Category Archives: Portugal

Porto, take 2 + 1

What a funny day weather wise…cloudy…bit cool…rain predicted today as well….and it did!

We didn’t feel much like sightseeing today so we shopped instead…well Steven did the shopping while Faiza carried the bags lol ….

and, when in Rome (ok…Porto)..we visited Europe’s famous Cafe Majestic (where the last few days we saw long queues of people waiting to get in). We had morning tea in the cafe described as the most beautiful cafe in Porto. Actually, it’s on the Top 10 of the most beautiful cafes in the world. It dates back to 1921 under the name of Elite. It’s located on Santa Catarina Street, the main pedestrian walkway in the city.

As expected in such places, the coffee is expensive. The menu is classy and it’s almost as if everybody feels obliged to behave in a certain way when at the Majestic Café….we were on our very best behaviour…of course!

With all this rain we decided to go back to the room for a siesta before dinner.

The rain subsided a little in the evening so we had dinner at Arroz de Forno…a great meal of lamb potato and rice cooked in the oven…soooo filling. …

Porto take 2

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With the threat of rain today we braved the day and set out to do more sightseeing.

After a good breakfast at a cafe near the river we walked around Porto. We saw the museum, St Francis Cathedral and the catacombs.

As we had a 2 day tour bus ticket we decided to board the bus to the other side of the river. We rode the cable cars and visited the Monastery before having lunch at Cafe Grill by the riverside … so far no rain but it is a bit cold and windy.

To keep us warm from the wind we decided to go do some port wine tasting at the Quevedo cellars. ….after all … this is the home of port wine, and we had a couple of free coupons for tasting. We were entertained by a pianist and singer singing traditional Portuguese songs.

Out and about in Porto

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We began the day after 9am (got the washing of clothes out the way) with a hearty breakfast for Steven of bacon & egg, rice, chips and salad (yup … funny combination).

With our bus tour tickets in hand we boarded the red line tour bus to explore more of Porto, hopping on and off to see places of interest. We saw museums, churches, poor areas of town, areas where the rich lived and spent some time at the beach front.
At the Ribeira on the Douro river there were motoX racing so after watching that we boarded a river cruise (included in our bus ticket).

The city was buzzing with people out and about on Saturday evening. On our long way back to our hotel we watched Buskers and ate more of the yummy roasted chestnuts from the street venders.

We had dinner at a local restaurant where Steve had his new favourite dish..BBQ Octopus and Faiza had another local delicacy BBQ fish.