In July, my friend Trudy and I decided to take a trip to Porto, Portugal. I’ve been wanting to go to Porto forever and we finally made it happen. The guys were working so we decided to go on our own for a fun filled girls trip.
We arrived Monday evening and after checking into our hotel, we went out in search of food. We settled on a tapas restaurant where we shared a delicious meat and cheese platter paired with a tasty sangria. Afterwards, we found a wine bar to try out first taste of Port wine in Porto. We decided on a three sample tasting. When we were finishing up, we saw something run past our table and into the bar area. After realizing we just saw a huge rat, we quickly finished our tasting and started packing up to leave. The waiter stopped us and offered us free port to make up for the hairy intruder. We politely declined but after he persisted, we gave in and enjoyed a free tasting. Once again when we were ready to leave, the waiter came by and filled our glasses. He ended up giving us three extra tastings. The rat was all but forgotten about 😉
The next morning, we headed into the center. Our first stop was to Livraria Lello, a gorgeous book store that inspired JK Rowling when writing Harry Potter. It really does deserve the title as “one of the most beautiful bookstores in the world.” Then we decided to head to the Port wine side of Porto (let’s be honest, the real reason we came to Porto). With so many Port wine houses to choose from, we had a hard time deciding our first stop. Over the course of the afternoon, we stopped at 4 different places. One we had a port wine paired with chocolate, another we enjoyed a glass on a rooftop terrace with a great view of Porto, third was a bigger house where we sampled a port and cheese tasting and finally we stopped at the last remaining Portuguese port house. That one ended up being our favorite. When we had our fill of port, we headed back over the bridge and found a perfect spot to enjoy the sunset…and possibly one more port wine.
Bright and early the next morning, we got picked up for our half day wine tasting tour. Us along with 6 other people and a guide drove to the Douro Valley. Our first stop was a beautiful boat ride through the valley. It was like 10° hotter than in Porto so the boat ride was a nice way to cool down. After a tasty lunch, we stopped at two different local wineries for a nice variety of Port wines. We then headed back to Porto where we had to try a few staple foods from Portugal including a port tonic and a Francesinha – a sandwich filled with a bunch of different meats, covered in cheese and tomato sauce. Good but soooo filling.
Since we didn’t fly out until 6pm we had the whole day to finishing exploring Porto. For the last two days, we had been seeing vintage tramcars running throughout the city and we definitely wanted to give it a try. We choose the route that went directly through the center. It was such a fun way to see the rest of the city. We then sampled (another) Portuguese tart, did a little more souvenir shopping then found ourselves back on the port house side. We stopped back at our favorite house to enjoy another tasting. Then we packed up and headed to the airport, vowing to come back with the husbands some day.
Trudy, thank you for an awesome trip to Porto. I had a great time exploring the city with you and checking off my 36th country. Can’t wait for our next trip together!
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