Oporto (Porto ~ Portugal)

26 August 2022

We're definitely getting soft in out old age as our flight got into Porto at about 8:30 and rather than use the metro to get to the centre and then manhandle our bags about a km to our hotel we opted for arranging  a driver to pick us up. 

The flight was fairly painless even if it took 45  mins to get through security and seems like the budget airlines have given up with the whole "must wear a mask" an announcement was made along the lines of "masks are your responsibility and stewards are not your mother's." Suffice to say most people didn't bother with masks.

Our accommodation turned out to be a converted warehouse with some serious walls and ceiling  beams and the view wasn't to shabby either. Things have definitely changed a bit since we were here last, about 20+ years ago  as back then don't recall the other side of the river having anything other than Port warehouses and definitely don't recall party boats that were active at 3:00am

Having said that main memories of previous visits was that it rained/drisseled for three days solid. That and food& wine was v cheap. Well shortly after we had accommodation sorted went for a bit of a walk and yup food and wine (and beer) is still really cheap. Opted for burgers and a 1/2 litre of the local beer. Burger was v pink, so much so that I  NZ would think there would be a 50/50 chance it would be sent back. Here not so much - seriously moist and tasty.

Next morning headed up to the train station to  check out times of trains to Pinhao, our next destination in a few days, and en route looked for coffee and found small bakeries double as cafes (as long as you don't mind drinking your coffee standing at the counter. Coffee is great and pastries (particularly Nata, Portuguese Custard Tart, are amazing). This hole in the wall place became our got place v quickly.

Train station is a piece of art in its own right as the walls are decorated with large hand painted tiled motifs. The other great thing is that since we're now seniors we are eligible for cheap (1/2 price) train tickets in Portugal.

With tickets sorted we had a good wander round and checked out Porto. Massive amounts of development and restoration work has gone on since we were last here and the restoration has been done incredibly sympathetically with masses of tiles everywhere building frontages. Plus all the stonework has been cleaned so the place looks great.

Not a huge amount of fast food restaurants about, which is nice to see, and the one we did spot was quite impressive. 

Dinner that night was at local, slightly out of the way, restaurant called "O Caracas" which had a limited menu i.e.

Which translates as 

Roast veal

Roast fish

Fried fish

and that was it. Opted for the two fish dinners which were really tasty. Since then have come to realise that restaurant food in Portugal comes well seasoned and as such salt and pepper ain't on the tables.

One of our goto web sites when travelling is Atlas Obscura as it highlights interesting and odd things  to look at, such as this place. 

Here we have the Carmo and Carmelitas churches. The first being built in the 17th century for Nuns and the second in the 18th century for Monks. Now for reasons no one knows it was decided to fill the 1 m gap between the two churches with a house. That thin sliver of a house was occupied up until the 1980s.

The south side of the river used to comprise of warehouses and not much else, nowadays it's got a nice promenade complete with tourist tat shops and restaurants and moored in the river are some traditional ribaldo boats (use to be used for transporting barrels of port and wine) advertising various Port Companies. 

Nestled away in the back streets of this area is a very cool bit of art -  it is a giant sculpture made of trash as a critique of society's wastefulness.

Visible on the skyline from all around Porto is this amazing clock tower. Contemplated going to the top for the view but was feeling a bit knackered from all of the walking we had been doing plus I really, really do not like heights.

In the square below the clock tower is a restaurant (part of a chain) that celebrates one of Portos iconic snacks. The "Pastel de Bacalhau" which is a salted cod, stinky cheese and potatoes croquet. Had a quick look inside and opted to pick up a couple of Pastels from  a local bakery at half the price.

From Porto we head upriver (by train) along the picturesque Duoro Valley to Pinhao. Did this trip last time and all we can recall was the weather was crap but near the train station found a BBQ restaurant that sold great steaks and really cheap red wine on carafes.