Porto, home of the Franceschina. (That would be one of these…)
It’s nice to be back! We haven’t posted for a while and are winding down at our last stop for this year. We stayed for 3 nights in Seville between Ronda and Porto and checked out the Triana side of town which we enjoyed but, it was 40 degrees when we got there and 38 when we left. Way too HOT!!! Porto is much cooler and we like it …a LOT. We’ve been here for a little over 2 weeks now with 2 more to go. The airBnB overlooks both the Duoro river and the Atlantic and we’re content to just hang out and enjoy our view.
We’re staying in the west part of Porto this time as opposed to El Centro and it’s waaaaay quieter. More locals, less tourists, nice homes, and manicured gardens. We wandered into town a couple of times as it’s a pleasant hour walk along the river, and passed some nice restaurants, galleries, old guys fishing off the walkway, and spontaneous outdoor Fado performances on the weekends. The first time we ventured in was a shock though as in MAJOR touristo zoo! Well, not so much tourists as we found out, but instead it was:
- Lunatic beer guzzlin’ soccer fanatics (AKA hooligans, louts, Brits, whatever…) here for the UEFA Nations Cup. The English fans were apparently helping the Porto police test their riot gear the night before…….AND
- About 100K plus music/rock-on party animals here for the NOS Primavera festival…
All on the same weekend, so we are glad that we are not staying in town.
The walk also takes us past the Arrabida bridge. We managed to walk across it last year as we were coming back from the south shore (where all the port houses are) but from the information I have now, you are not allowed to do this so, either this is a change and we got lucky or we just didn’t get caught. I do remember it being a little harrowing as we walked along the narrow walkway with 6 lanes of speeding traffic whizzing by. The bridge is quite picturesque though as it is an arched concrete structure rising some 230 feet above the Duoro. At the time it was finished back in the 1960s, it was the largest concrete-arch bridge in the world spanning almost 1000 feet.
We went to the Serralves museum and gardens this past week and that was worth seeing and we’re told that it is one of the most important cultural institutions in the country. The gardens are truly spectacular, and the art museum is the most visited in Portugal. It is contemporary art though…AKA seriously weird art-s**t that I apparently have no appreciation for. Teresa thought it was great, so if you visit, your mileage may vary. Some of the art spills out into the gardens, like for example, giant high-heeled shoes made with All-Clad pots and pans. Don’t get me started.
There is also a Casa (house) which you can pay extra to go and see. It’s nice art deco architecture that the wealthy owners had built to overlook their expanse of terraces, fountains, lakes, gardens, meadows, and farm. Pretty nice digs! We’re glad that we didn’t fork out the extra coin though for this, as while it looks nice on the outside, it’s just a 1920s mansion with empty rooms and high ceilings. Save your money and go to one of the RE open houses in Vancouver’s Shaughnessy area. It’ll look pretty much the same.
Image courtesy of Viator
A more laid-back stay here this time in Porto. Great view, good food, some nice Duoro red, and definitely a couple of bottles of port. We have bikes to use and will try and get out to the beaches/ocean front on the south shore. Since we can’t cross on the Arrabida bridge with bikes, we need to cross the Duoro on some sort of small fishing boat. That’ll be interesting. The weather is mostly a pleasant 22 degrees usually with some wind but, every once in a while, a storm blows in. Kinda like the west coast so we’ll have to time our bike ride accordingly. Also need to find another ‘little frenchie’ Frankenstein sandwich somewhere. I hear them calling.
