got cable with a ton of American stations. Unlike Costa Rica and Italy, the shows are in English with Portuguese subtitles so he’s enjoying quite a bit of TV. But by about 8pm we were both falling asleep, so we played a few rousing rounds of Rummikub. We have a travel size and Lynn taught Peter how to play the other day. She let him win a couple of times to build his confidence but from now on she’ll show him no mercy. It’s a fun game and helps pass time in the evening as we don’t go out much at night. After walking a ton of steps (today it was over 18000 which is 8 miles) we’re too tired to do anything at night. In addition to Rummikub we have a deck of cards and a travel size Yahtzee game. Are we just the life of the party!!

This morning it was raining again. Even the locals are getting tired of the constant rain. We’ve been told many times that it is very unusual to have this many days in a row of such bad weather. But, as we keep saying, there’s nothing we can do about the weather, so we just keep moving forward. We did get out of it a little by stopping at the central market. It wasn’t very big, but it was under cover so it worth a look-see. The market had the usual things – flowers, fruits, veggies, and meat but it also sold souvenirs, cork products (very big in Portugal) and, of course, port wine. Porto is where port originates and is sold just about everywhere. We bought several small sample bottles so we could taste several different kinds. The oddest store, though, sold live chickens or maybe they were small turkeys; we’re not exactly sure. Lynn felt a little bad knowing that they were sitting there just waiting to get executed for someone’s dinner. Ew…

Once the rain stopped, we continued our walk to the Cathedral Square. The Se was built in the 12th century and is one of Porto’s oldest monuments. While Romanesque in style it has Baroque touches that were added in the 16th century.

The Cathedral was quite pretty but very dark, so the pictures didn’t come out too well. This the 5th church we’ve seen in the last 3 days and they’re starting to blur. And we’ve only been here a week. Not sure if we’ll remember any of them after 3 months.

After the Cathedral we walked through the oldest neighborhood in Porto on our way to the river. There were lots of very colorful homes and the streets were steep and narrow. Luckily, we were walking downhill but we still had to be very careful. The hill was steep, and the cobblestones were very wet, so it was slow going. But we weren’t in a hurry and safety was more important than speed, especially after we saw a young woman fall on the wet pavement.

Once we got to the river, we had planned to tour the Palace but when we got there neither one of us was much in the mood. The cool, damp weather (not to mention the hills) is taking a toll on our arthritic joints. So, the thought of taking an hour-long tour around another palace wasn’t very appealing. Instead, we hopped on a tram which we thought would take us in a tourist circle around the city. But it was only a one-way ride to the far west of the city. It turned out for the best, though, as we saw where the Douro River meets the Atlantic, which we probably wouldn’t have seen if the driver hadn’t thrown us off the tram at the end of the line. The sea was incredibly rough, and the water wasn’t the least bit inviting. It’s hard to believe that just 3 weeks ago we were swimming in the bath water warm Pacific Ocean.

We took the city bus back to town center. Just as we found a place to eat by the river the sun came out and the air felt quite mild, so we decided to eat outside. Well, the nice weather didn’t last long and before we got our food the clouds rolled in and we moved into the restaurant.

We got in just in time as within 2-3 minutes it was raining. It was still raining pretty hard when we left the restaurant so by the time we walked across the river and got the the Calem Port Cellar for an afternoon tour/tasting we were pretty wet.

There are 5 or 6 major Port Wine Cellars in Porto. We went to Calem because it was the first one, we came to, and it got us out of the rain. They had a nice museum that explained the process of making Port (they actually crush the grapes the old-fashioned way….by stepping on them) which we visited before the tour. The tour was quite interesting, and the guide was very knowledgeable about the process. Some of the oak barrels are huge, holding up to 60,000 liters (almost 16,000 gallons) of wine. There were some smaller ones as well which were aging the 50–60-year-old port. They actually still have several bottles that are over 100 years old. They only sell those to private collectors, but we could have bought a bottle from 1961 that sold for 175 euros…. we didn’t.

Did you know that port is made by blending Portuguese brandy with the grapes? Neither did we. The tour was very informative but, of course, the highlight was the tasting. We upgraded to the premium tasting which gave us three different wines instead of only two. Lynn enjoyed the wine more than Peter as he prefers dry wine while Lynn likes sweet. Even the dry white was too sweet for him. Her favorite, though, was the ruby red (middle glass in the picture). It was sweet but not overwhelmingly so and was quite smooth.

After buying a bottle of the wine, we headed back out into the sunshine and across the river. Our destination was the central train station and the Clerigos Church and Tower. It only took about twenty minutes but most of it was uphill. The train station is fairly small, but the walls were covered with beautiful tile work. Then it was over to the church and tower.  The Clerigos Tower is one of the most iconic landmarks in Porto and the church, while small, was very pretty.

Since it was after 5pm it was time to head home. It only took about 30 minutes but a lot of it was uphill so by the time we got to the flat we were exhausted. Tomorrow will be a little easier as we leave Porto and head to northwestern Spain. We may stop in a couple of places along the way, but we won’t have too much walking.

Have a great night everyone and we’ll post again soon.