Porto, Portugal!

Up early to catch our flight to Porto via Lisbon, we arrived in Lisbon with just 30 minutes to make our connection!?! Alas, our Porto flight was already cancelled and we were booked on a 1-hour later flight-with time and meal vouchers in hand we toured Lisbon Airport- very nice- makes LAX look like a dump.

Our Porto Airbnb was in a working-class building on the 5th floor. The elevator (thankfully it had one) was the size of a small phone booth, it was a squeeze for Terri & Me to fit with backpacks on. The view of the Douro River from our apartment was great and the apartment had everything we needed.

Almost everything in Porto relates to port wine-hence the name. There are tons of port tasting rooms, port wine shops, port wine museums, port wine cellars, port history tours and museums, port wine boat rides,🍷🍷🍷. It is a beautiful city with lots of character. We really enjoyed it, and we would have even more if we liked port wine-not big fans.

The highlight for us was renting electric bikes and cruising the riverfront to the ocean and south to the Senhor da Pedra (Lord of Stone) chapel located on a rock that at high tide makes it inaccessible. We have never ridden electric bikes before and they are pretty heavy and a little intimidating at first. We immediately had to cross over the biggest bridge in Porto, luckily it is only two lanes of slow traffic. We were able to just follow behind the cars with no passing as we did not want to crash just 5 minutes into our ride. The electric bikes are pretty cool.  Normally Terri has to hustle to stay up with me and she has to peddle on the downhills.  With the electric bike, she can just kick it up a notch and go whizzing by me with a smirk😜 and with our weight difference she uses a LOT less battery than I do😤.

We toured the main cathedral, the Contemporary Art Museum😧😮😵, great parks, did a river cruise, rode the hop-on, hop-off bus all around the city and tried some great restaurants.

A few things about eating in Portugal 🇵🇹:

Bread and olives are served immediately and if you don’t want to be charged for them you must refuse them, but they are sooo good and cheap!

In a fish restaurant you may also get cod cakes served immediately upon sitting

Everyone has wine or beer, even at lunch & no age limit

Salad dressing choices: oil & vinegar or vinegar & oil

The portions are good sized, Terri and I often share

Everyone has dessert, except us

Everyone has expresso, except us

Plan on at least 90 minutes for lunch, longer for dinner and you never feel rushed

You have to ask for the bill

At popular eateries, reservations are a must! We tried to book dinner reservations at Tapabento, requesting 4 days prior, leaving open the time and days we were available-we could only get lunch reservations-but it was very good.

Next stop: Nazare, home of the largest waves in the world🌊

M&T

The view from our window at sunset

Dinner at home:fresh bread and olives (a staple for us now), good cheese, local meats and the most expensive wine in the market: $2.30 eurosPorto train station

Tapabento eatery

gardens at the Contemporary Art Museum