Arrival in Porto

We traveled by train today from Lisbon to Porto, a city we haven't visited in 30 years and what a difference those decades made. As we await our residence visas, we will check-out different areas in Portugal before we decide where we want to settle permanently.

First impressions: the city rests on both sides of the Douro river about 5 miles from the Atlantic Ocean (at Foz). The city has more old crumbling buildings mainly because they were not affected by Lisbon's 1755 earthquake which destroyed most of its medieval structures. Having said that, Porto has many crumbling buildings, some of which are being restored and some amazing churches and grand public structures from the 16th through the 20th century.

Apparently there's a rivalry between Lisbon and inhabitants with both sides saying the other doesn't speak proper Portuguese, that Porto folk are too calm, the Lisboans too uptight, the weather in Porto is too cold for Lisboans, too hot for Porto people, and so on.
Where they're similar: lots of tourists, lots of digital nomads, and lots of expats in both cities.Read more