russ_in_LA

Thanks for the update! I would have liked to see the stairs red, as the blue and yellow didn’t seem to go with the rest of the store. Maybe good for a circus? 😉

I wish I had known about the narrowest house. We were right there and missed it! Something for next time, I suppose.

HelenaFatima

It's closed, otherwise you would have noticed. I never entered there, I'm claustrophobic. Many things are still closed, as you know. Like for instance Majestic coffee shop. But the things that are open, are better seen without the usual crowds. It's almost impossible to imagine your visit to Palácio da Bolsa, I mean, just the two of you? That's privilege!

Your photos are so great, that I felt like "wow, I have to visit XXXXXX (wahtever place) again! It's really beautifull!

HelenaFatima

Lello bookshop on the 3rd June (photo from Helder Ferreira, a great photographer from Porto, who kindly allowed me to publish here.

russ_in_LA

That’s a really difficult question, as everyone’s travel style and interests vary. I didn’t feel that any of our two night places screamed out for more time. Assuming you are going to all the same places we did, I might prioritize as follows:

3 bases: Lisbon, Algarve and Porto.

Day trips from Lisbon: You can easily do Sintra as a day trip, as it’s only 30 minutes by train.

You can certainly find an organized tour from Lisbon to Obidos, Alcobaça and Batalha (and maybe even Convento de Christo in Tomar, but that would be a long day; I’m glad we broke it up). There may also be tours from Lisbon to Évora, as its 90 minutes from Lisbon by car.

Day trips from Porto:

You may be able to do organized tours to Coimbra (70 minutes by car), as well as Braga, Bom Jesus and Guimarães, which are each about 60-70 minute from Porto. The Douro wine region (report to come) we did as a day trip, but a couple days might be nice.

If you add a one night stay somewhere, Évora seems the most logical to me, as it is the furthest away for a day trip. I still think that one night in Guimarães is all you would really need. In fact, if you changed any of my 2 nights stays to 1 night, that would still enable you to see places without crowds, but I personally would prioritize Guimarães over Coimbra, just for the charm factor. I personally liked two nights in Obidos to break up the monastery visits, and to see the town at night, but it’s certainly not needed.

Whatever you do, be prepared for a lot of hills, and wear comfortable shoes! Not sure if this helps, but I hope it does 🙂.

russ_in_LA

Wow! Definitely better than the circus stripes, but that still is a mighty intense red. How often does it change?

thursdaysd

I hope Russ will excuse the hijack, but he's right that everyone's style and interests differ. I've been to Portugal several times, but never to the Algarve, and I prefer Coimbra to Evora. (Probably because I prefer the Roman ruins at Conimbriga, with mosaics in situ and little working fountains, to an underwhelming partial temple.) I also see no need for tours, I have done all my travel in Portugal by train and bus, aside from one car and driver out of Evora to visit wineries, and a ride to the bus stop when staying in the country. I would probably go Lisbon - Coimbra - Douro - Porto, but better to start your own thread.

russ_in_LA

I don’t mind at all! But thursdaysd does reinforce about how difficult it is to give advice to other people. We never take guided tours, and our entire trip, outside of Lisbon and Porto, was based on us renting a car (the driving was very easy, and the distances not too far). All I can say is, read a lot of trip reports and guide books (I liked the Rough Guide) and do what sounds the most appealing.

I’ll be posting our Douro train trip and last day in Porto soon (I hope).

geetika

russ, thanks once again for this wonderful TR and your stunning pictures, can’t wait to see it all in person. I’m still hoping to make it later this year, maybe October, though that will be only Lisbon. But we want to make a longer trip next April/May, when we can see more of this beautiful country.

I’m not a beach person and hadn’t considered visiting the Algarve region, as some of the others said, but your images only whet the appetite.

Eagerly awaiting the Douro chronicles, that’s one place I’d want to stay 2-3 days...

HelenaFatima

Never. This red staircase is kind of their brand image. We (people from Porto) were all shocked with the icecream stripes.

cm318

Thank you Russ. I appreciate your input. Yes, we know about the hills and all the walking required - that is part of the reason we’ve decided we should visit Portugal sooner rather than later. We are walkers and prepared with the right footwear. It has been fun following your adventures in Portugal. Once again - thanks for sharing!

russ_in_LA

For our second day in Porto, we took the train 2 hours and 20 minutes to Pinhão, in the heart of the Douro valley wine region. The first half of the trip was just boring suburbs, but it gave us a chance to rest our weary feet. The last hour, however, was really beautiful, with the orderly rows of vines creating ever-changing geometric patterns on the hillsides along the valley.

For part of the trip, the river gets pretty wide, and at that point the train tracks are almost at water level, giving expansive views across the river. Closer to Pinhão, the river gets narrower, giving us closer views of the vineyards.

When we departed Porto, we left behind foggy and gray weather, with highs expected of around 68°F/20°C; however, we arrived at Pinhão at 11:40, to temperatures of about 86°F/30°C. Wow, it was like being transported to another planet!

After exiting the he train, we walked toward a cluster of restaurants west of the station, at the confluence of the Douro and a small tributary. My first mistake of the day was not booking a restaurant ahead of time. Given that it was a Saturday, the ones with the best views and the highest ratings were sold out. We ended up eating at a small place on the water with a nice view, but it was clear that they didn’t have a kitchen, when everything was obviously from a can or reheated in a microwave. We had been so spoiled by the consistently good food that it was disappointing.

After lunch we continued in a loop along the water, when we discovered mistake number two. Just as we were about to turn left back to the main road, we noticed a restaurant that had not shown up on my Google search, with a lovely garden and amazing views. Such regret, to find out how close we were, so I inquired if it would be possible to just have dessert there. The owner said he didn’t usually do that, but as they had one table left, why not. Oh the joy of being shown a table under a shady tree with that view! They invited us inside to look at the dessert selections, and we each ordered a slice of what they called « cookie cake », which looked like something made from a recipe found on the back of a ‘Nilla Wafer box, and tasted like a dryer tiramisu. Sam ordered a glass of port to wash it down, and we relaxed there out of the heat until just before our train was due. Although it had been a beautiful day, it was a actually a relief to get back to gray and relatively cool Porto. Next time, perhaps, we will stay a few days, so that we have time for some wine tasting

That evening we decided to eat out, as I had been cooking dinners at the apartment. We settled on tiny Emotivo, because of the excellent reviews (9.9/10 at TheFork.com), and the fact that it was a two minute walk from our place. They offer two or three regional 7 course tasting menus, which you select by choosing three objects randomly from several offered, which represent different historical areas of the country. We ended up with the Beira Alta, a mountainous region of inland Portugal, which we had not visited, so the cuisine was all completely new to us. The small staff was friendly and efficient, and it was was a fun and delicious dining experience.

Next up: Last day in Porto



Pinhão station

View from lunch

View from dessert

jpie

So excited to see your trip report. We had been thinking of you guys on our drive back from PS through Death Valley and Mammoth!.. Since we have had to cancel our Portugal trip twice in 2018 and 19, seeing your report makes me feel like maybe it was for the best since you have really helped us hone our ideas for next spring!

Are you happy you took the train tour to wine country versus driving out there yourself? We have thought about doing it both ways, but thought the train might be better if we wanted to drink at all-which I guess is a main part of the attraction I guess!

And it sounds like most of the driving you have done has been fairly easy in general. Did your car come with the toll device that I keep reading about being needed in Portugal?

lrice

Russ, what do you mean by Porto being grittier? Rick Steves also uses that word to describe it.

We have the impression that it is a smaller Lisbon. Quieter? Lots to see but charming streets and cafes to roam as well. A bit more live-able than Lisbon?

We hope to settle in for about two weeks after spending 10 days in Madrid, Seville and Lisbon. I will have to tele-work during California hours 🥱 but hope to enoy a walkable town, the food, and some sights during the morning and afternoon

russ_in_LA

Since we didn’t go wine tasting I’m not sure I’m best to answer the train vs car question, but there were taxis that met the train at the station, so I’m imagining that you could take one to a winery to drink to your hearts content. Hope we see you in PS this year!

russ_in_LA

I haven’t read Rick Steve’s so not exactly sure what he’s referring to, but the main tourist areas I saw in Lisbon are very clean, nicely painted, well maintained. I’m talking about Baixa, Chiado, Alta Beira, Alfama, etc. These areas were likely renovated and cleaned up a couple decades ago, and tourism revenue keeps them that way. I’m guessing that Porto started down that same path to gentrification (with both the good and bad impact it can have) much more recently, so you are more likely to see buildings in massive need of repairs, cleaning or general upkeep. However, we never felt unsafe, so don’t interpret it that way. It’s just not as “sanitized” for tourists. In other words, it’s a real working city. That might account for the energy there. Lisbon was dead, because there were very few tourists. Porto felt alive, I’d guess because it is less dependent on tourism.

russ_in_LA

Our last day in Porto started with a detour to the Porto airport. Even though we were flying out of Lisbon the next day, I hadn’t planned well for our COVID test, and the only testing location I could find open on Sunday was OPO. Unfortunately, I had not counted on 15,000 UK football fans all trying to leave Porto at the same time, the day after the big game, and all in need of a test. Fortunately, the line looked worse that it was, and, after a 90 minute wait, we were tested and driving back to town (happily, with negative results arriving by email 8 hours later).

Back in the city center, it was turning out to be a perfect day, 72°F/22°C, and being Sunday, the streets were lively and the restaurants were packed. After a lunch of pizza, which was frankly, much better than I expected, we retraced our steps to the São Bento train station from the day before. We then continued walking to an, as yet, unexplored part of town, starting with the Church of Santo Ildefonso, and yet another magnificent tiled facade. We then strolled to Batalha square, briefly contemplating taking the funicular down to the river. But it was far too beautiful of a day to get inside a glass and metal box, so instead we walked toward the Sé, turning left onto the pedestrian street that leads to the upper span of the Luís l bridge, which is accessible only to pedestrians and the very quiet electric metro trains. From there, we enjoyed the excellent view of the partially remaining city walls to the left side of the bridge, the Ribeira riverside to the right, and the Gaia district directly across the river in front of us.

Having crossed the bridge, we climbed to the Monastery of Serra do Pilar, of which only the round cloister is open to the public, the remainder of which is an active military base. After a quick tour there, we crossed the street to take the Gaia Teleférico (cable car) down to the river’s edge. The views from the gondola of Gaia below and Porto across the river were stupendous, as we identified all of the landmarks we could from among the places we had visited in the proceeding days.

There was a festive atmosphere when we arrived on the quay below, and all of Porto seemed to be on the riverside at that moment. The sun was out, the temperature was perfect, and there were even people on jet skis and wave runners in the river, going wild and making waves, and for a few brilliant hours, the city forgot what a lousy year it’s been. We couldn’t have asked for a better way to end our first trip to Portugal. We will be back.

HelenaFatima

Hi!

Russ already answered about this, but I'd like to say a few more things: Porto is grey, Lisbon is white, the buildings, the coblestone, etc. And then there is the light: Lisbon has a bright, white light, I don't know why but to me it's always shinning. Porto, mainly near the river and the ocean, is most of the time foggy - so it looks it is emerged from dust.

scrb11

Yeah from the pics Porto doesn't look as newly renovated as Lisbon. Maybe also some of those gorgeous squares in Lisbon are in more affluent areas so they've been maintained better?

But to me Porto looks very scenic, especially the waterfront and skyline area, especially at night. I had planned to do a lot of photography there on the trip I didn't make.

I actually booked to stay in Vila Nova de Gaia rather than in Porto itself, because it seemed to have better views across the river than the other way around.

lrice

Thanks Russ and Helena,

I only have one friend who has been all over Portugal and he prefers Porto to Lisbon. I think he used the word “alive” as well.

I like some of the old with the renovated. Would you call Porto charming?

russ_in_LA

That’s so subjective. I tend to think more often of villages or maybe small towns as being charming, but a big bustling city less so. I would say there are areas that are charming, or beautiful, or scenic, and areas that are rundown, or in need of some TLC. If you’ve been to places like Rome, there is a sort of beautiful decay in some parts there, as there is in Porto. It’s definitely nothing like a perfect little candy colored Bavarian village, which might come to mind as charming for many people. As I mentioned, there is a lot of renovation going on all over town, which I think will increase the number of charming areas. I’d be curious to know how people who live or have lived there would answer that question.