PORTUGAL 2025
Porto
This would be our last stop on Mainland Portugal.
On our way here I am getting messages from the guy that was supposed to give us a Model T tour, saying he didn't cancel, it was a misunderstanding. I just sent him a screen shot of the conversation and told him we booked with someone else.
March 12
We made a quick pit stop at The Exe Almada Porto hotel to leave our luggage before dropping our rental car off at Avis.
The Avis office in Porto, isn't in the prettiest part of the city, but it was an interesting walk back towards where our hotel was. There is a ton of construction going on in Porto, so it's a little hard not to get a picture without some crane in the photo.
Our first stop was the Jardins do Palácio de Cristal, these gardens were designed in the 1860s to surround the then Crystal Palace, which was replaced by the Rosa Mota Pavilion in the 1950s. Chickens, roosters and peacocks wander the colourful grounds.
The Capela de Carlos Alberto, the Chapel of Charles Albert is a cenotaph that, a few years after its construction, was surrounded by the Gardens of the Crystal Palace. Charles Albert wanted to unify all of Italy under his scepter, but he had to abdicate the throne, going into exile in Porto in 1849, after being defeated by the Austrians in the Battle of Novara. He died there three months later. A few years later, his half-sister ordered the construction of this cenotaph in his memory. The works lasted nearly six years.
Behind the domed Super Bock Arena is Torreão do Jardim do Palácio, which translates to "Palace Garden Lookout", it's a series of terraces that make their way down towards the river. Each level containing unique gardens, fountains, benches and/or lookouts.
When we reached the lowest level of terraces, we discovered a flaw in the design, you can't go all the way down. There is no exit to the road below, you have to climb back up the stairs and sloped walkways back to the gardens above.
This imposing building is Centro Hospitalar Universitário de Santo António constructed as a hospital in 1770 on vacant land on what was then, the outskirts of the city. Despite being housed in a building of great historical and architectural value, it is one of the most modern and well-equipped hospitals in the country, being a reference for quality in the provision of health care.
After wandering the hillsides we were ready for lunch, and I needed to try the famous sandwich of Porto... Adega Bodega had the famous sandwich. Francesinha is a Portuguese sandwich, originally from Porto. In 1953, Daniel David de Silva introduced a sandwich with local meats and a custom beer-and-tomato sauce. Today's variation is made with layers of toasted bread and assorted hot meats such as roast, steak, wet-cured ham, chicken, or linguiça (Portuguese sausage), over which sliced cheese is melted by the ladling of a near-boiling tomato-and-beer sauce called molho de francesinha.
I really enjoyed the Francesinha, but Norine was blown away by the Iced Tea Diffuser they used. So much so, that we looked in a ton of stores throughout Porto, then ordered one online so it was waiting for us on our arrival at home. While we were enjoying our lunch and iced tea on the patio, looking across the street at an old church, we were being watched the entire time by the guy at the next table.
What appears to be one large church is actually two; Igreja dos
Carmelitas (The Church of the Carmelites) began to be built in 1616 and was
completed in 1628, and the Igreja do Carmo (Church of Carmo), built
later from 1752 onwards. If you look closely, you’ll find Carmo Church (on the
right) and Carmelitas Church (on the left).
The two churches are separated by Casa Escondida ("Hidden House") of
Porto, which is just over a meter wide (Highlighted in Blue in the picture below). The
3-storey house was according to legend, built so that the two churches would not share a
common wall and to prevent any relations between the nuns of Igreja dos Carmelitas and the
monks of Igreja do Carmo. The narrow house has various bedrooms, a living room and a
kitchen.
The basement was creepy, and the views from the towers were great, as long as you didn't mind the steps.
Our next stop was the very famous and very popular bookstore Livraria Lello. Along with Bertrand in Lisbon, it is one of the oldest bookstores in Portugal and frequently rated among the top bookstores in the world.
In 1906, the Livraria Lello was inaugurated by brothers José and António Lello. This ornate bookshop in the heart of Porto has been voted one of the most beautiful bookstores in the world. However, the reason it has attained legendary status is the fact that J.K. Rowling used to visit this bookstore and it was the inspiration for Diagon Alley's premium bookstore, Flourish and Blotts.
What we didn't expect to see was massive lines, and a ticket system to go into a bookstore. I did a quick online search, and discovered there was multiple levels of tickets that could be purchased. You can stand in line and wait and buy tickets for a selected time slot. OR, you could buy a GOLD ticket online for €15, get the earliest available time slot, and the price included a book of your choice from their special library of Lello published books valued at €15... seemed like a no-brainer. We just had to wait about 20 minutes for our time slot.
When you walk in the door it's just crazy, crazy how beautiful it is, crazy how busy it is, and crazy how the Instagram girls can ruin the experience for everyone else. They stand in the middle of the stairs posing, waiting while some one takes picture after picture, then they have to check the pictures without moving out of the way so others can get a photo. I'm usually pretty patient, but it was ridiculous, the only clear shot of the stairway is through the magic of the "Magic Eraser".
The two "Free" books that we chose
Love of Perdition is the book that Camilo Castelo Branco wrote in just a fortnight (2 weeks) after his imprisonment in the Municipal Prison in front of Livraria Lello for "copulating with a married woman". It is the story of the love affair of Camilo and Ana Plácido.
The Igreja dos Clérigos (Church of the Clergymen) is a Baroque church in the city of Porto, in Portugal. Its 75-meter-tall bell tower, the Torre dos Clérigos, can be seen from various points of the city and is one of its most characteristic symbols. 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.
Once again, it's a lot of spiral steps to the top of the tower, 246 steps, but the views were sure worth it.
Back on the ground, we wander towards our hotel through some interesting neighbourhoods.
After a full day of wandering the streets, it was time to check in to our hotel room, and rest our feet for a while.
The view from our room
I asked Norine to pick where we would eat dinner tonight, and this is where we ended
up...
A fully Anime influenced place called Shifu Ramen. it was actually quite tasty.
March 13
Today was our Vintage Portuguese jeep tour of Porto Alvaro. Our driver and guide Alvaro kept calling Norine Loreen, said her name is easy to remember cause it’s like Delorean, Norine didn’t have the heart to correct him. The tour started with a lesson in 35 year old Portuguese Jeeps. Apparently a 1990 UMM (União Metalo-Mecânica) 4X4 is vintage in Portugal.
We do a quick drive by the 2 churches with the house in between to give us a little more information on it.
The Antiga Cadeia da Relação (Court and Prison) started in 1765 and completed in 1796. The Porto Prison and Court of Appeal now houses all the services of the Portuguese Photography Center and exhibition. The embracing couple in the statue in front of the building is Camilo Castelo Branco and Ana Plácido who were imprisoned here in 1860, both accused of the crime of adultery. These were the couple from the book "Love of Perdition" that Norine chose from the Livraria Lello.
We learned about Portugal's influence on J.K. Rowling in her visits there, from the Livraria Lello to these mutated trees that inspired the whomping willows in Harry Potter.
Our first main stop is Sé Catedral do Porto, for views over the city and of the Cathedral.
Sé Catedral do Porto, (Porto Cathedral), like the first band of city walls, was born in the 12th century. The building reached its present dimensions in the 13th century, and the following century the cloister was added on.
Looking over the Douro River
The next stop was a bit of a surprise, São Bento railway station.The tile work is amazing for an urban train station.
Estação ferroviária de São Bento (São Bento railway station is a 20th-century railway terminal. This building was constructed over a number of years, starting in 1904. The large panels of around twenty thousand azulejo tiles were designed and painted by Jorge Colaço. The murals represent moments in the country's history and the multicolored panels depict rural scenes showing the people of various regions. São Bento is the main terminus of Porto's suburban railways lines and western terminus for the scenic Douro line.
After a tiled interior, next up was the tiled exterior of the Igreja de Santo Ildefonso
The Igreja de Santo Ildefonso is an eighteenth-century church located near Batalha Square. Completed in 1739, the church was built in a proto-Baroque style and features a façade of 1932 azulejo tilework.
Apparently it was very important to drive past the most beautiful McDonalds in Europe.
We were given some time to explore the Mercado do Bolhão.
The origins of the Bolhão Market, one of the city's most emblematic buildings, dates back to 1839. The Bolhão Market building has now been completely renovated. It was rebuilt over a period of more than 4 years and was reopened to the public in 2022.
Aside from an ornament for the Infamous Travel Tree, we bought some cheese chips, basically fried Portuguese cheese in a tortilla style. They were very tasty, and I'm sure much healthier than regular chips.
From the city of Porto, we crossed the Douro river using the Dom Luis I Bridge to Vila Nova de Gaia, or simply Gaia. Like Buda and Pest, one side of the river is Porto, and the other side is Gaia. The territory of Vila Nova de Gaia has been inhabited since at least 100,000 years ago, as evidenced by Middle Paleolithic archaeological findings.
The history of the Dom Luis I Bridge can be traced back to the late 19th century. It was designed by a talented student who learned under the renowned Gustave Eiffel (Eiffel Tower). The construction of the bridge began in 1881 and was completed in 1886, making it a testament to the engineering prowess of that era. The bridge was named after King Dom Luís I, who ruled Portugal from 1861 to 1889. The bridge features a double-decked iron structure, the upper deck caters to pedestrians and the city trams, offering them a point to admire the surrounding views. The lower deck accommodates limited vehicular traffic, such as taxis and buses.
Mosteiro da Serra do Pilar is a convent built in the 16th century. The church is characterised by a circular shape, a replica of the Church of Santa Maria Redonda in Rome, and is covered by a hemispheric vault with a narrow balcony running its full extent. It took 72 year to complete due to the lack of funding and the political turmoil of those times – with the kingdom of Portugal having fallen to neighbouring Spain. In 1832, during the Siege of Oporto, its military value was made use of with the convent swiftly turned into an improvised fort. At the beginning of the 20th century, the monastery was used for military barracks and remains under the tutelage of the Serra do Pilar Artillery Regiment. It was closed.
The next stop is why most people go to Porto, a chance to sample the Port Wine of the region. We had no idea that the was so many types of Port; red, white, rose, ruby, tawny, pink, special reserve, 10, 20, 30 and 40 year vintage.The Winery that we are taken to is Porto Cruz, a well-known brand of Port wine, that was established in Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal, in 1887.
I'm not a huge fan of wines, but they weren't bad, I was surprised to discover that Tawny was my favourite, and not surprised to discover that Norine would go back in and buy a couple bottles to take home with us.
After a little time to check the waterfront area, it was back over the bridge to the Porto side using the lower deck, Alvaro says “if I get stopped, say you need to go to hospital”, apparently the lower deck is supposed to be for public transit only now.
From the Porto side, we drove along the Douro river past the Ponte da Arrábida. At the time of its construction in 1963, the bridge had the largest reinforced concrete arch of any bridge in the world. Our furthest destination is Foz do Douro, meaning "Mouth of the Douro". It is located in the western part of Porto, next to the mouth of the Douro river and the Atlantic Ocean.
Forte de São João Baptista da Foz was commissioned in 1567, one year after an attack by French pirates on Madeira. It stands in a dominant position at the mouth of the Douro river, overseeing the access to the city of Porto via the river.
From the Atlantic Ocean, we head back past all the trolley cars and in to the center of Porto to be dropped off.
Alvaro dropped us near the Church of Saint Francis and Palácio da Bolsa, but our first stop was the Pregar restaurant that he recommended for a traditional Prego sandwich. They make good sandwiches in Portugal.
The Igreja de São Francisco (Church of Saint Francis) aka The Gold Church, began construction with the convent and a first, small church dedicated to Saint Francis of Assisi around 1244. In 1383, under the patronage of King Ferdinand I, the Franciscans began to build a more spacious church. This new structure was finished around 1425. During the 15th and 16th centuries, prominent Porto families chose the Franciscan to do Manueline gothic upgrades. The main artistic campaign of the church was carried out in the first half of the 18th century, when most of the surfaces of the interior of the church, including walls, pillars, side chapels and roof, were covered with Portuguese gilt wood work (talha dourada) in Baroque style.
The Museum of São Francisco is housed in the former Casa do Despacho, designed in 1746. The house has three floors and an underground floor, the Catacomb Cemetery. The ceilings of all the upper floors are remarkable works. The interiors of this building are reminiscent of the interiors of Lisbon during the reign of the Joanine dynasty , which disappeared during the earthquake of 1755.
The Catacomb cemetery of the Order, unique in the city, was built in 1746 by master stonemasons, to serve as a burial place for the brothers in the Order. It continued to serve as a place of internment until 1866.
They really had a thing for old bones in Portugal.
A very short walk from São Francisco was the Palácio da Bolsa. Unliike all the other buildings in Porto, you had to book a guided tour, luckily for us an English tour was starting in 5 minutes.
The Palácio da Bolsa, or Palace of the Commercial Association of Porto, began to be built in October 1842, due to the closure of the Casa da Bolsa do Comércio, which temporarily forced Porto merchants to discuss their business on Rua dos Ingleses, in the open air. The Palácio da Bolsa was constructed to impress European business people with its extravagant decor and encourage them to invest in Portugal. Each of the rooms on the upper floors are different with floors and details made from the finest woods such as mahogany, rosewood, satinwood, rosewood and maple.
The trouble with guided tours is you are usually in a big group making it very hard to take pictures without 20 people in them. I was always the last to leave a room as we moved along, maybe I missed some of the corny intros to each room. The highlight was definitely the Arab room inspired by the Alhambra Palace in Grenada, Spain.
Having seen everything we could in a day, it was time to walk back past City Hall to our room and rest our feet again.
Some really unique stores along the way, and we stopped for a bit to watch a painter after he had completed a Volodymyr Zelensky and Pope Francis painting.
Although it looks much older, the construction of the Porto City Hall started in 1920, following the approval of the plan for the Aliados Avenue and square. It was completed in 1955 after many interruptions and alterations and is now one of the symbols of the city.
We had dinner at Han Table Barbecue tonight. It's good that you don't have to tip in Portugal, because they just brought a bunch of meat and seafood, and we did all the work cooking it at a grill in the middle of our table.
March 14
Our last full day in Porto, and it was a nice one! A good day to wander around and explore, or re-explore areas we had seen on our fast paced tour the day before. Our plan was to head to the river, but we would make a few stops along the way.
The Capela das Almas (Chapel of Souls) also known as the Chapel of Santa Catarina, is a chapel particularly noted for the blue azulejo tiles on its exterior walls. The construction of the present building began at the end of the 18th century, The chapel's covering currently consists of 15,947 azulejo tiles that cover around 360 square metres of wall. The tiles were made by the Fábrica de Cerâmica Viúva Lamego, in Lisbon. They represent the lives of Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Catherine.
Igreja de Santo António dos Congregados was built in 1703 on a site where there was a chapel dedicated to Saint Anthony, dating from 1662, which was destroyed a few years earlier. The Baroque façade features a niche with a statue of St. Anthony. The exterior tiles and the interior wall paintings depict scenes from St. Anthony’s life.
Having seen enough churches for one morning, we made our way downhill to the Douro River.
For 20€ you can do a 6 bridges river cruise, it takes about an hour, and travels East up the river to the Ponte do Freixo bridge, and then back West and passes under 5 more bridges towards the Atlantic Ocean. We chose the more authentic looking Port Boat.
The garden terraces we were on a few days earlier
This may be the church with the longest name in Portugal... Church of the Confraternity of the Souls of the Holy Body of Massarelos.
Back on solid ground, we decided to walk over to Gaia again. As we are walking across the Luis bridge, we see a lady walking too close to the road and she gets nailed by a car mirror, the guy in a BMW SUV doesn't even slows down and drives away.
There's a mix of everything here, from tiled churches, to beautiful art made out of garbage, and some dilapidated houses.
Igreja Paroquial de Santa Marinha was built in the 16th century, on top of a medieval chapel. I didn't get much history on this one.
A trip to Porto wouldn't be complete if you didn't see some Port barrels stored in a cellar.
Crossing back over to Porto, nobody got hit by a tram, but it could easily happen.
Another full day of walking, and another night of sore feet. The excitement of the day was when Capital 1 decided to lock out my card for fraud when I was trying to buy Baseball tickets for a future trip. Apparently baseball tickets being purchased kin America, after a bunch of Portugal purchases looks suspicious. I had to talk through a long list of purchases with their 1-800 helpline so they would unlock my Credit Card again. I had to keep reminding them, I am calling from Portugal, can you please speed this up?
We decided to grab dinner at the nearby Hard Rock Cafe as it was convenient. When we arrive, we get the story of how they are really busy, and quite full, it could be a long wait. Jokingly I said, "If it helps, we aren't American", the girl asks where we are from, and tells us how she applied to UBC, we are laughing and having a great conversation. Within 5 minutes we have a nice table. After a large portioned American style meal, I was able to pay for it with my recently rescued Credit Card.
Stomachs full, it's a short walk back to the hotel and it's time to pack up and get ready to leave the mainland of Portugal.