It was quite surreal when we crossed from Spain into Portugal, we’d seen signs for miles on the motorway pointing to Portugal but it was half way across a bridge over a river that if finally happened. What a let down! No ‘welcome to Portugal’ sign! Ah well, we had made it to our first destination in Portugal, Porto, their second largest city and in only a few hours through some spectacular scenery (sorry no photos as I was driving). It reminded me a bit of west Crete, low flat land and in the distance high mountains the tops covered in snow, and lots of bright plum coloured heather and white spirea growing wild along the roadside.
Porto is spilt by the Douro river. The port and sherry warehouses are all on the south in the city of Villa Nova de Gaia and Porto is on the north side of the river.
The striking thing about the south side is all of the huge signs for the Port houses which today are fighting to be seen (and visited) by the hundreds of tourists. We recognised a few like Taylor’s, Graham’s, Cockburn, the main local one was Callum. Sandeman’s warehouse was north of the river. (We have been surprised to see Croft Brandy in the supermarkets, I associate Croft with sherry.) There is a funicular railway on the north side and cable cars which soar over Villa Nova de Gaia so you can see Porto from above.
The old town is quaint and well preserved with tiny little cobbled streets and overhanging upperstorey house fronts. The Cathedral stands on top of the highest hill overlooking the port and the bridges which cross the Douro. The main bridge is the Luis I bridge, built by a student and later business partner of Gustavo Eiffel in 1886 at the behest of the monarch, at the time it was the largest metal arch bridge in the world, nowadays there are many others they may not have as much pedigree but they are equally as spectacular in their own right.
Whilst we were there we had to try one of the local specialties, a potato fish cake with cheese in the middle rolled in breadcrumbs and deep fried, accompanied with white port served in this cool ‘artist palate’ type holder (it’s posh street food so how else do you hold everything they want to sell you!) I’m not keen on fish but I had a go. Not bad (the port helped).
We went round the Torre and Igreja dos Clerigos (18th century Church with a 75m high tower (246ft)
and then went on to see the bookshop, Livaria Lello, where J.K.Rowling was supposed to have been inspired and based her description of Hogwarts Library on it. The queue here was longer than for any other historical place of interest in the whole of Porto, just shows you the influence of Harry Potter!
We didn’t bother to queue but looked in on the shops next door which also had kept a lot of the original features.
We also spotted (by chance) the Igreja do Carmo and Carmelitas, a Baroque style church with white-and-blue ozulejo panels of tiles which covers the whole of the outside.
Igreja do Carmo and Carmelitas
We were unlucky with the weather and it was a bit grey and showery so we opted to do a hop-on-hop-off bus rides which took us out to north of Porto along the sea front but I didn’t take that many photos as there was too much rain on the window! The rain didn’t stop us from sampling some of the local product (why else would I come here!?)
On our second day we stopped for lunch at a small back street restaurant and hubby was brave enough to order the local dish which is based on a Croque Monsieur. Any French man or woman would blanch at the sight of this version! A toasted white bread sandwich with a filling of bacon, sausage, ham and steak topped with an avalanche of melted cheese with a reddish coloured gravy. Unique! I did ask him if he’d eat it again and surprisingly he said yes, that it had been surprisingly tasty.
Each night we made our way back from the city by bus, a 40 min, 33 stop tour (for just €2 each – a bargain) to our campsite. The ex-municipal campsite was south of Porto and only a few minutes walk from the beach. A large rambling site with lots of trees and a huge pool, and very close to a bus stop.
That’s where the compliments end. On the campsite finder websites that we use, no matter how many I visited hoping someone would say nice things about this Orbitur site but to no avail, everyone said the same thing. Poor. It was a nightmare to find a decent pitch as it was a free-for-all, the electric stations are in random places. We were lucky as it was low season so we had the pick, we found it difficult to decide!
I think the shower block dated back to the 1970’s. From the outside the moss had grown up the outer paintwork to at least a foot. Unlike some sites there was toilet paper, but only one huge roll holder by the door of the block! Nothing like queuing for toilet paper as a way of making friends! #how many sheets do you need??!! You soon found out which toilets either: flushed, had a door, had a door that shut and had a lock that worked.
In the shower cubicles, finding hot water seemed to be like playing Russian roulette (either scalding or freezing) there were grey plastic raised boxes (a bit like cut down bread delivery baskets) on the floor for you to stand on, it was so uncomfortable you couldn’t stand still for longer than a few seconds as the plastic ridges cut into the soles of your feet. No wonder the Germans and Dutch ladies were wearing their Crocs into the shower!
We had a huge pile of washing so we bought our tokens at reception only to find that all 4 machines were out of order (as were the dryers). For 3 days we badgered the reception staff as to when they’d be fixed. They shrugged and said very sorry but they had no idea, maybe tomorrow or the next day!!!! (Grrrr)
Having moaned about the site the beach just down the road was magnificent, the pool looked inviting, the access into town was easy, so I can see why people use the site…. and it’s the only one for 20 miles!!
We’re staying in another municipal site in Lisbon but surely it can only get better??
Ooh by the way, of course we got to sample the best local delicacy – Portuguese Tarts (Pasteis de Nata). Gorgeous!!!
