Porto: A unique city

I know it doesn’t apply to me but why would you flush your socks down the toilet? Sorry so hard to resist these bathroom signs

In this pic you can see the lower foot bridge which was at the base of the steps of our air BnB and at the top you can see the bridge for pedestrians and cars. The top bridge leads out to the historic area

An easy flight next to to a young “portanite”who took my phone and amended and added to our list of stops. He seemed to have enjoyed climbing the bridge. And he definitely enjoyed eating!

The 2 yellow marks show where we stayed—thanks to Dan and Linda’s rec we looked out at the beautiful city wall. The arrow points to the back yard—note the crane which housekeeper/manager said had been hanging there for 2 years. It was surprisingly quiet after about 12:30 PM when the concerts ended on the river—-we really didn’t mind as it was nice to crawl into bed and listen to music.

A cab driver dropped us off at the top of what he called a donkey path to our lodging . The German couple trying to turn around in the donkey path as we arrived likely had less complimentary terms . (The wife wisely got out of the car while a Portuguese guy kept coaching him along saying… “ have no worry, your car is strong!”. Not sure how that helped?) Regardless after a 10 minutes of entertainment he was off the sidewalk and we were at the beautiful guesthouse Dan and Linda stayed. A well renovated spacious place that was perfectly positioned near all the tourist high points. (Have no idea why it went to bold and too hard to change—don’t puzzle over this).

Our first evening, listening to music in the cathedral square and watching sunset……

Loved the walk from our room down to the river and across the footbridge that is the oldest bridge in Portugal. And because one of those tiny tables perched on the sidewalk by the river was empty we grabbed it for wine, beer and snacks. A little of the flavor of the piers in San Francisco with lots of English and tourist tempting stuff, but a fun place to people/river watch. Decided to get the port tasting over right away as Brant is convinced it tastes like cough medicine. I think he was impressed by the very old ports and we enjoyed talking with the young Canadian who had escaped his Canadian cubicle.

Hard to beat “tomato bread” (Madrid specialty with ingredients bought at the market), good coffee from Brooklyn, and delicious pistachios from Mexico… all while while watching the tourists stream down to Gaia

The thought of walking up those steps was unpleasant and possibly dangerous after lots of port but we noticed a gondola that appeared to take us up to the taller bridge. We met a nice French Canadian couple trying to sort it out as well(who spoke a little English) and learned she had same name as our other friends in Quebec. Then we ended up watching same Irish band. Later, a good 20 minute walk from the band in a tiny restaurant, the same couple walked out while we were eating…. Very odd. Bet they thought we were stalking them!

I’d like to point out that the oysters are actually cheaper in France

Porto is difficult to describe. I heard someone say that all cities are the same, only the people that are different. Personally i think that is a ridiculous statement with only a speck of truth in it. I believe that every city is a process. The geography combined with people and their history determine the architecture and then begins all the layering of a city. In Porto there was a lot of dark gothic and baroque architecture. I think the people decided it was all getting a bit too serious so they put brightly colored tiles all over the place to cheer it up. I think its that combination that makes it truly unique, not exactly like any other city I have been in. But then I feel like every city is unique…

Without a doubt, we had the best meal in Portugal in this restaurant, Gruta and it’s difficult to think what was best meal before this. (There have been some awfully good ones in Brooklyn). This is a merengue, on top of a porto soaked cake which is on top of carmelized pears. The rest of the dinner was equally good. We learned the chef was from Brazil. If we go back to Porto we will be heading there again for sure!

So here is the famous Franchesina. The other plate is a Portuguese hot dog and of course the ever present French fries. The franchesina is kind of an egg cheese strata deconstructed with a steak thrown into one of the layers (which I think takes the place of the spinach or brócoli in strata).And yes it’s as filling as it looks. The sauce is excellent. Interestingly there was a women wandering around with these fried croquettes to go with the dinner. What a nice contrast to our other fried foods that would be—-we passed—but we did enjoy these.

…and at this whole in the wall restaurant I ordered the seafood rice, it was as delicious as it looks plus we watched “The Voice” for the first time. The French Canadian couple liked it too.

We only had 3 nights in Porto and easily you could fill a week exploring. We opted against the Douro Valley but could definitely come back another time to enjoy a river cruise. (We decided to get to the truly beautiful part of the valley was 2 hours by train, and to really appreciate we thought it deserved an overnight—with more time we would have done this).

This was my favorite spot in the city. A friend’s daughter recommended this spot and it was amazing to walk through the somewhat crowded city streets and find an Olive Garden in the midst of an olive grove overlooking the “fancy” architecture of the city. So it deserves additional pics….

Yup, you order a drink and sit on the grass. If we had been smart like the young people we would have noticed the “sit upon” furnished by the bar.

I just love it that they keep the grass scraggly with these ancient olives right in the middle of the city—-yup nobody’s putting a parking lot here! This is actually on top of a hill so you are surrounded with beautiful views.

Gin is VERY popular here. And so is any place that has a band on the beach on a sunny Sunday afternoon. So here is my theory people are pretty much the same everywhere…so why is any city different? Hah (the Foz—not Fonz)

And the question: would we come back? Absolutely! In fact we actually talked about living here. And the stairs would keep us fit!

Surprises? It was a youthful city . It was an easy city to figure out, to me the historic part seemed a bit small. It was easy to get around. There seemed to be a few too many tourists but not terribly crowded. Lots of English spoken and when that didn’t work Spanish did come in handy a few times. After a couple days of walking around cathedrals and beautiful streets and even a museum that served wine—we decided to check out a regular neighborhood. Of course we picked a very nice neighborhood—-THE FOZ.