Paris is a city that’s always hard to leave.

No, I mean, like, physically difficult to leave.

The last time I was there, I had a flight out of Charles de Gaulle. I left the hotel 5 hours before the flight, and still nearly didn’t make it. This was on account of the train strike that stopped the train halfway there, throwing everyone out into the station and into mass confusion. On the bright side, I’ve never spoken nor understood French better than when I was in crisis.

This time, we were flying out of Orly. Smaller airport, closer to the city, sounded like wins all around. There is a bus from the city that goes directly there, too. Sounded great, so we lugged our bags to where the bus departs from.

Holy Christ, can they fit anymore human beings on these buses?!

The bus ride was horrible, hot and crowded. We walked a ton at the airport, the flight was great, then we had a long train ride in Porto to get from the airport to our AirBnb. It was a long, long day.

But it was worth it. Because our AirBnb was awesome, and Porto is a phenomenal city.

Vila Nova de Gaia

We had an excellent two-bedroom apartment, with a beautiful outdoor space where we could enjoy the gloriously warm Portuguese weather. Which we did, taking our breakfasts and dinners out there.

The AirBnb owner was extremely friendly and helpful. He also left us a welcoming tray of Portuguese delights: a few mini bottles of Port Wine, and a few of the wonderful pastéis de nata.

Pastéis de nata are custard tarts, sprinkled with cinnamon. We had plenty. We had those ones the AirBnb guy left us, we had some with meals, we bought some by themselves from cafés while walking the streets. They’re extremely delicious, and cheap.

Portugal, in general, is cheap. This was a wonderful development after steamrolling our way through northern Europe, then through two of the most expensive cities on earth, London and Paris. Finally, we felt like we could breathe again, slow down, and actually enjoy some of the stuff around us. Like a shit ton of Pastéis de Nata.

Our AirBnb was in a lovely, quiet, hilly neighborhood in the area of Vila Nova de Gaia, across the river from Porto. And, it was an absolutely perfect place to be. Aside from being a quiet neighborhood, we had the advantage of fantastic views of Porto across the river.

Porto is a beautiful city, built up onto the steep hills rising out of the Douro river. The river has carved a deep gorge between Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia, with the stunning Ponte Luís I bridging the gap. It’s a beautiful bridge, affording amazing views of the whole region, that carries road traffic on a deck close to the river, and train and pedestrian traffic on the upper deck. It’s a great way to walk into Porto from our neighborhood.

We spent that first day just walking our neighborhood, taking the time to enjoy those views from the bridge, and get some good pictures.

Beach Day

It turns out, Erika and I hadn’t had any beach time since Zanzibar. And we all remember how that turned out. So, taken in by the beautiful, warm weather, we all decided to make day 1 a beach day.

The commuter train line that passes just in front of where we were staying can take you close to some beaches just south of Porto. So that’s what we did, hopping on the Linha de Aveiro, getting off at Miramar station, and walking the short distance from there to praia de Miramar–Miramar beach.

We had a great day out there, but I’d say it didn’t quite scratch the beach itch. The sand and shoreline were fairly rocky. And the water, though beautiful, was quite cold!

Not to worry though. We were just a couple weeks away from some spectacular beach time. Spoilers!

The other thing to do out there is to checkout the Capela do Senhor da Pedra, a tiny chapel built on the rocks on the shore. Apparently, this was a spot heavily used by pagans for worship. So, naturally, in the 1600s Christians came and, in an attempt to simultaneously co-opt and wipe away the pagan influence, built a church on that spot.

We spent most of the day on the beach, before taking the train back home, to cook dinner and get ready for a day of actually seeing Porto.

A Farewell to Sandemans

Naturally, Erika and I wanted to go on a free walking tour in our new city, as we do. Ruth, though, had finally been broken: she could walk no more, so she insisted we go without her, and meet up with her back at home in the afternoon.

So we walked across the Ponte Luís and into the beautiful heart of Porto. The hilly and windy streets led us slowly to the Torre dos Clérigos, where we met up for our Sandemans free walking tour.

This ended up being our last Sandemans tour we took. So a big thanks to Sandemans for giving us a cheap, fun, informative, reliable thing we could do in almost every city we visited in Europe!

It was a beautiful day for walking, and a nice tour of inner Porto. The guide made sure to point out the many, many instances of the famous Portuguese blue tiles–or azulejos–that are all over the city, and easily recognizable worldwide when you see them. None were more impressive than the huge walls of tiles inside the beautiful São Bento railway station

Sandemans had just started their Porto tour–I think they said it was only three months old at that point. And, unfortunately, it showed. The tour guide was passionate, knowledgeable, and fun, but he didn’t quite know how to conduct the tour. He’d stop in areas that were far too loud to hear him, where experienced tour guides will probably know the ‘secret spot’ just nearby that is much quieter.

The worst, though, was when we stopped for a break and a snack at a cafe. The tour guide said 20 minutes, tops–a ‘German 20 minutes,’ he joked, meaning 20 minutes to the second. We had lunch plans for after the tour, so we just got some pastéis de nata (of course) and got off our feet for a little bit.

But when the break dragged on past a decidedly not German 35 minutes, Erika and I decided we’d had enough. We thanked and apologized to our tour guide, tipped him, and decided to be on our way. We decided we could miss the last twenty or thirty minutes of the tour, we had other stuff to do that day. Like go and try one of the heaviest and most revolting sounding foods I’d heard of.

Francesinha

Thick, dense bread wrapped around a meat mélange of cured ham, steak, and linguiça–a Portuguese sausage. Cover that with gobs of cheese, a thick tomato and beer sauce, and oh hell why not a fried egg on top. Take all of that and throw it on a bed of french fries.

This bastardized croque monsieur is called the Francesinha–or ‘Frenchie’–and is the kind of thing that would make American food seem classy. Mind you, I’m not going to say it’s not delicious–it is. But it is as heavy and calorie rich as it sounds.

Erika and I walked across town to Santa Francesinha–a restaurant our AirBnb host had recommended–to try ours. We each got one–which was a mistake, we should have split one, and probably shared it with a couple friends as well. I also had a Super Bock, because I gotta try the mass produced local beer of every place we go to. It’s… a mass produced local beer!

Croft Port

We had more decadence to attend to, so we waddled slowly back across town–taking the long way, working off our Francesinhas on our way back home. We needed to go meet up with Ruth and head out on our next adventure. We’d put it off long enough: it was time for some Port wine.

The shores of the Douro in Vila Nova de Gaia are covered with dozens of Port wineries. The grapes are grown elsewhere in the Douro valley, while many of the wines get made here. So we were lousy with choices for wineries to visit, with them all being walking distance from our house. We didn’t have the time, money, or alcohol tolerance for a lot of touring, so we chose one to visit. Not knowing what else to base our decision on, we visited the winery that made the wines our AirBnb host had left for us: Croft.

They have a beautiful facility and outdoor sitting area. We took a tour of the cellars, which included tastings of three different Ports. I’ll be honest, I don’t remember much about the tour, I’m sure it was fine. If you’ve toured one winery you’re toured a million, and we’ve toured closer to a million anyway. The port, though, was delicious. Especially the 10 year old tawny!

Rather than climb back up the hill we had to come down to get to Croft, when we left we decided to keep going down the hill until we arrived at the banks of Douro. The road along the river is dotted with more port wineries and bars, and was full of people out enjoying the perfect weather. At the end of the road next to the Ponte Luís is a teleferico to take you back up to the top of the hill, where we live. Ruth was able to take that back up, while Erika and I of course decided to walk up the hill ourselves.

It gave us some beautiful views of the river, and a chance to enjoy a stunning sunset.

It was an appropriately beautiful way for our tragically short trip to this wonderful city to come to a close.

Next Time

Porto, for me, still stands out as a particular highlight on the trip. I wish we could have spent more time there, and I can’t wait to return.

But we had one more stop to make in Portugal, and one last stop before, sadly, our travel buddy would be leaving us: Lisbon! Come back soon and we’ll have more from Portugal. Tchau!