Vila Nova de Gaia (Santa Marinha)

Miles: 7.74 Steps: 18110
Flights stairs: 28

We flew from Madrid to Porto, Portugal this morning! I’ve always been interested in Portugal - debated moving here short term or even retiring here - so thought it would be nice to actually see it all first hand. We’ll see what I think after about ten days.

On all travel days, we don’t schedule much to do - just wander the city, experience it, and get a feel for what we’re interested in seeing. We’ll only be in Porto for 48 hrs so not much time to mess around.

When we landed, on exiting the plane we were greeted with 100% 60° Oregon, overcast sideways rain - first cold and rain we’ve really seen on this trip. Was quite the surprise, and according to the people we’ve talked to it’s the first rain in 30 days, will only last thru tomorrow and probably won’t rain for another month …. So … I guess we experience Porto in the rain.

It settled down long enough for us to walk around the city and to take a boat ride on the main river thru town. The streets here are amazing — just narrow alleyways everywhere you look. And Porto is built on a hill, so there are HUNDREDS of steps wherever you go. The architecture is beautiful and they cover the buildings with these ceramic tiles — very unique.

We decided we needed a break from “foreign food” and actually ate lunch at a Steak & Shake - it was awesome and felt like home.Læs mere