We had started our Portugal journey from Porto but I had written about Lisbon first. Porto is city considered to be home of port wine and is famous for its food and bakeries. It is the second largest city after Lisbon and is very popular tourist destination. Our apartment was on the most famous street of the city- Rua Saint Catarina. From the apartment, we just had to walk down the sloping pedestrian street to get to the vibrant shopping street. It was a great location and we could get into the thick of things soon after arriving from Frankfurt. It had been a 3 hour flight. We had flown to Frankfurt on Air Vistara the previous evening and spent the night at the Sheraton which was attached to the terminal 1 of the Airport. Vistara landed at terminal 2 and a shuttle bus dropped us to the terminal 1. It also gave us time to find the way to rail station platform where around 10 days later we would catch the IC train to Freiburg. This adventurism did us a lot of good and when we came back from Portugal, we managed to catch the last train as we had prior information about the train station and the platform we needed to go to. The convenience of having the rail station, hotel and the airport under one roof was extremely helpful, More about that later.

Rua Santa Catarina

The shops and cafes started as soon as we started walking from our apartment on the cobblestoned street. It was early evening on a Sunday so there was a relaxed kind of atmosphere. We were hungry as we hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast so the first stop was Fabrica de Nata . We stopped here for a bite as the place was buzzing with people and there was a queue for those Bacon & cheese sandwiches and Pasties. Pastel de Nata( pastéis ) is the famous dessert of Portugal and they are most famous at the Fabrica de Nata. It is like a national dish of which every Portugese is very proud.

I didn’t care much for it on the first day but soon started enjoying them and since coming back do crave for it at times. A little further you can’t miss the famous ‘Majestic Cafe’ which is now a must visit cafe for tourists.

It has a cozy look of the old time cafes with a limited menu. If you continue walking in the same direction, you’ll see a charming chapel called Chapel of Souls. A little further just off the Santa Catarina is another lovely church known as ‘Santo Ildefonso.’

The chapel of souls dates back to the eighteenth century and is completely covered in the typical blue Portuguese tiles. We have seen this kind of architecture and design in Goa which was ruled by Portugal for a long period.

Then on the Santa Catarina there are a lot of boutique shops and a shopping mall which had all the famous branded shops. We went down to the end of the street and now having familiarized ourselves with the new town, turned back for a long uphill walk back. All of us felt lazy but relaxed. We had a 2 BR apartment which we were sharing with my cousin Kunaal and his wife Jyoti. We normally travel together during the summer break and have visited more than 40 countries and hundreds of cities together .Our apartment had a nice living room so after a short snooze and freshening up we had drinks in the apartment itself. When we got down for dinner – it seemed that the town had totally shut down. This was not surprising as it was a Sunday evening. We also didn’t have the strength to walk all the way down to the place where restaurants were located as in the morning before the flight from Frankfurt we had walked quite a bit in that city. The Chinese/Japanese restaurant near our apartment had a notice that it remains shut on Sunday evening. It was a small restaurant run by a Bangladesh origin person which came to our rescue. It turned out to be a great meal of chicken and mutton curries which were very similar to the kind of food we get back home.

Day 2 at Porto – Around Douro river

It was now time to explore the city. It is around Douro river that the entire city is located. The river gives the city its character and in europe they do know how to preserve and capitalise on such natural resources. Douro is one of the longest river in Iberian peninsula with a length of 897 km. The riverside is supposed to be the happening part of Porto and it was around 20-25 minutes walk from the apartment. But we had to do the sightseeing so we turned right at an intersection of Santa Catarina and walked to the Sao Bento train station.

This is a train station which has tourist interest and people come here to admire the azulejos, these beautiful Portuguese tiles which depict historical life scenes. It was then time for Port Cathedral and from there we proceeded to the riverside. There were several cafes and restaurants and atmosphere was festive. No Douro boat trip was happening so we crossed crossed the Dom Luis I bridge and ended up in Rebeira. This is again an area which is very vibrant and touristy. We found a boat tour from here and next one hour it was time to look at the city from the boat. It was great seeing the city and its architecture from the boat. Porto is famous for its architecture and we kept admiring the buildings as the boat took us almost till the sea before turning back after showing us all the famous bridges. This tour was called the ‘6 bridges tour.’

Our lunch was at Ribeira. At Frankfurt hotel we had met a tourist who had advised us to avoid the ‘cod’ of Portugal. But cod happens to be the most loved fish here and I couldn’t resist ordering the grilled cod and I don’t know if the restaurant made terrible cod or cod is like this only – chewy and bad ! I never touched cod again through the trip.

It was late afternoon when we decided to head back to apartment. Once again the thought of walking 30 minutes or so in the bright sun was not appealing. No cab was in sight so what we got was a ‘tourist sightseeing vintage car ‘ with a charming young lady in the drivers street. She showed us around Ribeira and told us about the night spots and concerts happening in town that night. Ribeira looked very good and had some really good scenic points. The houses were spread out in the hills overlooking the river and it looked really lush green. The town had cable car to go up the hill . This vintage car ride was good as we would have otherwise missed out on these parts of the city. It also saved us a long walk.

The evening was sent strolling the streets of the city and spending the evening on the rooftop bar of Dome hotel called the 17 degree . The weather was great and we had great views from there. It was a nice way to end the day.

Day 3 at Porto- Keeping it simple

We had several things lined up for our last day at Porto. 1) A Douro Valley tour which would have taken 7-8 hours. 2) A trip to one of the port (wine) house. We had shortlisted the tour of Vila Nova de Gaia. 3) Spend time by going to the seaside and enjoying the beach and seaside.

We did none of the above. I am not saying that you should not do all of these if you visit Porto. We would have done all this had our stay been longer. There are some great reviews about Douro Valley tour and for wine lovers it is a must do. It was quite cool so beach didn’t make sense as none of us would have ventured in the sea.

On the last day we wanted some feel of the city and wanted to explore the interesting parts, which we did. After a 15 minute walk I landed up at the top of the church of the clerics. The climb was never ending, the steps were narrow & steep and it was really hot that afternoon. Thankfully Devicka didn’t come with me. Kunaal & Jyoti had gone to the other side of town. But the view from the top was fantastic. You could see the city, the river and the beautiful houses. It was also a very beautiful church from inside.

We sat around and chilled at General Humberto Delgado square, went inside lanes and by lanes of the city, visited the indoor food market called the ‘Mercado do Bolhao’, tasted the famous Francesinha dish of Porto which has layers of sausage, ham and steak wrapped in cheese. It is topped with an egg and served with a secret sauce. As usual as it happens in Europe, I had to add some salt and chillies to it.

Torre dos Clérigos (Clerigos tower) is a famous landmark and this part of town had many interesting lanes with lines of restaurants and cafes. This area also has a bustling nightlife. Musicians played the music as we sipped beer and tried Portuguese food. It was a short and sweet trip to a charming town. It was now time to move on to Coimbra, Sintra, Lisbon and then Algarve.

Some images from our trip to Porto