Portugal Road Trip: Porto
A visit to Porto on our Portugal summer road trip.
After our stay in Praia de Mira, we made a pit stop for a windy surf session over the dunes in Aveiro, then headed north to Porto. It was about an hour and a half drive for the day.
Porto is a stunning city! We arrived to our Airbnb and had some trouble connecting to the wifi, so I headed right out into the city to find a coffee shop for work (this one was great.) I was instantly wowed by the street markets and this church:
It seems like Lisbon gets all the attention, and I’d only thought of Porto as a wine stop on river cruises. But it’s an artsy and thriving city with so much to see and do!
Since we’ve been keeping US east coast hours, the mornings were free for sightseeing. There were loads of great restaurants, and we went on a free walking tour to learn some of the history of the city.
After the walking tour, we took a cable car out to the coast. It was a totally different scene, and also very nice.
There are lots of gardens to sit in and take in views of the city. We found one with peacocks roaming freely (Jardins do Palacio de Cristal):
On our last night, we went on a mission to watch the sunset from the bridge over the Douro River. Don’t judge me, but I like trying the unique McDonald’s items in other countries! So we ordered some just-OK fast food, but we were excited to learn Mickey D’s serves beer in Portugal!
We carried our beers to the bridge where we were wow-ed once again! The sunset over the bridge was beautiful, and it was the perfect ending to our time in Porto.
