When we woke up, we both agreed it was a great sleep. Day 1 had been particularly tiring, so we felt refreshed and ready to start walking up and down the hills of Porto for one last day.
For breakfast, we decided we would have pasteis de nata from 2 different places and make a comparison. We walked over to a place called Fábrica da Nata near the São Bento train station. This was fine, but neither of our favorites. It certainly does the job, but my gut tells me this is the Starbucks of pasteis de nata. For round 2, we walked over to a tiny shop called Castro. Castro was Sam’s favorite shop, but mine was Manteigaria from the night before. We were in Porto for 24 hours and had tried pasteis de nata from 3 places and already formed opinions. We were off to a great start in Portugal.
I promise that Porto was not just about calories. After our second nata of the day, we toured the Palácio da Bolsa. It’s a palace for the Portuguese equivalent of the Chambers of Commerce and was the center of the commercial sector in Porto for many years. One wonders the magnitude of villainy dreamed up and executed here, but spending more than a moment on that thought would drive me into a depression, so I focused on looking at the pretty rooms. The pinnacle of the tour is visiting the Arab Room, which was designed in the Moorish revival style.
Afterward, we went to the Church Of St Francis. Like many old catholic churches, this is impressively decadent and makes even a cynical atheist think, “wow,” for a moment. However, if you’ve seen 10, you’ve seen 100, and very little about it is memorable except the Tree of Jesse. It’s a very impressive and elaborate wood carving of Jesus’s family tree. Artistically it is masterful, but I’ve always found the idea of Jesus’s genealogy fascinating because it almost contradicts the notion that he was a divine being. It’s a weird ancient defense of monarchical bloodline.
We headed to the Jardins do Palácio de Cristal with a walk through a part of town we had not been to before. We edged out of the tourist zone and started seeing a less polished and more dusty Porto. I imagine this was all of Porto 15 years ago. It’s still lovely, but part of town has a faded post-industrial vibe. This is a bit less charming than the cobblestone streets with live musicians we have experienced in the center.
This park is an old victorian park high above the river. There are lots of paths, and it is quite beautiful. When we arrived, the Porto book festival was happening, so there were many people. There was a small section of artists, and I saw 2 things I regret not buying. Shame on me, really, I know better than to wait to buy something like that, but I did. So I left Portugal without any art for the walls, which makes me sad, to say the least. We rested when we got to the festival near a small amphitheater to listen to live music for a few minutes. We didn’t buy any books because neither of us read Portuguese, but I love walking through a book fair. There is something lovely about being amongst people who like books, outside, with a convivial atmosphere. I have experienced this in many places outside the United States, but only once in DC. I cannot remember one time I’ve ever been to a book fair in Philadelphia.
Touring the park made us a bit hungry as we had only had sugar custard tarts and coffee for a break, so we went to Lareira near the Parque de Serralves. I had a great pork sandwich there and tried a Portuguese soup called caldo verde. It was ok, but the sandwich paired with a vinho verde was fantastic. I was glad that we hit this place up.
I learned about Parque de Serralves when I landed at the Porto airport. There was a giant advertisement, and I thought, “now that looks interesting.” It’s a park with a modern art museum and an old villa. We decided we only wanted to do the park portion of this place. It was enchanting. There is a part where you can walk through the treetops. They built a boardwalk that’s very high off the ground. After that, we found a flight of stairs that led to a small pond with a grotto. We also visited a farm and vegetable garden, and on our way back to the museum, we walked a path bordered by eucalyptus trees.
I wanted to go to the port cellars and do a port tasting. Many offered tastings, but I was unsure where to start in Nova de Gaia. As a rule of thumb, we were told that the further away from the bridge you are, the less touristy the tasting would be. So we went to Nova de Gaia and into the Vasconellos Port cellar. They make some wonderful ports, but we could have had a better tasting.
The cellar was empty except for one man. He quickly sized us up as rubes and did not offer us much to try. However, it was clear that if we tasted it, we were expected to buy it. He told us that Vasconcellos is the exclusive port wine of Christie’s auction house and that many people buy from them because it is impossible to find in stores. In a moment of vain egoism wielded as spite, I asked to try the 30-year bottle that was well over 100 euros. He eyed me, agreed, and I bought it. Can you imagine? In our basement is the most expensive bottle of wine I have ever owned. Did I like it? Yes? Did I love it? meh. I just wanted to prove to the prick this port wine was not out of bounds for me. Silly Josh. One would think that you get over that sort of thing as you get older, but that childish point to prove reared its head.
Afterward, we went to a restaurant that offered port tastings called Enoteca 1756. This was a much more accessible way to taste port. We got a table and tried a variety of ports for a fixed price. There was no obligation to buy anything. It was quite easy.
For our final evening in Porto, we strolled through the city. First, we had a drink in Plaza Lisboa. They had a lovely beer garden in their park, where we lounged on the grass and enjoyed the day fading into the night. We had dinner at a place called WINE CLUB Restaurant. It was excellent. Often, if you order a glass of port at the end of the evening, they put a gigantic bottle on your table from which your glass is filled. It’s a peculiar tradition, and this is the first restaurant we have experienced this.
After dinner, we walked to the hotel, but first, we visited Mcdonald’s in Porto. I promise we didn’t order anything, but many consider it the most beautiful Mcdonald’s in the world. It is the former Cafe Imperial, a famous coffee shop that has been open in the city since the 1930s, and it is decorated with some incredible stained glass windows.