Shelby's Travels

Portugal – Day 13 – Porto

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Shelby Nook

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Second to last day….

Since I got in while it was dark last night, I figured it would be nice to start with a walking tour this morning to get a lay of the land and then decide where I should go and what I should do.

Never have I ever been taken into a McDonald’s on a walking tour 😂 Turns out this used to be an old cafe that shut down and the only way to get the building to be restored to its original condition was to open a Mcdonalds franchise and McDonalds actually agreed to pay for the restoration.

Porto São Bento train station. (Featured on the Amazing Race last season 😝) all these tiles were hand painted and depicts stories of the city’s history.
Santa Clara Church : doesn’t look like much, but churches in Portugal and Spain were very modest about their embellishments. So the outside of all these churches don’t look like much but insides are very extravagant. We don’t get to go in as it was closed, but here’s what it looks like inside:
Top of Dom Luis Bridge looking out to Vila Nova de Gaia (town across the river)
Bishops Palace
Porto Cathedral
Looking out to Vila Nova de Gaia
Dom Luis Bridge

So after the tour I crossed over to Vila Nova de Gaia. Along the water here is a where all the Port Cellar Houses are located. It’s literally cellar, cellar, cellar, restaurant, restaurant, cellar, cellar, restaurant, etc. lol so I signed up for a cellar tour and tasting but had an hour to spare for lunch!

Literally, a food market is a solo travelers (me!) dream! Small portions and can sit alone without feeling weird.🥴

Now, Port Cellar tour. So Port wine is a really sweet high concentrated wine created only in this region aka Douro Valley. Same as Champagne can only be called that if it’s from Champagne region in France. ABV ~20%

We learned a little on how it’s made and how it gets its flavor and color.

Fine red, tawny white, Reserve red ?

The first two were pretty good… the last one had a lot of sediment, idk if that’s the right word, but that’s because it’s not filtered and instead goes straight from barrel to bottle.

At the tasting, I met some girls from Vancouver who were super nice and they invited me to join them to go to Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art. I

There was a large garden around the museum with a holiday market. This city is the most crowded/touristy out of all the places on this trip so far.. if you can’t tell from these pics.

Anyways… this part of the museum was cool. Lots of blueprints, sketches, models of buildings/architecture.

Then we were off to dinner for some delicious seafood!

Octopus salad and mussels
Seafood rice
Octopus with pumpkin puree! Best or second best thing I’ve eaten on this trip!

These are my new friends Melissa and Zosha. So appreciate their kindness and openness to let me tag along. Great conversations and really enjoyed the night!

One more day people!

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