Porto and Lisbon
Mar 5th, 2024, 02:37 PM
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Porto and Lisbon
I will do this trip report into more than one post: the first will be the Porto portion of the trip, and the following post or posts will be the Lisbon portion of the trip. We spent three nights in each city. For Porto, we spent three nights at the Duas Portas hotel. I cannot recommend this hotel enough. The staff went above and beyond to assist us. Some examples of this incredible assistance included helping with restaurant reservations, even while we were not at the hotel, and enabling us to get cash from our credit card when we forgot our debit cards. The hotel is also steps away from a bus line that goes to the center of town and also a bus stop coming from the center of town as well.
On the first day, we arrived in Porto at 8 AM local time. We went to drop off our bags at the hotel, as they informed us, we would not be able to check in until 4 PM, but they would watch our bags. As the hotel room was available at that point, they were able to give us an early check in, and we were able to get a needed few hours of sleep, as we were really unable to sleep on the flight in. We did wake up later than we had intended. We quickly scrambled to find a quick lunch before our walking tour that we had booked. I found a place called The Oldest Café in Town, thinking that it would be a quick pastry, coffee, and sandwich shop. I apparently confused that term with cafeteria.
Thankfully at our lunch place, there was no wait. The wait staff was incredibly helpful, and we ordered their house specialty, which was a bifana. They have several different varieties of the bifana. Afterwards, we went on a walking tour with Catarina in the Porto unveiled walking tour at freetour.com. She struck a good balance between a brief overview of the history of the places and talking about overall Portuguese culture.
That night, we stayed close to our hotel, as we are still very tired. They recommended a place for dinner called Casa de Pasto da Palmeira. It was a Portuguese fusion tapas restaurant. We got the oxtail croquettes goat cheese eclairs, sausage roll in an eggroll style, and apple crumble with cinnamon ice cream. We really enjoyed the food, and the wait staff was attentive.
We started off the second day with a Tile Workshop. It was a little sketchy initially, as the website that ran the tours, subcultours, notified us only two hours prior to the tile workshop that the location had changed via email. I was fortunate enough to have brought my own phone and to have been checking my own email, as I would not have been aware of that change otherwise. I do think that last-minute change is not a regular thing, as the artist running the tile workshop had just moved studios. The artist, Francisco, was great at explaining the Tile history and the tile artistry components. We made two tiles. The first was an unaltered stencil, and the second tile was us combining several stencils, so that we could make our own unique design.
After the workshop, we crossed over to Villa Nova de Gaia and went to a hole in the wall place called Porto Antigo Comida Caseira. We split a cup of vegetable soup, and a seabass entrée, and the food was delicious. That filled us up, and the total was only around €18.
We were then about to go to the Wine Experience Museum, but realized that the ticket price for the museum was the same as going to one of the wine caves. We first attempted to go to the Ferreira, one cave, but there were no English tour slots left. If you want a specific wine cave, it is important to reserve in advance. Instead, we went to the Brumester wine cave. The tour was very informative, and we did a tasting with three different port wines and chocolate.
View from Burmester
For dinner, we went to a restaurant called Nova Paris. We split a sausage board, which we very much enjoyed, and a steak platter. The steak platter wasn’t very special, but I was surprised that a cheaper steak was still tender.
Our final day in Porto started off with a visit to the Se Cathedral. Although the Rick Steves tour book said that there would be a guide, when we asked for one, they said, there wasn’t one. We very much would’ve appreciated a guide, as we are not familiar with church terms. The church was very pretty, with lots of beautiful tire work. There was also a second level to explore.
We then went to lunch to get a francesinha at a place recommended by the hotel concierge Beatriz called Casanova. We got one non-alcoholic Super Bock and one francesinha with fries. The francesinha was delicious. I do want to let you know that that restaurant is cash only. The restaurant was very gracious in having us pay one of the staff’s personal PayPal accounts when we were unable to provide cash, but we will definitely not make that mistake in the future, and I would definitely not expect one to be able to pay by PayPal.
After lunch, we went to the Palacia da Bolsa. While we waited for the English tour (guided tour of required, since it is still working building), we window shopped in the Ribeira area. The place was lovely, and the tour guide told many punny jokes.
For dinner, we went to a restaurant called Cantina 32. We got the sausage croquettes and the pork ribs with coleslaw, and that was enough to fill us up. The pork ribs were especially flavorful, even though there was no barbecue sauce, just a spice rub.
On the first day, we arrived in Porto at 8 AM local time. We went to drop off our bags at the hotel, as they informed us, we would not be able to check in until 4 PM, but they would watch our bags. As the hotel room was available at that point, they were able to give us an early check in, and we were able to get a needed few hours of sleep, as we were really unable to sleep on the flight in. We did wake up later than we had intended. We quickly scrambled to find a quick lunch before our walking tour that we had booked. I found a place called The Oldest Café in Town, thinking that it would be a quick pastry, coffee, and sandwich shop. I apparently confused that term with cafeteria.
Thankfully at our lunch place, there was no wait. The wait staff was incredibly helpful, and we ordered their house specialty, which was a bifana. They have several different varieties of the bifana. Afterwards, we went on a walking tour with Catarina in the Porto unveiled walking tour at freetour.com. She struck a good balance between a brief overview of the history of the places and talking about overall Portuguese culture.
That night, we stayed close to our hotel, as we are still very tired. They recommended a place for dinner called Casa de Pasto da Palmeira. It was a Portuguese fusion tapas restaurant. We got the oxtail croquettes goat cheese eclairs, sausage roll in an eggroll style, and apple crumble with cinnamon ice cream. We really enjoyed the food, and the wait staff was attentive.
We started off the second day with a Tile Workshop. It was a little sketchy initially, as the website that ran the tours, subcultours, notified us only two hours prior to the tile workshop that the location had changed via email. I was fortunate enough to have brought my own phone and to have been checking my own email, as I would not have been aware of that change otherwise. I do think that last-minute change is not a regular thing, as the artist running the tile workshop had just moved studios. The artist, Francisco, was great at explaining the Tile history and the tile artistry components. We made two tiles. The first was an unaltered stencil, and the second tile was us combining several stencils, so that we could make our own unique design.
After the workshop, we crossed over to Villa Nova de Gaia and went to a hole in the wall place called Porto Antigo Comida Caseira. We split a cup of vegetable soup, and a seabass entrée, and the food was delicious. That filled us up, and the total was only around €18.
We were then about to go to the Wine Experience Museum, but realized that the ticket price for the museum was the same as going to one of the wine caves. We first attempted to go to the Ferreira, one cave, but there were no English tour slots left. If you want a specific wine cave, it is important to reserve in advance. Instead, we went to the Brumester wine cave. The tour was very informative, and we did a tasting with three different port wines and chocolate.
View from Burmester
For dinner, we went to a restaurant called Nova Paris. We split a sausage board, which we very much enjoyed, and a steak platter. The steak platter wasn’t very special, but I was surprised that a cheaper steak was still tender.
Our final day in Porto started off with a visit to the Se Cathedral. Although the Rick Steves tour book said that there would be a guide, when we asked for one, they said, there wasn’t one. We very much would’ve appreciated a guide, as we are not familiar with church terms. The church was very pretty, with lots of beautiful tire work. There was also a second level to explore.
We then went to lunch to get a francesinha at a place recommended by the hotel concierge Beatriz called Casanova. We got one non-alcoholic Super Bock and one francesinha with fries. The francesinha was delicious. I do want to let you know that that restaurant is cash only. The restaurant was very gracious in having us pay one of the staff’s personal PayPal accounts when we were unable to provide cash, but we will definitely not make that mistake in the future, and I would definitely not expect one to be able to pay by PayPal.
After lunch, we went to the Palacia da Bolsa. While we waited for the English tour (guided tour of required, since it is still working building), we window shopped in the Ribeira area. The place was lovely, and the tour guide told many punny jokes.
For dinner, we went to a restaurant called Cantina 32. We got the sausage croquettes and the pork ribs with coleslaw, and that was enough to fill us up. The pork ribs were especially flavorful, even though there was no barbecue sauce, just a spice rub.
Last edited by cavalierfish; Mar 5th, 2024 at 02:40 PM.
Mar 5th, 2024, 10:29 PM
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Mar 13th, 2024, 07:31 PM
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Part II
Thank you for your patience! Here is the Lisbon portion of the trip.
We took a train from the Campanha station in Porto to the Santa Apolonia station in Lisbon. The train had nice scenery, and there were no hitches once the company announced that the projected strike had been resolved and was not occurring (we did buy bus tickets once we heard just in case and were able to get a 50% refund). By the time we got in it was time for lunch, and we went to a place called Oven in Baixa. I felt we needed one change of pace from Portuguese food so I found Indian and Nepali cuisine.
As a caveat, I understand why restaurant prices are the way they are due to paying staff, paying overhead, and still needing a profit after paying for ingredients. However, this place was truly a rip-off. For €20, all we got was a box setup with half of it naan, a curry with only four pieces of lamb, a small salad, and 2 dumplings.
Afterwards, we went to the Lisbon Story Center. It involves an audio guide involving history of Lisbon. To be honest, I don’t feel like it was anything you couldn’t get from a tour book. I was hoping to get more personalized accounts from the different points in time in Lisbon’s history.
That afternoon, we also did a great walking tour with Hi Lisbon Walking Tours. It was a tour covering Baixa and Chiado. Shir was a great guide. We weren’t able to cover the whole tour, but we really enjoyed how she covered the history of the area.
The day concluded with dinner at our hotel’s restaurant (we stayed at Hotel da Baixa and highly recommend it). It’s a modern take on Portuguese cuisine. We had duck risotto and cod, and they were both fabulous.
The next day, we toured the synagogue Shaare Tikva. The tour guide was very informative. In order to get a tour, you need to register in advance and provide passport numbers.
The rest of the day was spent in the Alfama area. We went to the overlook at Miradouro de Santa Luisa and then went to lunch at Rio Coura. I don’t remember what we had because it was typical Portuguese, but I remember it was good.
Late afternoon was spent at the museum of decorative arts. We also shopped for tile souvenir gifts at by Nunes, which I would recommend because they are not the mass produced tiles you will find elsewhere. The decorative arts museum requires a guide to go through, but I think it is worth it.
That night, we grabbed dinner and fado at Retiro dos Sentidos. We initially made a reservation with Adega do Ribatejo. When we got there, someone asked if we were here for fado, and I was definitely initially wary given how much I’d read about pickpockets and scammers in Lisbon. When he said the dinner and fado would be at the sister restaurant Retiro dos Sentidos, I initially didn’t want to follow him. We went to this location for fado at the recommendation of Rick Steves, and I chose it because dinner was a la carte. All other fado recommendations had very mixed reviews on TripAdvisor for the dinner portion and no agency in how much was paid for dinner. We enjoyed the food and the music. For dinner, we got codfish cakes, sea bream, and duck rice.
Our final day was spent in Belém. We first went to the Praça do Império garden.
Then we went to the Padrão dos Descobrimentos and the Torre de Belém.
For lunch, we went to Vela Latina. We were definitely underdressed. We shared a soup and a steak. They were both very good, but it was more of a splurge restaurant for our budget.
After lunch, we visited the Jerónimos Monastery. We did not visit the cloister, but the church was very pretty.
For our final dinner, we went to A Merendinha do Arco Bandeira. We got there in the nick of time before they filled up and closed for the night. We had vegetable soup, caldo verde, and grouper, and all were excellent. The server also gave us a surprise free ginjinha.
That concludes our trip. Let me know if you have any questions about anything like logistics.
We took a train from the Campanha station in Porto to the Santa Apolonia station in Lisbon. The train had nice scenery, and there were no hitches once the company announced that the projected strike had been resolved and was not occurring (we did buy bus tickets once we heard just in case and were able to get a 50% refund). By the time we got in it was time for lunch, and we went to a place called Oven in Baixa. I felt we needed one change of pace from Portuguese food so I found Indian and Nepali cuisine.
As a caveat, I understand why restaurant prices are the way they are due to paying staff, paying overhead, and still needing a profit after paying for ingredients. However, this place was truly a rip-off. For €20, all we got was a box setup with half of it naan, a curry with only four pieces of lamb, a small salad, and 2 dumplings.
Afterwards, we went to the Lisbon Story Center. It involves an audio guide involving history of Lisbon. To be honest, I don’t feel like it was anything you couldn’t get from a tour book. I was hoping to get more personalized accounts from the different points in time in Lisbon’s history.
That afternoon, we also did a great walking tour with Hi Lisbon Walking Tours. It was a tour covering Baixa and Chiado. Shir was a great guide. We weren’t able to cover the whole tour, but we really enjoyed how she covered the history of the area.
The day concluded with dinner at our hotel’s restaurant (we stayed at Hotel da Baixa and highly recommend it). It’s a modern take on Portuguese cuisine. We had duck risotto and cod, and they were both fabulous.
The next day, we toured the synagogue Shaare Tikva. The tour guide was very informative. In order to get a tour, you need to register in advance and provide passport numbers.
The rest of the day was spent in the Alfama area. We went to the overlook at Miradouro de Santa Luisa and then went to lunch at Rio Coura. I don’t remember what we had because it was typical Portuguese, but I remember it was good.
Late afternoon was spent at the museum of decorative arts. We also shopped for tile souvenir gifts at by Nunes, which I would recommend because they are not the mass produced tiles you will find elsewhere. The decorative arts museum requires a guide to go through, but I think it is worth it.
That night, we grabbed dinner and fado at Retiro dos Sentidos. We initially made a reservation with Adega do Ribatejo. When we got there, someone asked if we were here for fado, and I was definitely initially wary given how much I’d read about pickpockets and scammers in Lisbon. When he said the dinner and fado would be at the sister restaurant Retiro dos Sentidos, I initially didn’t want to follow him. We went to this location for fado at the recommendation of Rick Steves, and I chose it because dinner was a la carte. All other fado recommendations had very mixed reviews on TripAdvisor for the dinner portion and no agency in how much was paid for dinner. We enjoyed the food and the music. For dinner, we got codfish cakes, sea bream, and duck rice.
Our final day was spent in Belém. We first went to the Praça do Império garden.
Then we went to the Padrão dos Descobrimentos and the Torre de Belém.
For lunch, we went to Vela Latina. We were definitely underdressed. We shared a soup and a steak. They were both very good, but it was more of a splurge restaurant for our budget.
After lunch, we visited the Jerónimos Monastery. We did not visit the cloister, but the church was very pretty.
For our final dinner, we went to A Merendinha do Arco Bandeira. We got there in the nick of time before they filled up and closed for the night. We had vegetable soup, caldo verde, and grouper, and all were excellent. The server also gave us a surprise free ginjinha.
That concludes our trip. Let me know if you have any questions about anything like logistics.
