blog d'europe

an early morning bus out of lisbon, and five hours later we were in porto. it's the second largest portuguese city (after lisbon) and has so much old-school charm.

the city sits on two hills that slope down to the douro river which divides them. the only way across is via the iron cast dom luis bridge that arcs really high over the water. meg & i wandered through the heart of porto's old town and got thoroughly lost... but we happened to stumble upon a huge cathedral, porto's elaborately blue & white tiled sao benito station, and some london-esque red telephone booths (random) along the way, so it was a pretty successful afternoon after all.

once we found our way down to the douro, we walked along the "ribeira" - a strip of medieval, brightly coloured houses lining the river. cafes, restaurants & shops fan out from the ribeira, whilst market stalls selling portuguese embroidery/lace, jewellery & a tonne of tiny wooden roosters (the lucky charm of portugal) are dotted along the colourful strip. we hiked the million +1 steps up to the very top of the dom luis bridge where we were rewarded with a stunning view out across the old town on the north side of porto. we watched the brightly-coloured houses in pastel pink, blue, yellow, orange & off-white transform with the sunset into vivid reds, blinding yellows & deep blues.

the next day (as if we hadn't climbed enough stairs already) we forced our legs to do the 240 steps up to the top of the torre dos clerigos - the second tallest church tower in portugal. such steep steps to get there - but so worth it when we pushed open the door and were met with a 360° view of porto. a breathtaking look out across the terracotta-tiled rooves that make up the labyrinthine old town, and the douro river sparkling in the sun...definitely worth the soreness to get up there and see it!

to give our poor legs a rest, that afternoon we jumped onto a boat that went along the douro, so we could see what the city looked like from the water... or maybe we just did it so we could hang our legs over the edge and catch the splashes of water as the boat bobbed up and down. who could blame us in this 30° heat!

the south side of porto is home to the original port wine caves (porto is unsurprisingly the birthplace of port wine), so we popped our heads into a few for some tastings. honestly, i'm not a huge fan of port so it didn't do much for me - but sitting on chairs & tables out in the late afternoon sun, sipping on too-sweet wine...there are definitely worse things you could do. ;-)

obrigado porto & adeus,