Tuesday, February 15, 2022 - Porto

This morning I splurged on a 17 Euro 1st Class ticket to Porto - about a 4 hour train ride.

There were only 2 of us in the beginning, but by the time we got to Porto (11 stops in between Lisbon and Porto), there where about 10 people total in our section.  It was very pleasant, although not as smooth as the Spanish Trains - it felt a bit more like Amtrak, but still noticeably better.

About fifteen minutes or so outside of Porto, we passed through a community right on the ocean.  I took a few pictures of some of the interesting houses.  At some point, I want to look on a more detailed map to figure out what town this was.  Obviously, the clarity isn’t the greatest taking pictures behind the glass driving by.

I’m just a tad nervous about coming down out of the loft bedroom in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, we’ll see.  If all else fails, the couch folds out to a bed.

On the trip from Lisbon, I made arrangements to get a TukTuk tour of the city.  It took a bit longer than I had anticipated to get to the apartment after I arrived at the train station.  Kind of like being let off in Downtown Pittsburgh at the train station and walking to Shadyside.  It took me nearly an hour because I couldn’t find a taxi.  About 5 minutes before I got to the apartment, a taxi drove by - lol - oh well.  

So I ended up having only minutes to spare to meet the tour guide/driver of the TukTuk.

The driver (I can’t recall his name) asked me how long I’d been in Porto.  I told him that I had only gotten there about an hour ago.  He then said, “So you haven’t really seen anything yet.  Well, I will show you everything!”  And indeed he did!  We drove in his tiny little TukTuk for 2 hours all around Porto.  With the brick roads and the tiny wheels of the TukTuk, I felt like I was on an Urban Safari!  The following pictures are those I took on our tour.  I don’t know the names of any of the buildings/churches/monuments or anything.  He told me, but it was all too much to process and remember.  So, I’m just showing you the pictures and tomorrow I’ll start exploring some of these fantastic places.

The building where you see a bunch of people standing in front - it’s become quite famous as one of the places where JK Rawlings wrote her book series, “Harry Potter.”

Looking down on Porto and the city of Gaia across the river.

And the night view of Porto from Gaia.

Lunch was sort of a grab and go, but I stopped for dinner at Baju, a recommended restaurant from my tour guide.  I had veal stuffed with cheese and ham, basically a Veal Cordon Blue.  And for dessert something the waiter called Natas from Heaven.  It was mostly just whipped cream, but there was some kind of cakey thing at the bottom, I think.  Oh, they seem to serve potatoes at every meal in every possible way.  To be honest, even though these weren’t typical US French Fries, they were pretty awesome and I don’t usually (ever?) like limp fries.  These were limp, but somehow they were also delicious.

Tomorrow, I’ll explore the city on my own and tomorrow night I have another food experience/tour.  I can already tell that food “up here in the north” is very different than the food they served in Lisbon.  As I watched a number of the dishes come out of the kitchen tonight, many/most of them had been smothered in gravy or cheese such as the Francesinha. Like this one.  Evidently, there’s sausage, steak, ham, egg, and mortadella in there.