Oporto and Lisboa

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Oporto and Lisboa - Portugal 

Porto City Hall

Day 1 - April 19-20

Back when I worked at Zeitecs I had a coworker who used to visit Porto, Portugal quite often and it seemed like a favorite place of his so it made it on our list of places that we should visit. With Rebe’s parents being the cruise addicts that they are, they convinced us to do a European cruise and Rebe and I thought we would tack on an extra week to see Porto and Lisbon. 

Porto is not an easy place to get to from Houston, well easier if you want to spend a little more money but we cheaped out and took the two stop route through Dallas and Madrid.  No real issues with the travel and we finally arrived in Porto at 440 in the afternoon.  Rebe had found a small hotel in the heart of the city and when we got to the room Rebe’s parents were already waiting on us.  

We sat around catching up for a few before going on a stroll over to the “most beautiful library in the world,” Liberia Lille.  It now just a bookstore that charges 8 euro to enter, it probably used to be free but so many people want to see this place I think they got wise to the fact that they could charge people and the crowds would still be the same. If you buy a book, they will give you an 8 euro discount. 

From there it was dinner time, Rebe’s parents decided to stop at a local pastry shop for something small and Rebe I ventured out to find some traditional Portuguese faire in that of a francesinha.  A francesinha is a Portuguese sandwich, originally from Porto, made with layers of toasted bread and assorted hot meats such as roast, steak, wet-cured ham, linguiça, or chipolata over which sliced cheese is melted by the ladling of a near-boiling tomato-and-beer sauce called molho de francesinha, we also had a meat, mushroom patty which was excellent.   The place we picked, Brasão Aliados, was packed when we arrived, we also scoped out a few other places that we wanted to try in Porto before leaving and thus making reservations for tomorrow night. We put our names down at Brasão and went to kill time in the main square in front of the town hall before finally sitting down to eat at 840.

Francesinha

Mushroom Truffle patty

Day 2 April 21

First full day, nothing really pressing planned but more of a day to see the city and see what areas we’d like of visit again.  This is a strategy that we have used in a few places and it seems to work out but also relieves some stress on seeing everything and for the first day (where I was literally nodding off on the bus) it helps to just take it easy. 

Our hotel provided breakfast so we headed down at 830 cause of course we would be up early given the jet lag.  The plan for the day was to catch a hop-on/hop-off bus.  The bus we picked took us from the city center out to the outskirts and over to the oceanfront, where we saw a forts/castles/churches that might be worth a second visit.  The coast line itself and the sidewalks along it could be worth a bike ride, we’ll see if we have time to fit a return visit into the day.

Since we shelved looking at other sights for the day we actually decided to catch a 2nd bus with our hop-on/hop-off operator which included a beer stop while waiting for the 2nd bus. The 2nd bus took us across the river over to the area that has a few wineries or more specifically Port providers.  I have always been a fan of good port, sadly the swill the let you try for free with our tour was sub par at best. The tour operator had two locations that were open today where we could try some red, white or rosé port.  The rosé port was more like an actual rosé and would have been good to just sip while people watching by the river. 

Image from the Gaia side

A few of the ports we tasted

We then walked ourselves back across the pedestrian bridge to the original side of the river with the plans of catching the boat tour to see Porto’s six bridges, unfortunately we JUST missed the 4pm tour and had to wait 30 minutes for the next one.  The boat tour was a nice easy boat ride down the Douro river, it was such a lovely day, no clouds light wind and nothing but sun. 

Our next stop was to be the hotel room but we got distracted by the São Francisco Church and if it was worth a visit, so we headed inside and it was definitely something worth seeing.  Sadly, they request no photography inside but the group of Eastern Europeans were clicking away.  The church is an exquisite example of baroque wood carving and gilding, I mean the entire church was gold inside.  I don’t know what was real but the amount of hand carving in that church has to be the most I’ve seen in a church. 

We caught our hop-on/hop-off back to our hotel to have a break before our 730 dinner at ENCAIXADOS.  We found this place yesterday and we had such high hopes and given the high reviews we expected it to be amazing and it was ‘alright.’  Rebe’s parents loved it though, so maybe it was order dependent.  Last stop for the night was at Manteigaria for pastel de Nata and this wasn’t the first visit and Rebe’s parents stopped by yesterday and these things are just dessert gold. 

Day 3 April 22

Jet lag has fully set in and the usual peppy me did not want to get up for the 9am breakfast, I was struggling during the latter part of the day yesterday but I think I had gotten enough sleep so up I went. Breakfast again was downstairs at the hotel and it was another nice and tidy breakfast of bread, meat, cheese and fruit. 

We started the day off again with the hop-on/hop-off bus but more as a method of transport to get us back across the river over to Gaia, the village on the other side of the river from Porto.  The same company that we visited yesterday has an even larger winery house further from the river, and at 12:15 they were doing a port tasting.  During the tour they explained the process of port making and where exactly they get the grapes, most of which come from the Douro Valley.  Though you can get a 30-40 year old port, it most likely will not be a true forty year old and will be more of a blend of years to achieve that 30-40 year old taste.

Real Companhia Velha grounds

Barrels storing port

5 ports I tried at the tasting

Tony trying to make me look bad with all the glasses

After the tour we headed back into town to see the Porto Cathedral, climbed up to the top of the tower and to see the main naive.  A very nice church (not the most elegant in town) and worth the 3Euro entry. 

Porto Catheral

View from the top

Altar of the cathedral 

We then detoured over to the train station, to see the most beautiful train station in Europe and while it might be nice I’d say Cologne is still my favorite since it is dwarfed by the giant cathedral outside. 

Train station interior

We now had an hour to kill before our food tour started so we found a small shop to have a beer (Tony’s choice) before our food tour started at the Bolhão Market.  This is a massive market selling everything you could desire while in Porto.  Meat, yes, cheese, yes, coffee, yes, candy, yes, wine, yes, bread, yes, olive oil, yes.  I mean what else would you really need? The tour started with a glass of wine (green wine) and a cheese pairing, a then we went back to the same wine stand for a 2nd glass (this time red) with some sliced ham (think iberico).  

Then there was a cake that was to be had with coffee and then some fresh fruit local to Portugal. We finally left the market and headed over to a place that had been in service since 1852, Flor dos Congregados. We had a pork sandwich on a roll from the market, great stuff.  Though I will say the Europeans really have an aversion to “sauce” on sandwiches, maybe it’s just the American in me but damn can we get some mayo or aioli or something?!  The sandwich was served with a sparkling red wine. 

Last stop was at Popina, where we had some Naughty Rice and a fried cod fritter, it probably had a better name but I definitely forgot it but it was a good way to finish the night, along with the white wine that was served. 

With dinner complete we finished our night with an open top bus ride around the city before walking home. 

Day 4 - April 23rd

Have we had enough wine yet?  According to the Portuguese we’re normal and probably should have a few more.  Our hotel provided us with a bag breakfast to carry with us since we had to catch the wine tour at 810am.  That’s right, a wine tour to the famous and beautiful Douro Valley, the valley where all the port come from.  It’s over the mountain from Porto and gets less rain the the coastal side but it was amazingly stunning and covered (I MEAN COVERED) in wine vines and olive trees. 

The first stop on the tour was the town Amarante, a small stop for everyone to stretch their legs and use the restroom.  While we were there there was a nice church to visit and a bridge where Napoleon was stymied, bulletholes galore were in the bridge and even a few in the church.  

View of Amarante from across the river

About an hour later we were at the Croft Port Winery, they gave us a tour of the vineyard of where the vines were and the area where they still go old school and stomp the grapes by foot.  Every year they round up the workers and whoever is willing and let them stomp for 2 hours at a time, then group two goes for a round on the same grapes.  The do have machines that they use on some of the other wines, but not the port. After the showing we were ushered into the tasting room and explained the 3 ports we were would be given and then they left us to our own to enjoy the port. 

Ports tasted at Croft Winery

Us at the vineyards

The next stop was a boat cruise up the Douro River, it was nice relaxing cruise up the river and it was amazing to see the hillsides just covered in terraces and vineyards.  Think Napa but even hillier. 

View while on the Douro River

Finally 230pm had come around and it was lunch time and we were taken to another smaller boat operator but instead of their boat operation we were being served a meal cooked old school in their kitchen.   It was a meal consisting to black-eyed peas and tuna, mashed potatoes with sausage, tomatoes and cheese, olives and bread with olive oil. After all that was served we were each given a plate of veal, pork and pork ribs and of course each course (and pre-course) was served with a glass of wine. Dessert was served with a glass of port and while we were enjoying the port the host came out with a special Reserve bottle of port from 2018 (which apparently was the most recent year that was amazing).   He then proceeded to give us a special demonstration of how old vintage bottles are opened without ruining the wine with a potentially bad cork.  Now of course the cork from 2018 was fine and he was dong this just for demonstration it was fun to see how it is performed. 

Of course we then all had a glass of the reserve and it really was better than most of the ports we had been experiencing.

The bus then took us back into Porto, and with daylight still abundant we walked back to the market where we started the food tour yesterday to buy some olive oil and then found some snacks for sunset.  Mr. Tony had already bailed on us after the tour and after the market Mrs. Lilian bailed on us too.  

Rebe and I walked across the river to catch the sunset from the Gaia side overlooking Porto. While eating the snack that we had picked up at the market at the beautiful spot, I noticed the seagulls were very active in the area and I said to Rebecca “One of these seagulls is gonna try to get one of our sandwiches” and me being the dumbass I was got lazy and forgot the about the seagulls and no longer than 3 minutes later a seagull swooped down and knocked my sandwich out of my hand and 6 of his buddies jumped my sandwich and POOF it was gone. I predicted it would happen… maybe I manifested it.  

Porto after sunset

Day 5 - April 24th

Once again the hotel had packed us a breakfast since we were to leave early, but we actually didn’t end up leaving as early as we originally planned but instead left the hotel at 9am.  Destination: Lisbon. But before we get to Lisbon we planned a few stops along the way, these places would be places that people who only visit Lisbon would take day trips to visit and since we were on our way past both of them it made since to stop by and visit on our way down from Porto. 

After traveling south for about an hour and a half we reached the town of Fatima, famous for it history of apparitional visits from Mary in 1917.  The story goes that the “Lady of Fatima” showed herself to three young children under a tree and gave them a message and that she would return again.  The “lady” appeared in Fatima 6 times in total. After the visits, the town built a chapel, then a church, then an EVEN larger church in her honor.  The pope has visited this town 4 times (or Portugal, I’m not a resident expert) and in 2017 he performed a mass in celebration of the miracle, maybe miracle is the wrong word but it’s all I got. 

Fatima Plaza where the Popes have spoken

The original tree

We then drove over to Óbidos, a small city famous for being a city surrounded by walls. Here we had lunch and explored the old churches and buildings within the walls. 

Wall of Óbidos

View from inside the city

From there we headed down into Lisbon where our driver was skeptical that he could actually get us to a location that was close to our hotel and park legally, but we lucked out and found a space literally in front of the hotel.  He didn’t think it was going to work out, and seeing how traffic was so bad and the streets were so tight I thought we were going to have roll out of the car and he was going to do a lap chucking suitcases at us.  Either way, it worked out perfectly.

We chilled in the hotel room for an hour or so before heading to see the Santa Justa Elevator.  It’s 6Euro to ride to the top of the elevator but apparently you can just take the ‘stairs’ to the top.  We looked for these so called stairs but they apparently don’t really exist and after extensive research I found that you can walk around the block and up a giant hill (10 minutes worth of walking) and then you can find the viewing platform.  Maybe if we have time tomorrow we’ll do some exploring. 

Santa Justa Elevator

We then walked towards the waterfront to see the Rua Augusta Arch, just a giant arch at the end of the street but we then found a large concert being setup for the Freedom Day celebration which is tomorrow.  April 25, 1974 is the day that Portugal ended their dictatorship and tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of that day.  We imagine tomorrow will be like our Fourth of July, but probably a little more crazy.  Hopefully not too crazy cause we want to actually see the city. 

Rebe and I snuck off to dinner and decided to come back and join Lilian and Tony at the concert but by then the plaza was packed to the brim with people and we could not even see the seats of the concert. We couldn’t even hear the words being spoken from the speakers so we headed back to the room to prepare for tomorrow. 

Day 6 April 25

Today is Liberty Day in Portugal, and what we learned from our experience in Porto was that the big buses in these old cities obviously can’t get you into the areas that you really want to get to.  And just like Porto, Lisbon has tuk-tuks that can get you into the smaller steeper streets.  To make it even better, the tuk-tuks in Lisbon (well most of them) are actually electric so unlike some Asian countries where the tuk-tuks are two-stroke pollution machines you won’t be dying from engine fumes all day. 

Us on the Tuktuk with Carnations to celebrate the holiday

Our Polish tour guide Anya was our driver for the day and took us to all the sights.  So many I’m probably going to have a hard time naming all of them and in order.  But I’ll try: 

⁃ St. Georges Castle (didn’t go in)

⁃ Catherdral of Lisbon (didn’t go in)

⁃ Church of St. Antonio

⁃ Some random Roman ruins along the side of road

⁃ Lookout at Santa Luzia

⁃ São Vicente de Fora

⁃ Miradouro da Senhora do Monte

⁃ Miradouro das Portas do Sol

⁃ Alfama neighborhood (home of Fado)

⁃ Praça do Comércio

St. Georges Castle (guide said there wasn't much to see)

Lookout at Portal of the Sun

Lookout at Lady of the Mount

Altar at Church of Saint Vincent

Interior Courtyard of Saint Vincent

Fado neighborhood

Praça do Comércio 

We spent the most time touring the monastery at São Vincente, it was mostly a historical tour of the church (self guided) but it was a really nice way to spend some time in a religious institution without just staring at church walls. There was a bit of Portuguese history splashed in there too.  And to top it off, the tour route spits you out on the roof of the church so you finish with 360degree views of the city. 

A few more over looks and then we did a quick walking tour of the Alfama neighborhood, this is the home of Fado, a specific Portuguese style of music and singing. And then we ended up back at the Praça do Comércio where the concert was the night before.

It was only a little after 2pm after the tour so we hopped a bus to head over to the Belém Tower, it is an old fort that was created back around 1519. 

Belém Tower

We had a snack at a local tourist joint nearby, hey we were hungry and it was close by. We then waited almost thirty minutes for the bus but it never arrived, we think this was because of the holiday, so we grabbed an Uber and went back to the room for dinner. 

Dinner was next door at Figus and then Rebe and I grabbed some dessert at Santorini. 

Day 7 April 26

Last night we prepared for our early morning that we had today by stopping at a pastry shop to grab a few sandwiches to be our breakfast this morning. We were to meet our ride to Sintra up at 745am and start our drive across Portugal over to Sintra. Sintra seems to be the forested area away from the city where all the rich people (and royalty) built their summer houses, it is a little higher in elevation so typically cooler than Libson down by the river. 

First stop was the Pena Palace, if you’ve ever seen a uniquely shaped and uniquely colored castle from Portugal then you’ve definitely seen Pena. The Sintra area is super hilly so, just walking up to the palace is a climb, luckily they do have a mini-bus that you can take to the top if needed. Like all palaces, well not all, it was very ornate in its detail and very interesting.  The building was a former monastery and then more was added to turn it into a palace. The palace sits at the highest point, I believe, in Sintra and it has nice views over the area and back to Lisbon. 

Pena Palace

Interior Ceiling

Us at Pena

Second stop was to Initiation Well and the Palace of Regaleira, our tour guide was dropping some Illuminati type stories on us in regards to this Initiation Well so I don’t know what to believe but either way the line to see the well was over an hour long.  I didn’t think the line would be that long but the tour guide had warned us it would be and he wasn’t lying.  It was like visiting Disney as the line just kept going and going, but luckily for us our tour friends were fast walkers and saved us a spot in line. So we chatted with our tour mates until we made it to the well.  Was it worth an hour?  I’d say yes, it was definitely one of the most unique things I’ve seen, and I’m completely shocked as to WHY someone would construct such a thing. 

The well from above

Well from below

Rebe’s parents didn’t make the journey down the well with us, but they did hang out in area waiting for us.  After a little hunting session we did find them and headed down to the Chapel and the Palace of Regaleira.  If you are in a rush you could skip the palace and chapel to save 15-20 minutes. 

Palace at Regaleira

As we got done with Regaleira we headed into the small village to catch a bite to eat at Meia Pipa Sintra, we were recommended the place next door but it was small and didn’t have room for us.  Turns out the Meia Pipa Sintra serves an excellent fish sandwich and wrap.  They were very accommodating to us while it was raining. 

Third stop was Monserrate, no not the Spanish Monastery but an Englishman’s house in Sintra.  This place as brimming with intricate details but was actually kind of small in regards to the bedrooms.  The lower floor was amazing and the upper floor was meh.  The grounds surrounding the place were simply amazing. 

Monserrate (side view)

Interior main hall

Grounds

After Monserrate we headed back to Lisbon, Rebe and I made a quick detour over to the Santa Justa elevator, this time taking the back stairs to get up the viewpoint. Good view and it allows you to see over the lower area of town. 

Day 8 April 27

Day 8 was the day that the cruise was to leave Lisbon, we were feeling lazy and since this is actually a vacation we decided to sleep in and just relax before heading to the boat.  We did not get up until 11am and when we did we decided to do a little shopping (souvenirs) before actually packing up and heading to the pier. Rebe’s parents were more excited than us and knowing that an uber was not going to be able to hold all our luggage they went ahead to the boat without us. We finally checked out at noon, waited for our uber in the square and then made it to the boat. 

Lisbon's Golden Gate and Jesus

Boats in the bay with Lisbon in the backgroud

As usual when you arrive to the boat, especially if you arrive early your room tends to not be ready as the boat arrived with people and ALL the rooms on the boat need to be cleaned.  With time to kill Rebe and I headed upstairs to the buffet to grab some lunch and relax and afterwards we headed down to the whiskey bar for some quiet time and wait for her sister and husband to arrive to the boat.  Rebe’s sister actually flew in this same morning and took a quick tour of Lisbon before getting on the boat. We had dinner together and didn’t do much else that night.