Porto

To visit Porto we followed our friends lead to stay at the Parque Biológico south of the river - so officially we stayed in Gaia. The parque itself is neither a botanical garden nor a zoo, but something in between. It’s also a rescue centre with regional flora and fauna; they offer some camp spots with amenities and a park entry is included. Camping there supports such a cool project and we stayed for two nights!
The day we arrived we went down (yes, down, about 100 m of altitude down) to the river Douro. We thought we’d be clever and check out a parking lot to leave the van for the (next) day and take our bikes to get into Porto. Unfortunately not even half way of the really good path along the riverfront there was a construction site and no way around it without going up and down the hill. So no further bike tour for this day and our plan for getting to Porto the next day has to be reworked.
Option number to was to take public transport. We checked everything and went to the bus station in time the next day. The bus didn’t come. After waiting for around twenty minutes we noticed the next one was scheduled another 20 minutes later. We decided we’d take our van and park downtown. It felt as if Porto didn’t want to make it easy for us to come.
But: We made it to a paid & secured car park we had chosen before through narrow streets and were greeted by Manuel, the car parks manager / security guard who led us to the place to leave our van and we went off to explore the city. Finally!
Wandering downhill again we explored a bit of Gaia downtown first and had breakfast (or lunch?).
Then we crossed on the lower part of the bridge Ponte Luis I and took the train up the hill. We wandered around Porto - from church to coffee shop to church - seeing as many azulejos as one can see.
At the Mercado do Bolhao Jaro had his first (sugar free) ice cream; the whole market is certainly worth as visit.
Towards the afternoon we went further west and ended up in an area we enjoyed very much - with nice shops, cafés and restaurants. We had great pizza for dinner at generosa. The stroll back to the car led us again through the city and across the bridge; this time on the upper part of it. Our timing could not have been better and we saw the sunset over Porto and the river from there.
We also passed by the most famous sunset spot of Porto (Jardim de Morro). It had a nice festival-like atmosphere. Feeling tempted to stay we went back to the car and made our way “home”.
The next day we checked out the Parque Biologico itself and showed Jaro all the birds we were able to see until he fell asleep. Then we went on…Read more