We started the trip in Porto. There is a direct flight from Newark, NJ, so it was a straightforward trip. The Porto airport is small and modern. It was easy to navigate, and we were at the taxi stand very quickly. On our way out, I stopped at a cell phone store to buy a sim card, and the salesman told me to make sure I ate a francesinha. This was the first time I heard of this local sandwich.
Now, I live in a town known for its sandwich. The world knows Philadelphia for its cheesesteak; locally, we’d flex when asked and say the roast pork with broccoli rabe is better, but the cheesesteak is ours. However, we don’t lead with the cheesesteak. If asked, we know we are talking to tourists, but I don’t know anyone who meets a stranger and starts with, “have you had a cheesesteak?”
The people of Porto are the francesinha’s best advocate. The francesinha is made with bread, wet-cured ham, linguiça, fresh sausage, and steak and covered with melted cheese and a hot and thick spiced tomato and beer sauce. It’s something of an indecisive and monstrous beef Manhattan (a dish I just learned was only known in the midwest).
We stayed in a hotel on the water called Oporto Street Fonte Taurina – Riverfront Suites. It was the skinniest building on the street. The hotel was the width of our room which barely fit the queen size bed. However, it faced Nova de Gaia and overlooked the Douro River. We were tired from the overnight flight, so we showered and took a quick nap before exploring the town.
The area next to the water is a tourist hub, but for a good reason. It’s right on the water, picturesque, and very charming. So we got up and decided to take a walk. While we were walking around, we found a tiny little craft market, and it was there we found a guy selling tinned fish. We asked him for a recommendation on getting a great coffee. He sent it to his wife, who was running their grocery called Queres uma Bolachada? (Do you want a cookie?) and we indeed had a lovely coffee.
We decided to make the São Bento railway station our destination. It’s a UNESCO world heritage site known for its azulejo tiles, and on our way, we ran across someone selling fried savory fish turnovers. We ordered bolinho de bacalhau, a rissóis de camarão, and something else I cannot remember. The first was a fried cod and potato dumpling, and the second was a fried empanada with shrimp. It was street food, nothing fancy, and we had it while we walked to the train station. A lovely first bite in Portugal.
Before our scheduled walking tour with Hi Porto Walking Tours, we strolled through Porto for a bit. Our guide’s name was Luiz Filipe Coelho, and he was excellent. The tour was promoted as something that lasts 2 hours, but he tells you right from the beginning that it could be 4 hours. He’s Brazilian and very passionate about Porto. The tour ends with crossing the Luís I Bridge to the town of Nova de Gaia so you can enjoy the sunset from the Jardim do Morro. It was a nice end to a comprehensive tour, but I was pretty exhausted when it was over.
Porto and Nova de Gaia sit across the river from one another to give you a bit of geography. Many bridges connect them. The Luís I Bridge is iconic and used mainly by pedestrians (there is a local trolley on top.) These towns are very hilly, so the bridge has two levels; one near the water and one a lot higher. At the river level in Nova de Gaia are port warehouses and in Porto is the riverfront, which included our hotel. We ended the tour at the higher level (hence a good sunset view), so we decided to take the cable car from the high part of Nova de Gaia to the port cellar furthest from the bridge. This allowed us to stroll past the port cellars along the river as we returned to our hotel for a rest.
It’s tough to emphasize how much the city of Porto is leaning into tourism. We were told 20 years ago that it was an aging industrial town that few visited. Then, they built an international airport with many cheap European airlines, and it became something of a bachelor/bachelorette weekend destination. This means restaurants can be challenging to enter, and people are always out and about. For dinner, we went to Café Santiago to finally try the francesinha.
All in all, it was fine. I was happy we split one and did not each get our own. It’s ridiculous and over the top, and Portugal has much better food than this sandwich. However, I could see some pop-up restaurants in the United States selling these and making a small fortune as a quick fad. When we were finished, we walked across the town to end the night with our first pasteis de nata, the egg custard Portugal is truly famous for inventing. Next, we went to Manteigaria, where we got a fresh nata straight from the oven with a small glass of ginjinha (local cherry liquor.)
I was skeptical of the nata. I do not like eggy things, so I was surprised when I loved it. It was delicious. We finished our first night in Portugal by listening to a violin on the street. It was the end of a beautiful first day.
Next: Portugal Day 2 – Porto