Porto, Day One

Despite leaving Ottawa nearly one hour late, we landed in Porto only ten minutes later than scheduled. After flying to Southeast Asia last year, the six hour flight to Europe went by in the blink of an eye. We flew over on Sata airlines in an Airbus 330 whose space had been configured for maximum passenger capacity and minimum passenger comfort. In other words, my knees were literally pushed against the seat back in front of me. Fortunately, the aircraft was about half empty and Brenda and I were able to grab seats in the bulkhead row, where I could almost stretch out. I nonetheless only managed about 30 minutes sleep with my mind working non-stop imagining the adventure before us.

As we approached the Portuguese coast, we could see mountaintops peeking through the cloud cover. Thinking ahead to our bike ride down the coast to Lisbon, I began to fear we were going to be in for a very difficult trek. Then the plane descended into the clouds and almost immediately touched down onto a tarmac completely engulfed in a blanket of fog. So, it looks like once again, I made mountains out of molehills.

We took the Metro into the city and stored our backpacks in a locker as we set off to explore the city at about 10:30 until we could check into our room at 3:00 PM. As we set out walking with our bikes, we realized two things: 1) nobody bikes in Porto and 2) with very uneven cobbled streets and extremely steep hills, nobody wants to bike in Porto. We found a spot to park our bikes and continued our exploration on foot.

Porto is a beautiful city with blue and white tiled buildings, ancient churches and impressive architecture everywhere. I was not, however, prepared for how hilly it is. Not just hilly, but also really steeply hilly. While we were walking with our bikes, on the steepest descents, there were times we had to apply their brakes to help maintain control. And we're talking rolling hills, you know the kind, you go up, you go down, you go up and you go down, etc, etc... It'll be good training for the cycling that lies ahead of us.

Unfortunately, arriving on Sunday meant that most of the businesses and restaurants were closed. Nonetheless, not long after we arrived, the fog lifted and we were welcomed with a sunny, but coolish day that allowed us to get our bearings and enjoy the sites without any crowds.

At 3:00 we checked into our accommodations, a lovely studio apartment that Brenda found online for about 30 Euros/day. It's located between the Ribeira (the riverfront) and the City Center on an extremely steep street. Fortunately, when we ride out of Porto, we'll go down to the waterfront so we won't have to push our bikes and carry our packs back up.

Once we were settled in, we had a €0.60 glass of wine in a popular little local watering hole and then went for a delicious mushroom, bean and coconut curry in a Mozambican restaurant. After dinner, we rolled downhill, back to our apartment, read for 5 minutes and passed out with the lights still on. I woke up 11 hours later, rested and ready to take on the new day.Read more