Alison

My A to Z Travel Challenge – P is for Porto, Portugal 🇵🇹

A few years ago we did a road trip from Biarritz to Porto. We ended up in Porto purely for the reason that it was convenient to fly back from. Anthony had been many years ago and said he wasn’t very impressed. Well we were in for a wonderful surprise.
I had booked an apartment for two nights overlooking the Douro River and we couldn’t have had a better view. Although the apartment could have done with a bit of work it was more than okay for two nights and the view made up for any complaints.

Douro River, Porto, Portugal
View from our balcony of Luis I Bridge

We only had two full days here and we made the most of every minute and explored as much as we could.

There was a fabulous tiny restaurant attached to the apartment belonging to the owners and we had dinner there the first night. The food was amazing especially the grilled sardines.

The door to our apartment!

The next day we set off early and walked along the river and took in the views. We stopped off at the Sao Bento Railway Station as someone mentioned it was a place we must see. The station had the most amazing murals decorating the walls.

Traditional Ribellos

Above a slideshow of the murals in the Sao Bento Railway Station representing Portuguese history and daily work.

Next we had scheduled a walking tour over Luis I bridge to visit the Port houses on the other side of the river. There were five included in the tour, we managed two, but for me there’s only so much port I could taste!

Waiting for our guide to start the tour
Reflections of Porto
Inside Adriano Ramos Pinto

We crossed back over the river and found a bar to have a bottle of wine and some tapas and found we were just in time for the annual procession of the saints. Good timing for us as we had front row seats.

The sleepiest little drummer boy

The next day we were already checking out at 11 am. We found a souvenir shop to leave our luggage, which was very handy because when we were in Vigo there was nowhere that would take left luggage. We headed up to the cathedral and stopped there for a while to enjoy the amazing views over Porto.

Views of Porto over the rooftops

Enough time here and it was onwards and downwards to town to look for lunch and a spot of shopping for you know who!

So many steps
  • Stone work
  • Art work
Too many options!

Shopping time!

Modelling his artisan waistcoat – “Made in Porto”.

Two days in Porto is just not enough and we will definitely be back to explore more of this beautiful city and the rest of Portugal, whenever we can get on a plane again!

If only!

My A to Z Travel Challenge – N is for Nagasaki, Japan 🇯🇵

Nagasaki was part of our 9 day road trip through the Kyushu Islands a few years ago and we spent two very busy days and nights here. There were four of us on the road trip, me, hubby and our two good friends Cheryl and Vaughan. Vaughan and hubby did all of the driving. We…

by Alison

15 comments

    • It’s funny as Anthony said it was just an industrial city whe he went so many years ago so he got a great surprise. There’s so much to see and of course the food is wonderful. I don’t think it would cost a great deal from UK and it wasn’t expensive to stay or eat.

      Liked by 1 person

      • It’s definitely right at the top of my list for places to visit for a long weekend. Maybe not for a while though as the world is a little disrupted at the moment isn’t it?

        Liked by 1 person

  3. I wasn’t there for long enough to see as much as you did, which I regret, and now it’s too late for me to do all that walking up and down steep streets (my hips won’t allow it). Aren’t Portuguese tiles wonderful. I could gaze at them all day and never get bored but when I brought some nice ones home sadly they just lost their magic.

    Liked by 1 person

Comments are closed.