Europe Day 6: 10/20/2008

On Monday morning, we got up for breakfast and then spent some time in the internet café before the final pack up and our check out at Pensao de Geres. We were planning to take 2 different metro lines out of Rossio and leave on the 12pm train to Porto out of the Santa Apolonia station in Lisboa.
We made the switches on the metro just fine and we even had time to buy some sandwiches before getting on the train to Porto (I found a cheese sandwich, my absolute European favorite thing ever). We were on the equivalent of the TGV in Portugal and it was very nice. The car was very modern and when we got on, there was American pop music blaring and train stewards in sharp uniforms with green. During the trip, they offer drinks and free headphones in first class and they will serve a meal with real silverware/plateware for an additional fee. The trip was about 3 hours and when we got closer to Porto, the view was spectacular of the Duoro river and its famous bridges. The train marquee said that it was 30 degrees centigrade outside (about 76 degrees farenheit).
When we got off the train, per our usual, we looked for a tourist information center but unfortunately we weren’t able to find one. It appeared as though there were one at some point but that it was no longer in existence. We really didn’t have any idea of how to navigate ourselves through this new city so we decided to take a cab to the hotel. It’s funny, it’s like a prerequisite to have a Mercedes to be a Portugese cab driver and yet we managed to get into the one cab that was not a Mercedes. I was worried that our driver was taking advantage of our apparent tourist status and taking us the “long way” to the hotel, but the streets of Porto are narrow by nature and the meter only read about 7 euros by the time we arrived at the Grand Hotel de Paris-Porto.
The hotel could not have been any different than our Lisbon hotel. It was like being in a museum with its collection of antiques and somewhat hidden rooms and dark corridors. The concierge spoke very good English and escorted us to our rooms (via elevator, a welcome sight after a morning of carrying our bags on and off metros, up and down flights of metro station stairs). Our rooms were lovely, almost non-European judging by the size of the bathroom. I had a lovely view of the street out front which was adorned with little shops including an optometrist, a bookstore, and a women’s clothing store.
We unpacked and stretched out a bit and then headed out to explore the city. Porto is famous for Port wine which is made in the Duoro valley, an hour or so outside of the city. The famous area of the city is called the Ribiera, riviera or waterfront. We were on our way there when we ran into a hop on/hop off bus and decided to take it. It was the last bus of the day and like the trolley experience in Lisboa, we were extremely fortunate to catch the bus when we did. We were on a tour for about an hour and a half, seeing all of Porto from the Atlantic Ocean coastline (and accompanying sunset) and the stunning Pont Luis bridge, whose design is inspired by the Eiffel Tower. Our tour crossed the bridge, to the other side of the river where all the Port caves are located. The tour definitely pointed out some obscure “monuments” but all in all, it was a great experience. After the tour, we headed to the waterfront for some dinner and found a great place. We ate dinner with an unobstructed view of the bridge and an awesome ”tourist menu”, consisting of bread, vegetable soup, tripas de Porto (a traditional dish made with beans, tripe, and sausage served over rice) or breaded whiting fish with fries, and a dessert of your choice…all for about 12 euros.
I definitely fell in love with Porto that first afternoon. It may have been the awesome weather and the sunset on the Atlantic and over the Duoro but the views of that city were more what I expected Portugal to look like. It is less tourist-y and a much quieter, much more charming city than Lisbon.

Pictures from our first day in Porto: