Mercado do Bolhão

After 14 incredible destinations our trip is coming to an end, and while it wouldn’t be true to say we saved the best for last, Porto is pretty darned good.

We stayed in Bolhao, about twenty minutes walk up from the bank of the Douro River via a bunch of some very picturesque (but touristic) streets.

The famous Portuguese azulejo tiles are everywhere - inside and outside churches, on shopfronts and apartment blocks. The bathroom in our apartment was lined with recycled tiles.

The Sao Bento railway station is a famous tile-spotter’s location, with all four walls of the classic station building lined with tiles depicting great moments in Portuguese history and the people of different regions of the country. Not sure if there are any great moments in Portuguese railway history depicted.

But it’s the River Douro that sets Porto apart, with the land on all sides sloping steeply down to the wide river, and a series of handsome arch bridges crossing the divide high up on the slopes.

We walked across the Ponte Luis I, designed, unsurprisingly when you see it, by a protege of Gustav Eiffel, and had brilliant views up and down the river, with Rabelo Boats laden with tourists cruising up and down, and the names of famous Port Wine Houses littering the southern bank.

At the southern end of the bridge is Jardim do Morro, a small garden with great views that late in the afternoon was full of people lounging around listening to the buskers and waiting for the sunset.

We also visited the Palacio da Bolsa, a stately building dedicated not to a King or a Religion but which was in fact the Chamber of Commerce (a religion in itself, some would say). The rooms were increasingly handsome and interesting, from the office occupied by the aforementioned M. Eiffel during his several-year stay in Porto all the way to the so-called Arab Room, a fantastical banquet room now available to rent for functions at between 4,000 and 15,000 euros a night.

For a break, on a rather wet day, we took the train a few hours west to Pinhao, deep in the Douro Valley. The train journey was spectacular, with the track hugging the bank of the river for the last hour of the trip. Then we took a Rabelo Boat a further fifteen kilometres upstream to the junction of the River Tua, admiring the magnificent countryside and the river flowing quite majestically through it.

So, that’s our trip through the Iberian Peninsula done and dusted. With highlights too numerous to mention, easy transport, friendly people and good company (thank you, Brendan) it was just marvellous!

Oh, and COVID?

Well, luckily we didn’t catch it. We had to wear masks on public transport in Spain, and the public were almost universally compliant with this. Otherwise, apart from some fading arrows and spots on the floor, and hand sanitiser almost everywhere, it might never have happened.Read more