Day in Porto

The huge hotel breakfast gave us lots of energy, so from 11-4, Joe snd I walked and visited and walked some more. About 7-8 miles for him today! The trick is frequent stops snd frequent snacks. I stopped counting how many pasteis de nata he has had since we arrived in Portugal.

We had not intended to stop in the bookstore that is supposedly J. K. Rowling’s inspiration for some of Hogwarts. But she herself has said she was never there! The line was huge and we were walking by. As we stopped to peek at the window, a nice attendant came up and said we could jump the line, no doubt because of our infirm condition. So we paid our €12 and went in. It was mobbed, but it really is a beautiful bookstore.

From there we got caught up in a huge construction project going on in the middle of the city. Porto is adding a new metro line, a project that will take at least a decade, and it has really made a mess of certain parts of the city. But after we navigated it, we made our way back over to Gaia,, this time on the top level of the bridge. From there, we went to the cathedral and to the Gothic São Francisco church, whose insides have been turned into a Baroque riot.

I was on my own for a few hours, and just enjoyed going up and down the hills, finding little lookouts, and then walking across the bridge one more time, this time to see the riverside lit up at night. We probably won’t go far for dinner, and hopefully it’ll be an early night to bed.Read more