May 2019 Itinerary link
Porto(population: 214,000) is one of my favorite cities in Europe: it is big enough to have a lot going on to stimulate my curiosity, yet, the city core is small enough to cover on foot. We were here about a year ago with two friends – an artist and a writer couple – and fell in love with the wonderful vibe of the city that resulted from the mixture of artsy environment, natural beauty, and kind people.
I enticed 7 friends to experience Porto with me this time. Things are quite reasonably priced in the whole country of Portugal, and people are quite nice. One can get by with just speaking in English because somebody always comes to rescue you if you are stuck with a language barrier.
I flew into Madrid from London to meet up with my friends at the airport terminal where Ryan Air was flying in and out of. By the time we arrived at our Airbnb apartment in Porto, it was close to 10 PM. Our host directed us to a restaurant close by, and it was packed with locals. The smell of grilled fish excited all of us fish lovers, but, alas! They ran out of most of fish. We asked them to bring us whatever fish they could, and, they did. Delicious! So fresh! And only 70 euros for the whole table. A great, but, short, introduction to Porto.
So I count the next morning as the beginning of our 5 full days in Porto. We ventured out to other close-by towns 3 out of 5 days, thus, we actually had 2 full days in Porto itself. Our place was a very spacious 4 bedroom(3 bathroom) apartment literally right across from Bolhao Market. Unfortunately, the Market was going through a major renovation. Fortunately, the merchants were moved to a temporary location just a couple of blocks away.
Some of the early risers marched out of the apartment, walked around the neighborhood, then went to the temporary Bolhao Market to have some juices made with fresh off the tree fruits. It seemed some of the bakeries were popular spots, thus, we went to one and got some pastries. Yummy!
We were to fill the first day with our own version of a walking tour of this UNESCO World Heritage site. The first stop was the City Hall just a few blocks west from our apartment. The City Hall anchors the main commercial street of Porto, Avenida dos Aliados. At the southeast corner of this street stands – some people claim – the world’s most beautiful McDonald’s. 
From there, it was easy to spot Clerigos Tower that dominates the skyline of Porto & could supposedly be seen from anywhere in the city. Up the road from there is the most famous book store in the world, Livraria Lello, where J.K. Rowling was inspired to write Harry Potter books. It is wise to get the tickets online to shorten the wait time to get into the store. Too many people come to see this store that they have to charge 5 euros per person admission to control the crowd. You get 5 euro discount when you buy a book. Is it worth the wait and 5 euros? Well, there is no other place quite like this any where around the globe. Yes, you can FEEL Harry Potter here. I am not really a fan of Harry Potter, but the word enchanting comes to mind when I think about the place. They do an excellent job of choosing what kind of books to stock, and there are so many beautiful books that you are tempted to buy unless you hate standing in line to pay.
The book store does its best to entertain people while they are lined up, but, it can be a good time to visit Igreja do Carmo church that one can see up the road. Since I had already been to that church, I held our place in line and sent others to this ornate Baroque church.
By this time, all my friends were already deeply in love with Porto. We slowly walked down the alley ways lining the hills toward the river in an euphoria. Wait. Oh, my god! A million euro view! Miradouro da Vitoria doesn’t seem much at first glance & one can pass by without a thought. But if you choose to walk in and discover the view from there, you will be a happier person for the rest of the day.
Walking down a bit more, we came to the area where Bolsa Palace, St. Francisco Church, and a smaller Sao Nicolau Church were located. We bought the tickets($10 euros each) for the 1 PM tour of Bolsa Palace & went first into Sao Nicolau, then into St. Francisco. It looks like an ordinary big church from outside, but, once you step inside this church, the amount of gold poured into this place of worship will shock you.
Bolsa Palace is the old stock exchange building famous for the ornate interior decorations. Individual tour is not allowed, and one has to join the official tour to see the place. Impressive.
We finally reached the riverside area called Ribeira. Very lively with street musicians and people dancing, this area is filled with colorful buildings, cafes and restaurants, and street merchants. We were happy just being part of the scene here till we realized we had to eat lunch, finally. I looked for an old sailors’ restaurant/bar that we liked last time we were there, but it was gone. Sad.
Fish Fish. We ended up having sea food at this well known upscale restaurant close to Ponte Luis bridge. It was a bit late for lunch even for Portuguese standard, thus, they did not seem to mind when we occupied the best seats upstairs with the view of the river and ordered just a couple of mains along with a bunch of appetizers. We had to have some wine, of course. The final bill was about 15 euros per head. Not bad for the kind of excellent food and the spot on service we had.
We took time walking back up the hills just looking at artsy displays mixed in with usual souvenir shops. After a stop at a cafe for the strong coffee and cookies, we went home. But, of course, we had to make one more stop: Sao Bento train station. Wow! We would be coming here daily to get on the train? Really? This is not a museum?
The dinner was a birthday celebration for 2 of the friends, and it was time to splurge. I made a reservation at 17 Degree Restaurant at Dom Henrique Hotel, a 5 minute walk from our apartment. The whole city was under our feet in this 17th floor restaurant. We each ordered a full meal, and two bottles of wine were ordered for the table. The restaurant brought out candled cakes for the birthday girls. Our “splurge” set us back 25 euros per head.
Day 1: Porto
Day 2: Douro Valley
Day 3: Aveiro
Day 4: Guimaraes
Day 5: Porto
Small Wide World 
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