Porto Day 3

by Miss Penny Black

First, a big hello to Kathy, Danny’s mother, who has been reading the blog and I’ve been shouting ‘HELLO’ to from the background most mornings while Danny is on the phone. Looking forward to meeting you again when we get to Ireland!

After staying up until 1am watching Ted Lasso (using our holiday time wisely, I know) we decided to have a lie in. Our only planned activity of the day wasn’t until 12:30.

To get across to the port house side of the river we walked down, down, down to the water level and crossed the lower level of Porto’s iconic bridge.

This was our first proper trip over to this side and it provided an excellent view of the side we were staying on. Hills might be an effort to navigate but hilly cities are much more scenic.

If we had thought the other side of the city was busy, this side was heaving – and on a Monday.

We had booked an Airbnb port and cheese experience but we were a bit early so we went for a wander. We saw a famous rabbit.

And a tower painted all around with beautiful flowers.

I had booked the port and cheese tasting experience at a port house called Quevedo, through Airbnb experiences. It was only $30 and came with a talk on port and the history of the port house.

I am 90% certain that it was one of the same port houses luke and I visited last time we were here but the cheese was a nice addition and I got to refresh my knowledge of port.

We both agreed the white port was our favourite. I don’t think it’s available to Australia but I might try bringing some home from the uk.

For the rest of the afternoon we wandered around and sat a few different places. The first did a port and chocolate pairing.

The chocolates were excellent and locally produced.

After all the chocolate and cheese what I obviously needed was a large lunch. We found an Italian restaurant in a nice laneway and I ordered carbonara and Danny had pizza. But first they brought out tiny perfect little garlic breads.

Obviously we needed a litre of sangria too.

It was an absolutely stunning carbonara, served in a bowl that was lava-hot, but I realised halfway through that I had severely overestimated my capacity. I ate it all and refused to learn any kind of lesson from my experience.

One thing Danny observed as we sat there was that not a single table in Spain or Portugal had been the slightest bit wobbly. At home about half of tables require extensive chocking with coasters or wadded-up serviettes, yet here they seem to have no problem setting up a table on a cobblestone street with a 20 degree slope.

We had a drink on the waterfront and listened to a busker for a while, then caught the cable car up to the top of the hill.

We went back to a little bar we had visited two nights previously. It was by a bus stop and looked like the kind of place frequented by locals. Six drinks and a bowl of chips were 24 euros – and the gin and tonics here are at least double the size of ones at home.

One the way home we crossed the top of the bridge and managed to be right on time for an absolutely spectacular sunset.

After an afternoon of drinking and an early morning start, I went to bed early and made the most of our last night in our lovely apartment.

8May2023

Porto Day 2

by Miss Penny Black

Thanks to Danny booking our accommodation in an epic location, we are really close to almost everything in Porto.

Our apartment is in that white building, behind it is the main cathedral and town square and it’s right beside the biggest bridge across the river.

We had an excellent sleep then I found a very Melbourne-style cafe for breakfast, but at about half the price of a Melbourne brunch.

Near us was a large table of people of various ages who were all spread out using various devices and tapping away. We thought they were all working independently. Just before we left they all stopped typing and started introducing themselves and talking about poetry. We tried to overhear when was going on but it was a bit mysterious.

Next stop: stained glass museum! As you can imagine, one of us was more excited about this that the other.

Danny wasn’t terribly keen, but it was only eight euros and literally backed onto our accommodation so if he wanted to go sit it out he could.

A nice surprise when we paid…

Art and port, a winning combination! Sure, it was 11am but it would have been rude to refuse.

The museum is very small but had some nice stained glass.

Next, a quick break at the apartment to charge devices and do some puzzles with our feet up. I hadn’t known previously that we were both fans of word puzzles and this book I bought in Australia has been great entertainment.

Then we went for a walk and had a snack break with a view.

It was kind of a brioche-pizza-calzone mashup.

We wanted to do a bit of shopping today. We walked to a mall for a look around and I bought a book. Shopping centres really are the same all over the world.

I was very grateful that the mall bookshop had a couple of shelves of books in English and even a decent selection of fantasy and sci fi.

We went on a walk around town to see street art and other lovely sights.

I found a nice middle-aged-lady fashion store and bought a dress to wear if we go out to somewhere nice for dinner. While in the shop I met a couple of Kiwis who had been living in Mount Martha for the last ten years. it’s (relatively) just down the road from where I live so it seemed like quite a coincidence.

Next we walked through some markets where I bought strawberries. the strawberries we’ve had here have been really great.

Danny has been wanting some open shoes that would be more comfortable with his blisters.

Despite my encouragement he didn’t even try on this pair of fake-diamond-encrusted trainers (rude) and went for some Birkenstocks.

We made it to 10km and decided to have an afternoon rest and watch some Rick and Morty, during which Danny feel asleep and I started my book.

I’m coming to realise that this isn’t my most riveting blog entry but I’ve written too much to stop now!

Porto is a VERY hilly city and the walk to our restaurant for the evening was quite an ordeal. Worth it though, for views towards the sunset and feeling like we’d found a place where locals hang out.

I’d been reading up on local street artists and there was some work right by our spot.

Subtle but beautiful. Hazul luzer, a local artist.

We walked back to the apartment to get our laundry at 9pm. It turned out that the nearest laundromat was halfway back to the restaurant. Up and down hills again.

In the very new and clean laundromat we got talking to a couple from Melbourne and a couple from Turkey. We all agreed that the laundromat was the place to be on Monday nights.

We’d brought drinks, everyone agreed it was the right idea.

We finished the night with wine and Ted Lasso.

Lovely!

7May2023

Porto, Day 1

by Miss Penny Black

We had to be up and out by 7:30 to walk to the train station for our trip to Porto via Vigo. As I’d been woken at 5am by people literally screaming and shouting on their way home from nightclubs (don’t book central locations on weekends, friends), I was pretty much packed and the apartment was tidy before Danny’s alarm went off. He has wisely chosen a bedroom at the rear of the apartment.

The train to Vigo was only 20 minutes then we had half an hour to get across town to a different station for Porto.

Seemed like a brand new station, kind of like Melbourne Central but empty.

A lady on the Camino had said Vigo wasn’t worth a visit but what we saw was nice enough.

No time for breakfast so it was lucky we’d stowed some biscuits and fruit in our bags. The views from the train were very misty and everything looked very green. I always think of the Iberian peninsula as dry and hot but it’s definitely not all like that, particularly in the north and by the coast.

The train from Vigo to Porto was about 2.5 hours and our clocks changed as Portugal is on the same time as the UK.

Our carriage was full of pilgrims and this is a terrible photo of their backpacks.

As we left the station there was a charming sight!

We arrived in Porto quite hungry so we had to tick this off our Porto bingo sheet:

I did actually make a Porto bingo sheet.

We dropped our bag off at our accommodation then it was time to revisit one of the best foods Luke and I had on our last trip: roast pork rolls and green wine!

They had revamped since the last time and added some menu items but it was still amazing food.

Ice filled cooler bag covers for wine bottles – brilliant.

I’m sorry to say that the first thing I did was video call luke to tell him where I was.

It was warming up. The next logical step was…

We had a wander through town and listened to some street performers, took some photos of the views and then went to look for a bar.

We specifically wanted the smallest bar in Porto.

I was tired so we went back to the apartment and I slept from 5pm to 7pm. By the way, Danny tells me it’s bizarre that I don’t have my watch face showing 24 hour time, he thinks 12 hour time is for babies. Except when talking about time out loud. I don’t get it.

We wandered around in the evening and found a restaurant that was nice.

I had prawn linguine and Danny had a local dish, kind of a croque monsieur but with gravy.

It gradually dawned on us that the service would’ve been a lot better if at least one of us had been a teenage girl – the waiter was talking to every table of girls for ages and barely spoke to us. Eventually I had to interrupt him flirting right behind us just to get the bill.

We then wandered through the streets.

Across one of the big bridges.

Had a drink at a bar then brought some wine home to watch a bit more Ted Lasso. We’ve got a few things lined up to do tomorrow but I’m looking forward to lying in!

4Oct2013

Portugal: Porto (Part 2)

by Miss Penny Black

There is more to Porto than just port. It is a charming city of cobblestoned streets, terracotta roofs, intriguingly tiled buildings and magnificent churches. Not to mention more shoe shops than I’ve seen anywhere previously. If we hadn’t had a pitiful baggage allowance (thanks to Ryanair: the world’s most hated airline) I’d have easily spent half a day perusing their gorgeous selections. As it was I hobbled about in my new Adidas sneakers and layers of elastoplast around my blistered ankles.

We consulted our oracle, Trip Advisor, for somewhere nearby that was decent – we’d booked into an Ibis hotel on the northern edge of the centre of town and, it turned out, a few steps from a truly wonderful and authentic local eatery.

Ok, so it didn’t look like much, but this place was one of those establishments with an extremely small menu but they do what they do very well, and what they do is roast pork. On the counter as you walk in is a huge piece of meat and they carve off succulent slices then serve them in a slightly spicy gravy in fresh, crunchy bread rolls. They were perfect. We washed down our roast pork with a bottle of the local vino verde (green wine) the first night then stopped by for lunch the next day.

On our second day Luke made a list of landmarks to visit and we made our way around the city . First stop was a large building that housed a varied market where I bought a couple of tea towels (I’ve lost count of how many I’ve bought now) but there weren’t many stalls open so we moved on to our next stop, Porto’s most famous cafe, the Majestic.

A beautiful example of Art Nouveau architecture.

We enjoyed a breakfast of hot scones, jam and cream in the cafe’s gorgeous interior. My friends in Melbourne who enjoy dressing up for high tea would feel right at home here.

All original fittings from the 20’s.

Next we headed to a church – something I wouldn’t normally go out of my way for, especially not after the dozens we’ve already seen in Europe, but this one was special – the interior was almost entirely covered in gold.

Another place where we weren’t supposed to take photos. I assume because we’ll use our photos to build an exact model somewhere else and lure tourists away from their attraction. Obviously.

Next we headed down to the waterfront. The alleyways of Porto remind me of Edinburgh. Dark stone, narrow and many, many steps. But when you get down the the waterfront the colours of the buildings and the tiled walls shine in the reflected light from the river.

Many of the churches are covered in very detailed scenes painted on tiles.

I almost forgot – we also visited Livraria Lello, a bookstore with the most elaborate staircase you can imagine seeing in a shop. Apparently JK Rowling lived in Porto for a time and lived near this shop. It’s credited with inspiring scenes in Harry Potter. Another place where photos aren’t allowed so I borrowed these from another website.