Reset search
Portugal
Satellite

Portugal
Mercado de São Sebastião

Discover travel destinations of travelers writing a travel journal on FindPenguins.
Travelers at this place
    • Traveler2022 Camino Portuguese
      Day 24

      Some Camino walking

      May 27, 2022 in Portugal ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

      The weather has heated up, and the idea of doing touristy things in Porto wasn't appealing, so a nice walk on the Camino leaving Porto was perfect. So after getting situated at the airbnb I headed back downtown.

      From the Cathedral the Litoral route goes along the Duoro River to the sea where I enjoyed nice breezes.

      I ended up walking farther than I intended - all the way to Matosinhos, about 6 miles. Now I'll have a much shorter walk tomorrow when I'm carrying my backpack.      Read more

    • TravelerCamino Frances
      111
      Day 61

      Port Wine

      November 11, 2022 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

      Porto existed long before Portugal and both were around long before a good Port became famous. Today I wandered the alleyways and docks of Vila Nova de Gaia, the opposite bank of the Douro River from Porto and home of the many makers of Port Wine. Technically Port can only be made in the Douro Valley, now a world heritage site, and was traditionally transported to the "Gaia" by wooden boat. From the port of Gaia it has been exported around the world.

      But Porto and the Rio Douro was sort after long before the 1800s when the port wine trade began to thrive. The cities constitution dates to 417 and many ships of the Portuguese Armada explored the new worlds and the spice trades from here.

      As my friend Ruth reminded me, the churches resemble those in Macau off the coast of China and the painted houses remind me of a childhood fascination I had with the Port of Melaka in modern day Malaysia. I suspect the language also had some small influence in Indonesia (possibly through Indonesian links with Malay) as I note some familiar words or parts of them.

      There are four types of Port Wine currently - white, rose, ruby and tawny. Rose is quite new and popular as a cocktail mix. It is different from Rose as we know it because it is processed the same way as a Port which involves interrupting the fermentation process for a few days. This is the cause of the extra sweetness of Port. Most port is a blend of grape types and about 100 types of grapes are grown in the Douro Valley. French oak is the favoured oak for vats and barrells followed by American and Portuguese, with each giving a different flavour. The oldest bottle of wine available for sale currently at Calem was dated 1961 although barrels dated 1958 are yet to be bottled.      Read more

    • Portugal
      Day 8

      Porto Tag 1

      April 11 in Portugal ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

      Auch heute gabs zwischenzeitlich ein paar zeitliche Komplikationen, weil die Autobahnmautstelle eine online Registrierung benötigt. Hatten wir natürlich nicht. Aber das Problem ließ sich doch noch rechtzeitig lösen. In Porto angekommen haben wir Paule etwas außerhalb stehen lassen und uns auf den Weg ins Hostel gemacht. Bei 28 Grad heute und Gepäck waren wir froh, die Metro nehmen zu können. Leider haben wir uns kurzzeitig verloren, weil nur Fio die Bahn erwischt hat. 🫣
      Unser Hostel liegt super zentral an einem der ältesten und schönsten Bahnhöfe Portos. Es ist zwar sehr touristisch in der Gegend aber wirklich sehr schön. Nachmittags haben wir uns die Stadt ein wenig angeschaut und haben uns auf unseren holprigen Start eine Weinverkostung gegönnt. Hört sich toller an als es ist. War allerdings einfach dem Preis von 10€ entsprechend😅 Aber geschmeckt hat’s trotzdem. Die ersten Pasteis de Nata haben wir auch probiert! Wir finden die Stadt bisher echt toll und freuen uns auf morgen.      Read more

      See translation
    • skip's retirement travelIberia
      Day 20

      Porto Cathedral

      May 13, 2022 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

      The Cathedral of the Assumption of Our Lady, better known the the Porto Cathedral dates to the early 12th century, with construction containing for several hundred years. The architecture is primarily Romanesque, with Gothic and Baroque elements added over the centuries.
      The 1st picture looks along the main or long axis of the cruciform nave while the 2nd picture looks across the transept.
      The next 3 pictures are of various side chapels around the cathedral. The 6th picture is also a side chapel, but this one is a bas relief in silver.
      The cloister and monastery are off the south transept. The 7th and 8th pictures are views for the ground and from the balcony atop the cloister. The 9th picture is og some of the traditional tile work the d crates the outer walks of the cloister.
      The last picture is the chapter room of the monastery. The coffered ceiling is decorated with paintings from the 18th century that creatively depict moral values.      Read more

    • Traveler2022 Camino Portuguese
      Day 24

      Porto

      May 27, 2022 in Portugal ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

      I took the train to Porto today. While I was waiting until I could get into my airbnb room I went to the Porto Cathedral to get a stamp in my Camino credential.

      Construction began in the 12th century but wasn't complete until the 18th century.Read more

    • Traveler2023 European Adventure
      1
      Day 8

      DAY 7 - Porto (a cold Atlantic swim)

      August 29, 2023 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

      We embarked on what our guide yesterday said was a 5km walk (more like 7.2km) to the beach with Meg, Zoe, Sean, Laura, and Jez. The walk along the Douro River was quite nice and included a small workout at the park where Scott relived his primary school years on the monkey bars. It was blowing a gale by the time we got the somewhat rocky beach (this is definitely not the best beach, but certainly the closest). After a few minutes of hesitation and waiting for someone else to jump in, almost all of us took the plunge into the cold Atlantic water (Bar Meg). Meg thought better and decided to enjoy some sun baking on the beach. After this, we grabbed a quick drink before grabbing an Uber back to town (this was somehow cheaper than public transport). Once back, Meg went back to our apartment for a lay down while the rest of us went out for lunch. Scott, Jez, and Sean had a Francensinha sandwich, which was far better and more traditional than the one Scott grabbed yesterday (this included pork leg instead of steak). We all reconvened after a quick refresh for a visit to the Port cellars along the Duomo. We visited Sandeman Cellars and can confirm Port and Tonic is our new go to. From here, we ventured back across the river for our 6 bridges river cruise. Once back, we travelled back up to the top of the bridge via cable car to view the sunset from the middle of the Luiz I Bridge. This was absolutely beautiful despite the weirdness of the crowd clapping the sunset. We had an early night in anticipation of another big day of walking tomorrow.Read more

    • TravelerCamino Portugese
      Day 2

      Porto

      June 1, 2023 in Portugal ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

      24 hours of travel later, and here we are. What little we've seen has been incredibly helpful and nice people, and some gorgeous architecture....and a herd of 20 something's from our hostel setting out on a pub crawl after the lobby sangria happy hour😁. Oh, the energy! We found our very first Camino way sign, and our room has a view if the cathedral for tomorrows start. And, our plane via Air France was named after the town we stayed in in 2016. All in all, very auspicious beginning!Read more

    • Traveler2023 European Adventure
      Day 9

      DAY 8 - Porto (bridges and canels)

      August 30, 2023 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

      We're a few days behind on our FindPenguins, so this one may test the memory. We were up a little late and running out the door to make our next guided activity. We jumped into a van and drove through the Portuguese countryside to Arouca. It was a small and very cute town where we checked out the church and grabbed some breakfast. Scott somehow managed to order our breakfast from the lovely lady at the cafe who didn't speak a word of English. Shortly after, we were back on the road to the starting point of our hike, the Arouca 516 Footbridge. The bridge was built for purely tourism purposes, and the views were pretty incredible (even if it's no longer the longest pedestrian suspension bridge). We ventured on our hike without our guide crossing the bridge then being our decent down the Paiva Walkways. The almost 8km travelled down to then along the river and ended at the bar where we replenished ourselves with a well deserved ice cream. There were a few moments of concerns for Meg's knee but we made it! As far as wildlife is concerned we didn't see an Iberian lynx (much to Scott's disappointment) but we did manage to see a couple of turtles as a consolation prize. Once the group recouped, we headed back to Arouca for a traditional slow cooked veal, cooked in a clay pot, paired with some Green wine. This was an absolute treat even if Scott over ate and drank. We made a quick stop at the beautiful holiday destination, Costa Nova. The houses here were originally painted different colours to help fisherman find there own home after extened periods of time at sean, now its just for show. Our next stop was Averio, an old fishing town built around canels (it's slightly unfortunate for them that Europe already has Venice). Before arriving, our guide handed us all a ribbon to write a few words in relation to friendship. In Averio was went for a quick tour checking out the canels and salt flats. One of the bridges has been dubbed friendship bridge where we tied off our ribbons. This tradition was originally started by the uni students in the town and has really caught on. We then had a bit of free time, where we grabbed a quick drink. The owner offered us a job if we could identify the exotic fruits in the beer. Meg remains unemployed in Portugal, but Scott may have just found a new job after picking out the smell of passionfruit (unfortunately or perhaps fortunately, he was only offering beer as payment). We then jumped on traditional styled boat used to harvest seaweed and toured the canels. For dinner in Porto we went to one of the fancier restaurants recommended by our tour guide (fair to say Scott loves monkfish). After a long day we headed back to our apartment for an earlyish night. Tomorrow we back our bags and travel to Lekeitio (not too sure how we will go with driving in Spain).Read more

    • Traveler2023 European Adventure
      Day 7

      DAY 6 - Porto (Who are we? PORTO)

      August 28, 2023 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

      We started our day with breakfast at Sabores da Invicta, where Scott unintentially ordered a contempory Francensinha sandwich (better known as a heart attack of a plate). This consisted of two layers of ham, two layers of steak, and two traditional Portugese sausages in a sandwich topped off with an egg and soaked in beer batter. Scott can confirm he did not finish the meal and that it was certainly not the best call before our walking tour. We met Zoe, Sean, Laura, Jez, and (our walking tour guide) at Largo Amor de Perdição. Andre was passionate about Portuguese history, whether it was ancient, modern, or dark, and often found himself talking longer than intended. Our tour consisted of Miradouro da Vitória (a scenic lookout over Porto), Torre dos Clérigos (a tower that we might climb that has a lookout view over the city), Livraria Lello (the world's most beautiful bookshop, which clearly used JK Rowlings name to build some popularity, despite her never having been there), Imperial McDonalds (a seriously fancy McDonalds), Porto São Bento (a beautiful train station which tells stories through its ceramic tiles), Luís I Bridge and the Porto Cathedral, amount a handful of other places. It is sad to see the impact Antonio de Oliveira Salazar (a dictator from less than 60 years ago) has on modern day Porto. We're still not sure JK Rowlings didn't base some of Harry Potter off of her time in Porto (think Salazar Slytherin). We then embarked on our mission to get our soccer tickets to the Rio Ave v Porto match at Estádio dos Arcos. After several messages and a 10min each way Uber trip (that somehow only cost £6 total) to Casa da Música, we successfully secured our tickets for the match. Travelling to the game involved confusion at the ticket machine, followed by a 1-hour train ride. Once at the stadium (if you can call a single stand with a capacity of 5,000 people a stadium), we waited in a mammoth line (thankfully, we got in just before kick off). The game itself delivered everything you'd expect and want from a European soccer match - emotion, passion, chanting, and profanity in a different language (Portugese). The game itself wasn't Portos best, but an equaliser and winner in extra time of the second half made for a great experience. After some concern, we luckily made the last train heading back to Porto with 10 minutes to spare. We're hoping to make the 7km walk to the beach tomorrow, bring on the Atlantic Ocean.Read more

    • Traveler2023 European Adventure
      Day 10

      DAY 9 - Porto to Lekeitio

      August 31, 2023 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

      Scott started our last day in Porto with a 10km run along the Duoro River. The steps at the start and after the run were the hardest parts by far, but it was well worth it for the scenery. We left our bags at the apartment's office with Vítor, who was getting a start of his end of month paperwork with a packet of cigarettes and a fridge of beer. To fill our day before our flight, we walked along the river and up the hill to Jardins do Palácio de Cristal, a beautiful gardens that was home to several roaming peacocks (including some little chicks) and chickens. Scott wanted to head up here because of a large dome on the top of the hill, which looked like an observatory, which we then thought was a conservatory after finding out it was in the gardens, but later realised it was Super Bock Arena. There was a bookshow on at the time (not that many of the books were in English), and the views as we walked around the gardens were breathtaking. We decided to spend our last few hours in Porto taking in the view from Mosteiro da Serra do Pilar before laying down at Jardim do Morro (a hilltop in Gaia looking back towards Porto). Our flight to Bilbao, Spain, was delayed which sent us in panic stations as we were already on a tight deadline to pick up our hire car. Once we touched down, Meg ran to the car hire section of the airport, and Scott collected the bags. Thankfully, we made it just in time. The journey to Lekeitio took about an hour with more winding roads than you could imagine. We got there safely despite the weirdness Scott felt driving and sitting on the opposite side (thank goodness for lane assist). Once we arrived, Meg raided the mini fridge before heading to bed. We're excited for our first big day of festive partying.Read more

    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Mercado de São Sebastião, Mercado de Sao Sebastiao

    Join us:

    FindPenguins for iOSFindPenguins for Android

    • 2024© FindPenguins
    • Home
    • About us
    • Blog
    • Group Tracking
    • Press
    • Terms
    • Privacy Policy & Cookies
    • Support
    • Legal notice
    • English