Blogs from Porto, Northern, Portugal, Europe - page 5

Nakonec z ubytka odchadzam uz okolo 915. V lobby nemec zo vcera co pil. Caka na check in, bo vcera ho nestihol spravit. Inak aj v tomto ubytku bolo skryte doplacanie (ale to som vedel), treba platit tur.taxu a ak chce uterak tak +1€ Vybieham do supermarketu, zavrety a to mali otvarat o 900. Na ulicy pusto, vsetko zavrete. Nakonec nachadzam otvorenu kaviarnicku, kapucino a siska s mega cokoladou. Len ta cena. Do kaviarne prichadza policia. Predavacky ju zavolali na jednu bezdacku. Policajti tu boli do 5min. Zenu vyviedli, vonku spisali, zapisnicu dali podpisat predavacke. Tomu sa hovori efektivita, ne jak u nas. Najedeny, nachadzam otvoreny mini market, kupa pozivne na let. Motam sa ulickami az prichadzam ku knihkupectvu harry poter. Zavrete lebo virus. Ludia na uliciach skoro ziadny, skoro vsetko pozatvarane (ale je nedela) lebo ... read more

A full day of travel. Waiting outside under a canopy for a train transfer at Tunes, the rain falls in such thick and heavy sheets it almost looks like snow. At 10 pm we glimpse the city of Porto, Portugal under twinkling lights. For breakfast, the coffee shop only offers one item in two flavours. One is the famous Portuguese pastel de nata (custard tart), and the other is the same tart, but with the addition of port. So we order one of each. The Sao Bento railway station began construction in 1904. The large blue and white tile murals were composed by Jorge Calaco and involved the use of 20,000 hand-painted tiles. Many of the scenes are life in the country with cattle, camps, vineyards and watermills. Walking down the streets, reveals several beautifully tiled ... read more

United flight 144 arrived 10 minutes early in Porto and it took just a half hour to zoom through passport control and retrieve my hiking poles in baggage claim. An easy 10 minute walk landed me at the metro station and 20 minutes later I was walking out of the metro, pondering which way to turn, when I heard a voice saying “Are you Patricia?” I turned around and said “yes” and met Ricardo, who owns the apartment where we’re staying. He had come out to the station when I texted him that I’d arrived at the airport! My first taste of Porto hospitality. We walked a short 5 minutes and he showed me into the spacious 3-bedroom flat. Once he’d shown me around and given me keys, I texted Katherine, who spent the previous night ... read more

I know you’ve heard it all before; we slept in, left late, but we did visit the Eastern section of Porto, just to get a different perspective and enjoy the last day of a slow paced visit. We haven’t seen everything, didn’t have a list, but other than the helicopter ride I suggested, and never did, we think we have a handle on Porto. Apparently the chairlift was as far as Sue was leaving the ground, without two wings and a couple of motors involved. A lost opportunity, I’d say. I messaged our Airbnb host to see if he could organise a cab for us early tomorrow, but I wanted a Plan B and C. B was the train. After taking a number and seeing the random call up system operate for about 25 minutes, my ... read more

The best made plans never left the ground this morning. We were up earlier, but it was 9.30 before we hit the pavement and decided to try to catch a met train. These trains look more like long trams, and disappear into the earth as soon as you are over the river Douro. After that it’s 2 minutes before we are leaving Sao Bento Station to begin our walk to Lello bookshop. As we were already 45 minutes late for our intended 9am arrival at the shop, we called into O Forno, a modern cafe nearby, for a coffee. A staff member approached, placed his arm on my shoulder, and asked how we were, was the drink satisfactory, and wished us well. As we left the store, he saw us out of the cafe, hoped to ... read more