City Break Porto, Portugal

São Bento Railway Station

In the absence of a winter sun vacation to a far flung exotic destination this year, a close second was a city break somewhere a bit brighter and warmer than the UK.

City of choice this time was historical Porto, the second largest in Portugal after Lisbon. I've heard so much about it and it has become quite a popular place to visit.

We flew with EasyJet and booked a delightful studio apartment through booking.com. Our location was perfect for us, right in the UNESCO historic centre. 

Straight out of the arrivals terminal the Metro station is right there. For a cost of €2.70 and within 40 mins we were at our nearest stop São Bento, sitting with a coffee working out where we were and where we wanted to go. The apartment was less than 5 minutes walk away so we dropped our bags, put on our walking shoes and set off. 

Navigating your way around Porto is relatively easy once you get your bearings and be prepared for lots of walking on hilly, cobbled streets. This unfortunately is not an easy place to get around for anyone with mobility issues.

Highlights of Day 1 included .. 

Café Majestic

- the beautiful 19th century beaux art Railway Station with it's intricate azulejo tiled murals of important historic events on the walls.

 

- the Café Majestic, restored in the '90s art nouveau takes you back to the Belle Epoque era. We had a late lunch of tapas and a glass of Portuguese fizz.

- just down the street from the cafe on Rua de Santa Catarina is Capela das Almas, Chapel of Souls, adorned with blue and white tiled panels depicting the saints St. Frances and St. Catherine.

Capela das Almas

It started to rain so we ducked in and out of shops until it stopped and continued our self-styled walking tour, taking in the Sé Cathedral, which looks much more like a cross between a fort and a church and from the square outside there are impressive views of the city and river Douro.

We meandered our way back to our apartment to rest for an hour or so before dinner at our local restaurant Caldeireiros which served delicious traditional dishes.

Day 2 - We started our day exploring the streets and made our way to the gothic Gold Church - Igreja de São Francisco. For an entrance fee of €7.50 you get access to the church, catacombs and museum. The interiors are absolutely spectacular with wooden carvings coated in gold dust.

Igreja de São Francisco

Time for a coffee and a pastel de nata, we decided it was a good idea to get on one of the hop-on hop-off buses to get to some of the sights that were a little way out of the centre. 

A two day ticket for the blue/orange line was €22. 

We took the blue route to .. 

- the Palácio de Cristal, where we wandered around the beautiful gardens and watched a peacock try to impress a peahen with his tail feathers. She wasn't remotely interested.

Casa de Serralves

- the amazing Serralves Museu de Arte Comtemporánea and Casa de Serralves where we saw an exhibition by Joan Miró.

The Art Deco Villa was originally conceived and used
as a private residence but was reclassified as a 'Building of public interest' and purchased by the state as a site for a future museum of art.

Back on the bus we headed north to the Matosinhos Sul and then south along the Atlantic coast and along the estuary until we were back in town again. 

White port and dessert

King Prawn

We didn't realise it was Shrove Tuesday and found it hard to get into a restaurant as they were fully booked and some were closed but we did manage to discover that we had another great place to eat a minute from our apartment - and they had a spare table. From the facade of the building it looked like a bar but on entering we discovered a gorgeous back room with a terrace. 

We had fresh seafood and bubbly, followed by a wonderful dessert and complimentary glass of white port, served cold.

Day 3 and our last, we made good use of our bus pass and took the Orange line south of the river. We stayed on the bus for the duration of the tour past the World of Wine, El Corte Inglés, the Cathedral and Casa de Musica. 

We got off the bus at São Francisco and walked down to the Ribeira (riverside) where we browsed some artisan shops and sat in the spring sunshine with a Porto tonic. Thank goodness for the bus rides as all that walking up and down steep
cobbled streets, stairs and pavements gave our legs a workout on muscles we didn't know we had!

Our last dinner was at a lovely seafood restaurant, which we did reserve - Ostras e Coisas. We had the fried sardines to start and the most delicious melt in the mouth baked sea bass between us. There's nothing quite like freshly caught fish.

Porto, I've always loved pastel de nata and yours were divine!

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