Whistle stop tour of Porto!!

Thursday 24th April 2025

One day left in Porto so we are going to fit in as much as possible! Firstly off to Crystal Palace park, it had a structure based on our old Crystal Palace in London but that’s been taken down and now it is the Duper Bock stadium. No matter it was so foggy this morning we could hardly see it anyway!! They are beautiful gardens but it was a bit difficult to see anything, however there was a great deal of bird activity. More peacocks and peahens than I have ever seen in one place and these lovely chickens were everywhere as well. It was a bit odd as there was none around but us and a lot of birds!!

Down the hill to the church of the convent of saint francis. Noted for its Baroque interior, unfortunately you can’t take photos but suffice it to say there was more gold than you can imagine! We also went down to the catacombs which were huge! Hundreds of monks buried here since the 1800’s.

Down to the river and we took a ferry over to the other side where all the port houses are. Each one had their own boat on the river. I hope they have races sometimes!! The fog was still hanging around, there’s a bridge there somewhere!

Off to the sardine shop! It’s a total rip off, you pay about 10 euros for a tin of sardines with your date of birth in it something else. They really cost about 1 euro!! There’s some great street art over here, I really like the rabbit!

We had been given recommendations by the Airbnb owner for the best port so we did cooperating at the Ferreira house. It cost 22 euros each but actually it was a really interesting tour and we got these to taste at the end! Learnt a lot about port and the one in the left tasted the best! Then we needed to get lunch and I was really pleased to find a Porto green soup which tasted great. It’s basically a potato soup with shredded kale cooked with a salami for taste!!

We took the cable car up the hill on that side then crossed over the bridge on foot. Some incredible views from here!

We went back to the market and bought some food for sandwiches. Then in the evening back out again to our favourite bar which has a Camino sign outside!! While we were sat there there was a man reciting poetry, he looked so happy and lots of people stopped to talk to him. So Robin gave him some money, for perseverance as we couldn’t understand what he was saying. Later he came over to talk to us. His name is Nelson Bandeira. He gave us a handwritten note which made me so happy!!