Glimpses of Porto

We slept pretty well for a first night. Up for a couple hours at 4am, we were able to go back to sleep until about 10am. We will probably sleep better tonight and be mostly adjusted to the local time by tomorrow. After a quick shower, protein bar (to save money and time we brings these to fill in when food is less accessible), and coffee, we hit the streets. 

Just a few blocks from our hotel, our first stop was the Lello bookstore. It became very popular after the Harry Potter books came out, so now they charge a few euros to get in and look around. It is definitely something reminiscent of J. K. Rowling’s books. Jim was finished after a few minutes of perusing so he had to drag Kristi out and onto the next stop.









We are definitely not going too hard this trip. We spent a little time just strolling around until it was time for a beer … yay European vacation! Near the bookstore was a small park built atop a small mall, very hard to explain — see pic. We sat down under an olive tree and enjoyed a cerveja pequena - small beer. 







After our beer we decided to take a bus tour of the city. We like to take these open-top, hop on-hop off bus tours in big cities. Even Rick Steves recommends it in Porto. The town is very hilly; not great for going too far on foot.  After getting a good understanding of the geography, we can go back to places we want to explore more. Mid tour we hopped off to have a sandwich (the sandwich was so good and inexpensive we got two more to go, maybe for breakfast tomorrow) and coffee, then hopped back on. 






We made two different tour loops and got a great sense of the many options in Porto. There’s a great beach to the north of the city center which is tempting for tomorrow. We shall see …



After the bus tour we decided to walk — downhill — towards the Douro River. It was a great walk past shopping and eating choices. We are so glad we waited and chose a wine bar recommended by Rick Steves — he rarely fails. On the walk there was some cool street entertainment, including this school group:



We got really lucky to get a primo spot overlooking the Douro at the wine bar; it was picture perfect. With the help of the server we ordered a Douro Valley wine - a dry, fruity white. It was tastilicious. This place had an all appetizer menu — like tapas in Spain. We had olives, a sublime soft sheep’s milk cheese, bread, sardines in tomato sauce and pigs feet … indescribably succulent, all of it. 











We decided to walk back to the hotel: a gentle, uphill three quarters of a  mile — with an ice cream stop on the way. 

The Portuguese people so far have been so enjoyable. We were complimented on our Portuguese twice today. 🤗

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