A somewhat more relaxed start to the day, since we didn’t really have anything much planned. Nicole and Jay headed out to explore the city since they’d never been here before. The rest of us had spent several days here on other trips so didn’t feel the need to bust our buns to see it all! First stop was the São Bento train station to check out the azulejos in the main entrance. The building is surrounded by hoarding because they are constructing a new Metro line in the area so it’s quite the dog’s breakfast around the station. Then we basically just had a leisurely stroll over to where the Clerigos Tower is and a stop outside Liveraria Lello, the bookshop made famous as one of JK Rowling’s inspirations for Hogwarts. No way we were going to fight the lineups to get in there, since we’d “been there, done that” on previous trips. Next stop was the Museum of Natural History, which only had two exhibits open but it was free. One exhibit was of an historical chemistry lab and the other was an exhibit of rocks and minerals. Both very interesting.
Hiked down to Rua de Flores, which I had explored extensively on my last visit, as it had lots of street art. There didn’t seem to be as much this time, but there were lots of markets to explore with a plethora of interesting items for sale. Pam found a lovely restaurant down one of the side streets where we stopped for lunch - a yummy quiche and salad for Pam and I and two different Toasts for Geoff and Irv. Had a bit of FOMO after Irv’s was served! A walk back to the flat with two stops on the way - one for a box of pastel de natas - the iconic custard tart of Portugal - and tickets to tonight’s soccer game for the boys.
A little relax and down time at the flat before the boys headed out to the soccer game and Pam and I trotted off to do more exploring in search of a good place to catch the sunset. We headed down to the Dom Luis Bridge that spans the Douro River between Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia, which is known for all of the port houses headquartered there. The bridge is especially renowned because it was designed by a student of Gustave Eiffel, of Paris tower fame. Walking across you get a great view of both cities as well as of the river below. Upon looking over at the huge crowds over on the hillside overlooking the river, we opted not to join the sardine can and instead headed back to the Porto side in search of another recommended lookout, the Midouro da Vitoria. I was surprised when we got there, because it was a place I had discovered and visited a few times on our last trip here! While we were waiting, Jay and Nicole showed up also hoping to get a shot of the sunset. While there I chatted with a young couple, he from Germany, she from Abu Dhabi, who had just come off 30 days on the Camino. We had a great chat about their experience and my limited knowledge of it from when we did three sections of it back on our Spain trip. The sunset proved to be a bit of a bust as the cloud cover rolled in just as the sun was setting. But it did give the buildings in Gaia a nice orange glow.
After that we hoofed it back to the flat where the boys were sitting on the stoop with beer in hand, as they had got back from the game earlier than we had arrived. They didn’t suffer, having paid a visit to the chichi barbershop next door with the bar and pool table in the back! Pam and I had paid a visit to the grocery store earlier in the afternoon and whipped up a tasty chicken pesto pasta, which we enjoyed with a glass of wine followed by finishing up the bottle of port we’d bought at Quinto do Portal on our tour. A great end to a lovely day in Porto.