A visit to Porto wasn't clear on the agenda as going to Lisbon... It was a big question mark almost until the last day... I can't remember well, but I know that we had something to care about at home... Anyways, we managed to visit Porto on our Portugal journey and it was worth every single moment... Especially this long walk around the city that you will see in this post...
For the first 6 days (including this one) of our journey we were extremely lucky to have beautiful weather all the time... If you checked the previous posts (look for the links at the bottom of this post), you have noticed that and the last Riding the Waves in Nazaré .:. Wednesday Walk Vacation Tour Part 8 post was a great example of that...
Unfortunately, our luck turned in Porto and after this night, there was heavy rain and we couldn't make another visit to the city by day as we had to hit the road home... 😞 So, the photos that you are looking at are our only "memories" from Porto... Luckily, we took this evening/night walk although we were exhausted from the trip as without this, it would be just a bad taste about this beautiful city...
After finding our accommodation and a short talk with a great host who explained to us what can we visit in Porto, we went out toward the Luís I Bridge which itself is an architectural beauty! Believe it or not, the famous architect Gustave Eiffel's project was rejected and someone else built it... Anyways, it looks great, but unfortunately, as it was night, I didn't take a photo of the bridge itself, but rather photos when I was crossing over it...
Views from the bridge... In the photo above, you can see Funicular dos Guindais, a steep cable railway that connects the upper part of the city with the bottom...
As the bridge is double-deck, it has 2 levels, on the top level there is a railway in the middle and you can see a train passing by in the photo above... The lower deck of the bridge was under reconstruction and it was possible to go over only for pedestrians...
A look at the Catholic church Igreja da Serra do Pilar...
After getting off the bridge we had a small problem finding a way down to the river banks, but the good old recipe of following the crowd worked out...
As I was living by the river most of my life, this image of small boats sleeping on a peaceful night reminded me of my childhood...
On the other side of the sidewalk, completely different image... Busy evening bar/restaurant life, many people searching for a place for tasting a famous pastel de bacalhau or drinking a world-famous wine from Porto! Among them, we were on the same mission... 😂
Someone was creative with old car tires and created these great animals from them! How cool is that?!
The search was over! We found an ideal place to take a glass of sweet wine! It was looking intriguing from the outside, but even more beautiful from the inside! We had to enter to Casa Portuguesa do Pastel de Bacalhau - Gaia...
Is it a library? Is it a bar? Or maybe a restaurant? Or a music venue?
It was all in one! And the best of all was that they had a live event and we were there in the right place at the right time!
We found a great place to sit on the "inner balcony", with Port wine in glasses and the show can begin!
A guy was playing the organ and a lady was singing!
You can't get drunk in a place like that as one glass of wine was a bit expensive, so after the show, we passed over the lower deck of the bridge, to the other side of the river...
After having a wine, we got hungry, so the next mission was to find a restaurant that serves food in the late hours... As we live in a tourist place, I have noticed that you can eat whenever you want during the day, but in Porto wasn't like that...
Also, we have another requirement as it should be somewhere on the way toward our accommodation... We got onto some narrow streets and found some restaurants, but when they are empty, it was a bad sign and you should skip those... 😃
This was an interesting shopwindow of a music store, so I took a couple of photos...
If you didn't visit European railway stations, you should do it... Especially in big cities like Porto as they are full of history (sometimes literally written on the walls) and great architecture...
We didn't have to ride a train, but I took a photo just to get the "traveling feeling" 😃
I think that we found one local restaurant on this street, but as we were hungry, I forgot to take photos of the food and the venue itself... lol... I remember that it was a buzzing place, full of locals, which was a sign that they serve good food... And, oh boy, it was great!
As I said at the beginning, we didn't have luck with the weather the next day, and this photo was my last one from Porto... Who knows, maybe that was a sign that we have to come back again and enjoy this great city for a longer time?
Goodbye Portugal! I'll be back!
Previous posts from the 2023 Epic Journey:
Riding the Waves in Nazaré .:. Wednesday Walk Vacation Tour Part 8
Streets of Lisbon .:. Wednesday Walk Vacation Tour Part 7
Castillo de San Jorge .:. Wednesday Walk Vacation Tour Part 6 - Lisbon
Final Destination! .:. Wednesday Walk Vacation Tour Part 5 - Lisbon
On The Island .:. Wednesday Walk Vacation Tour Part 4 - Cádiz
Kissing the Ocean .:. Wednesday Walk Vacation Tour Part 3
Walking in the Park of Málaga .:. Wednesday Walk Vacation Tour
Christmas City Lights of Almería .:. Late Night Wednesday Walk
Thank you for your valuable time,
ph
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