Apologies dear readers for the delayed updates! We’ve been progressing our adventure at velocidad máxima for the past week and haven’t had a minute to sit and write. For this post we’ll pick up in Porto, where we last left our intrepid protagonists, and follow along until they depart for Barcelona…
I got my first impression of Porto right after returning our beloved Mini Clubman at the Europcar station near of the the Pont da Arrabida. I walked out of the station and right onto an esplanade viewing the Ribeira:
Quite dramatic. I soon got my second impression of the city: Porto is very hilly as I learned in attempting to walk home from the station
Another important piece of context is that we were joined on our second day in Porto by our wonderful friends Roby, Ashley and little Tony. Roby was Swathi’s co-fellow in at UPMC in Pittsburgh and we have become good friends over the past three years. They will be with us through Porto and into the first five days of Barcelona:
On to our itinerary in Porto!
July 8: Road trip from Guimarães to Porto
Our final day with our trusted Mini Clubman 😢. Spent the morning packing our bags and completing the 45 minute drive to Porto. We passed the time listening to You’re Welcome from the Moana soundtrack on repeat.
Upon arrival, we stopped by the Castelo do Queijo and the Parque da Cidade do Porto before checking into our AirBnB apartment. The apartment was HUGE! It turned out to be a penthouse with a long hallway for Soren to zoom around at top speed.
The final important development of the day was discovering Churrasqueira Icarai on our evening walk. This was a little grilled meats spot that had the best roast chicken and hot sauce. It was so good we went back for all three nights of our stay:
July 9: Porto
Spent most of the morning going back to the Europcar to convince them not be silly about our car (Mini Clubman) return. I spent a good portion of the time with Meera strapped in the baby carrier glaring at the poor attendant. Sorry Europcar attendant. You turned out to be all right in the end.
After that we walked the Villa Nova de Gaia side of the Douro river. This is where all of the Port Wine export houses set up shop. It also has a nice riverside walkway:
From there we took a cable car up to the Jardim do Morro to go exploring the playground. After the park, we had a quick lunch before taking the Funicular dos Guindais home. After lunch Swathi and Meera went home while the boys rode a historic tram and the subways in circles for two hours. Soren was very amused.
Final part of the day was spent at home hosting Roby, Ashley and Tony in our apartment for dinner. We got to watch the boys reunite after a few weeks apart since Pittsburgh. It was heartwarming until they figured out that they could increase their destructive powers as a team. Still, good times.
July 9: Porto
Got off to a bit of a late start. I led everyone on a 25 minute tram trip to a historic part of town with the “worlds most beautiful bookstore” and some historic churches. Little did I know these sites were actually a 5 minute walk from our apartments. Not sure how I missed that one 🤷♂️
From there we wandered around some nice alleys and plazas before heading down to the Ribeira for lunch. We took a “Six Bridges Cruise” to see some more of the city. Soren and I were counting and we only saw five bridges, so something might have been off. Cruise was nice though.
Final part of the day was spent returning to the “worlds most beautiful bookstore” (store was at capacity earlier), the Porto Catherdral, and the beautiful Sao Bento train station:
Final item of the day was, of course, churrasqueira chicken and packing up for next adventure in Spain!
More Porto photos here