Porto 2024
- Jul 9, 2024
- 8 min read
This is our second time staying in Porto, Portugal. Our last visit was a company trip with my wife's workplace in 2018, but this time we are here on a study and educational tour with Breiðagerðisskóla. Saturday was strictly a travel day. We arrived at the Mercure Porto Santa Catarina hotel, where we stayed, just before dinner. The hotel turned out to be excellent—perfectly located in the city center with friendly staff and a good breakfast. The bread was especially delicious. The only thing we would have improved was the room, which was uncomfortably cramped with very little shelf space for our belongings. On our first evening, we popped into the restaurant next door for some cod before heading to bed.
Upon stepping out of the hotel, the Church of Saint Ildefonso comes into full view. The church is located near Batalha Square. A chapel once stood where the church is now, with the oldest records of it dating back to 1296. By 1709, the chapel was near collapse and was demolished to begin construction on this beautiful church in honor of the Bishop of Toledo. It was later consecrated in 1739. The blue tiles (azulejos) give the church a beautiful character, and similar tile decorations can be seen on buildings throughout Porto.
Otherwise, Sunday was simply spent wandering aimlessly through the hilly streets near the hotel. Porto is definitely not a city for the faint of foot, as you’re either rolling down slopes or straining to pull yourself up them. It was a workout courtesy of Porto, and we’re pretty sure our fitness has improved after a week in the city. We then strolled over to one of Porto’s main landmarks, the Clérigos Church, with its 75-meter-high tower. You can buy tickets to the church and tower to enjoy a magnificent view from the top, but we decided to skip that. Construction of the church began in 1732 and was finally completed with the tower in 1763. The church is in the Baroque style, designed by the Italian architect Nicolau Nasoni. Next, we "rolled" down to the Ribeira district by the Douro river, where they say you should avoid buying drinks or eating. The reason is the pricing—and those probably aren't the best restaurants anyway.
We then hauled ourselves back up the hills toward the hotel. Thirst was starting to set in. A blooming Jacaranda tree caught our eye, so we sat down at a restaurant that offered a view of this beautiful tree. These trees are native to South America but have been planted widely due to their immense beauty.
Just a stone's throw from the hotel is Santa Catarina Street, the main shopping street in Porto. We picked up a suitcase there on our way home, as we only had one left after mine was torn to shreds during a trip to Rome years ago. Along the way, we stopped at a pizzeria where we had an excellent pizza.
According to Monday's schedule, there was supposed to be a course held outdoors in the town of Aveiro, which is a town of about 80,000 people, 75 km south of Porto. It took us about an hour to get there by train. However, the course didn't quite go as planned because the trains started running later that day. The reason was that it was Portugal's National Day, a public holiday. June 10th was chosen because Luís de Camões passed away on that day in 1580. This Camões is a kind of symbol for Portuguese national identity; he was a poet who wrote Os Lusíadas, an epic poem that praises the achievements of the Portuguese people.
We experienced what Aveiro has to offer, which, frankly, isn't all that much. I suppose the beach is the main attraction of the town. We weren't particularly lucky with the food we bought there; it simply wasn't good at all. However, the pastry known as Ovos Moles tasted great. After we finished the course, we sat down—at what I believe was the town hall square. One of us popped into a nearby bakery and returned with the local delicacy called Ovos Moles, which translates to "soft eggs." Ovos Moles are made from eggs, egg yolks, sugar, and sometimes chocolate. Legend has it that their origin can be traced back to Franciscan and Carmelite nuns; they used egg whites to starch and clean their habits and had to find a use for all the leftover yolks. Ovos Moles actually taste quite good.
The town has sometimes been called the Venice of Portugal because it is crisscrossed by canals, and it was along these canals that we sailed. The boat trip was pleasant enough, though there wasn't particularly much to see. The train station is beautifully decorated with blue tile murals, and the town center was charming, but the people of Aveiro didn't manage to impress us with the food they had to offer.
One boat trip isn't enough, so we went on another one on Tuesday. We booked a guided boat tour of the Douro River. The Douro is the third-longest river on the Iberian Peninsula, stretching 895 kilometers. We only sailed along the lowermost part of the river, which gave us a different perspective of the Dom Luís I Bridge and the Ribeira district. We had the whole day free, except we had decided to join a wine-tasting tour in the evening. In hindsight, we probably should have skipped it, as the tour turned out to be a repeat of one we took back in 2018. The main thing I remember from that tour is that it’s not enough for guides to have a good English vocabulary; it’s better if people can actually understand what they’re saying. All the information that poured from the guide’s lips went right over my head because I couldn't understand a single word she said. The boat trip earlier in the day was much more interesting, and that time, the guidance was actually easy on the ear.
The picture on the right shows the Dom Luís I Bridge, with the Infante Dom Henrique Bridge visible further up the river. There are six bridges in total spanning the Douro River in Porto.
The picture on the left shows a part of the Ribeira district. It is built up from the riverbank and climbs the hillside above the water. The word "Ribeira" is derived from the Portuguese word for riverbank.
On Wednesday, I attended to my duties and visited a school and a library. Those visits weren't particularly eventful, but Guðrún used the time to go shopping since prices are somewhat lower than in Reykjavík. Rua de Santa Catarina is the main shopping street in Porto and was conveniently close to our hotel—just around the corner, in fact. That evening, we had the best meal of the entire trip. It was at a bustling square where highly talented musicians were always playing nearby. We stopped at this square several times during our walks around the city and ended up dining at three of the different restaurants located there. Overall, we weren't disappointed with the food on this trip. To be fair, it was a bit hit-or-miss, but that is to be expected when you haven't done any research and just drop in wherever you happen to be at the time.
We’ve been told that one should avoid eating in the Ribeira district because the food there is the most expensive, though not necessarily the best. We confirmed this for ourselves when we had lunch by the riverbank with a beer. It turned out to be the most expensive glass of beer of the trip, and it was likely a mistake to choose that spot to try the most popular Portuguese sandwich. The sandwich is called Francesinha, which would translate to "little French girl" in our native tongue. It is made of white bread, ham, steak, an egg, and cheese, all drenched in a thick sauce. We wouldn't really recommend this sandwich, except perhaps just to say that you’ve tried it.
In the picture on the right, we see the "delicious" Francesinha sandwich. In the picture on the left, I am enjoying the best steak we had in Porto. Overall, we were usually quite satisfied with the food we had, though we felt that sauces were often lacking.
We decided to visit the Crystal Palace Gardens on Thursday. We didn't find the Crystal Palace itself, but it apparently stood there until 1951. It had been built for a world exhibition in 1865 but was demolished in 1951. The Crystal Palace was built in the spirit of its namesake in London. The reason it was torn down was that it hadn't been maintained and had fallen into disrepair. In its place, a green dome was built, sometimes referred to as "the green spaceship." The dome's purpose is to serve as an event hall. We took a guided tour of the hall, but our main goal was to see the view of Porto from the top of the building. It was fantastic and well worth seeing.
The view from the top of the "Green Spaceship" is fantastic. In the top-right photo, we can see the Arrábida Bridge. The lower photo is from the garden, which is a lovely place to stroll around in the company of peacocks and chickens.
We made our way to the Arrábida Shopping mall on Friday. This mall is located in Gaia, and for some reason, it isn’t mentioned when you search the wisdom of the web for shopping centers in Porto. It is actually one of the better ones, as there is no shortage of shops—with over 180 of them—nor is there a lack of seating for shopping-weary husbands.
Saturday was finally the day we headed home. We began by sitting down at a monument on one of the hills to eat our packed lunch, which consisted simply of whatever food was left in the hotel room when we checked out. As we were sitting there, an elderly woman who had great difficulty walking approached, pulling some food scraps out of a bag. Suddenly, two stray cats appeared, clearly recognizing the woman. Shortly after, the seagulls arrived—and they are quite aggressive. The old woman was not pleased with them, but with loud shrieks and swings of her cane, she made sure the cats got their share.
Since our flight wasn't until the afternoon, we had time to visit the Porto Cathedral. Its construction began in the mid-13th century, and it has gradually expanded through the ages. Having seen so many churches on our travels, there wasn't anything in particular about the cathedral that grabbed our attention—except, of course, for the blue tiles found throughout Portugal. These tiles are called azulejos and can be traced back to the 15th century and Moorish influences. These blue tiles decorate many buildings in Porto. At the secondary school I visited, I noticed a campaign against vandalism. On a wall in the lobby, I saw that one of the problems they face is the theft of these tiles. Thieves chip them off buildings to be bought and sold on the black market. Another defining characteristic of Porto is its hills; the city is certainly not for those who are "faint of foot."
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