I love a weekend away. There’s hardly any organisation required for one thing. Maybe book a Friday off work to max it out, but otherwise just throw a few things in a bag and off you toddle for new adventures, food, drink and culture, then back into work on Monday feeling a bit knackered but happy. Perfect!
Richard and I usually manage to sneak away for a few weekends in a year, but generally only one is out of the country. This year, we decided to go somewhere we hadn’t been before and the shortlist consisted of Vienna, Berlin, Split, Bilbao and Porto.
Any of them would have been great, but we decided we liked the look of Porto and were not swayed in our decision making by the knowledge that it’s in the home of the Pasteis de Nata (Portuguese Custard Tart) at all, in any way.
We flew out early on Friday morning to arrive in a very warm and sunny Porto in the early afternoon. As is quite normal, our first impression of a new place is via Passport Control, usually manned by the grumpiest and most unfriendly person available, but here I was greeted like a long lost friend! ‘Ah, Teresa, how are you today? Is this your first visit? How long are you here? I hope you enjoy! Goodbye’ All delivered with a big smile!
And the friendly and welcoming vibe continued all weekend. This is a happy place!
We stayed in a tiny house located in a typical Portuguese neighbourhood in the centre of the city. Our lovely host met us and chatted away recommending lots of places to visit, restaurants, bars and where the nearest bakery and shops were to give us a good start to our weekend.
We were actually starving at this point so headed straight out to find something to eat, get our bearings and start exploring.
I think it’s fair to say that as we started to walk, it became apparent that at about roughly every 10 metres, there’s a cafe or bakery selling a wide variety of totally delicious and very hard to resist pastries, so naturally, as we were on our hols, we went straight in and had a couple of Pasteis de Nata, coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice for a bit of an energy boost!
Porto is one of the oldest cities in Europe and is located along the Douro River in Northern Portugal. It’s most famous for it’s port wine production and historic centre, which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996.
The city is built on the steep slope down to the picturesque harbour front known as the Ribeira and Ponte Luis Bridge, which was designed by Teophile Seyrig, who previously worked for Gustave Eiffel, and it’s easy to spot the similarities between the Eiffel Tower and the Ponte Maria Pia bridge, a bit further along the river, which was designed by Gustave Eiffel himself.
There are a few things you notice almost straightaway as you start to wander about. One of the first things is the architecture. There’re quite a lot of derelict buildings dotted around, so you might have quite a swanky, contemporary house next door to something that looks like it had a bomb dropped on it the night before, but it made a really interesting contrast. There are also some really beautiful examples of baroque, neoclassical and gothic buildings too, but what I really liked the best were the intricate hand-painted Portuguese Azulejo tiles of which Porto has some iconic examples such as Capela das Almas and Sao Bento Station.
There are certainly plenty of things to do here and we probably could’ve squeezed a few more things into our visit, but we wanted to relax too, and like I said, this is a happy place and one to be enjoyed, so we took it quite easy.
We visited a few of the places our host recommended from drinks with a view, the bakery with the best breakfast croissants and the popular nightly event of watching the sunset over the Douro, which is in equal parts romantic, sociable and lively.
Another recommendation was the newly refurbished Mercado do Bolhao, a beautiful market dating back over a century. There are about 80 stalls selling fruit, veg, coffee and pastries, plants and flowers, wine and seafood, all beautifully fresh. We stopped for a fruit cup with strawberries and pineapple, coffee and wine all for under 10 Euros.
If you like to do a bit of shopping (which I do), Porto has one straight avenue where you can find all your normal brands such as H&M, Zara etc, which we did have a look at, but couldn’t really buy much as we only had hand luggage so not a lot of room to add extra clothes. As you walk through the old winding streets towards the harbour however, you can find lots of lovely little shops selling some more interesting bits and pieces and we did buy a few things along the way.
All cork comes from Portugal of course, and it’s quite impressive that they can make anything from it and it’s for sale everywhere. From baseball caps and backpacks to coasters and notebooks, it’s hard to resist, although I didn’t go for a hat!
The liveliest area was definitely along the Ribeira with plenty of restaurants and bars to stop at and watch the world go by. The cod fritters (mashed potato, cod and parsley in a deep fried breadcrumb crust) with a couple of beers is perfect for this! There’s also live music everywhere with really fantastic performers every few hundred metres which just adds to the party vibe as you walk around.
We have a bit of a rule that where there’s a river, you have to get on it and there are plenty of boat trips to choose from. They do get busy though, so it’s worth booking online in advance to avoid having to hang around queueing. We went on a nice little trip to see the six bridges along the river, which took about 50 minutes.
Another fun trip is the cable car, which only takes about 5 minutes, but offers some lovely views over the historic centre and Ponte Luis bridge and has the added advantage of taking you to the top of the hill!
It is worth noting that although Porto is fairly small and easy to navigate, you do find yourself going down and uphill several times a day! I’d also say that it is probably very busy during the summer months. We went at the end of March and were extremely lucky with the weather – it was warm and sunny all weekend – so it felt like summer, but it wasn’t overcrowded.
Overall, we really loved Porto and, as there’s still loads we haven’t done, will definitely have to go back!