We slept in much later this morning. Probably an effect of drinking so much port and eating so much food in one day. Luckily we didn’t feel too full thanks to all the walking up and down hills that we did the day before.
Since we knew that the hotel breakfast wasn’t exciting, we walked down the street to a little café/bakery that Kuniko had spotted the other day. We went inside and I ordered in Spanish, since English wasn’t really working at this shop. We had two cream pastries that were charred black on top (so good!) and some delicious coffees with milk. We ate right out on the street as pedestrians walked by our table, and it was good to be outdoors enjoying something delicious again.
From here we walked back towards the river, but to a slightly different destination, called Plaza Infante. I had read that there was a train that ran from there to the Atlantic Ocean, and we were interested in checking out the beach. When we arrived we quickly figured out that the train was actually an historic streetcar, and we paid the paltry sum of 2.50 euros for a one way ticket. Inside the streetcar was all old lightbulbs, wood and leather. You could open and close the windows at will, and the streetcar putted along by electric engine and overhead wires alongside the river. It was great to see a side of the city we hadn’t seen yet, and it felt strangely like traveling in Mexico. It was a little bit of a rough ride (historic cars don’t really have great suspension) but we arrived at the final stop after about 20 minutes. The last stop was right near the ocean, and we walked along a cement pier to the western edge of Europe. Out here the sun was shining brightly, it was much warmer than yesterday, and there was a strong wind blowing. On the pier there were fisherman lined up, probably catching cod after cod. It was nice to be out here, it wasn’t crowded and it felt good to be on the water.
We slowly walked back, and discovered a small mini-golf course so we shot a few holes to give Kuniko her first mini-golf experience. From there it was a short walk to the streetcar station, and we waited on a shady park bench until the next streetcar arrived. What a great little break from the main city…
Back in the Ribeira area, we stopped at a café for some cold Sagres beer and another Francesinha sandwich. The service here was pretty slow, even by European standards, and it took a long time before we got the bill. I handed the guy a 50 euro bill, and waited patiently for change, but Kuniko was starting to think that the guy ran with our money. Luckily he finally showed up and gave us our change, and we could safely leave.
We walked all the way through the Ribeira, across the bridge, and all the way along the other side, up the mountainside, and finally found our way to Graham’s, one of my favorite port makers. We signed up at the main desk for two port tastings – one tawny and one vintage. The building and location were absolutely beautiful, with views that ran the length of the Porto river area. They picked a perfect location for their port caves. We really liked their ports (as I thought we might) – and Kuniko’s favorite was “Six Grape” which is pretty easy to find in Japan. We were the only people in their tasting room at the time, so we had the huge facility to ourselves. I really liked the pace of things in Porto – slow and deliberate. On our way down the hill we stopped at another place, Churchill, and did a regular wine tasting this time to shake things up a little. The guy led us through a flight of their wines but there were no big winner’s here. I’m sure their ports are much better.
From there we decided to head back to the hotel area and stay close in case we wanted to take a siesta. We marched up the hill and took some different routes to see some other scenery. We even snuck through a traffic tunnel to shave some time off our walk and keep the sun off of us. Today was really sunny and a little hotter than before, which finally gave me some blue sky for my photos.
Near our hotel we intentionally made a turn off the main drag and found a little bar/restaurant that looked interesting. We sat outside and I went in and ordered some beers to drink. At first we weren’t going to eat anything, but we reconsidered and I tried to order in Spanish from the staff. I mis-read his body language response to my questions. His gesture that I thought had meant, “Sold Out” actually meant “Is that all you want?” so we received some extra dishes. No problem – we ate cheese, linguica, and some sliced ham with our beers. This area was a little off the beaten path, so we could watch some strange people walking around. Some guy came begging at the table next to us, and the guy at the table gave him some money. Promptly the guys at the table behind him started yelling that he shouldn’t be giving any money, and I thought maybe a situation might develop. Luckily everyone was cool about things and nothing happened.
Slightly drunk on beer and port we did some more drunken shopping on the way home, and bought water, cookies, and even some curry mango sauce that looked good. Then it was back to our hotel room for our siesta. Ever since our trip to Spain we have embraced the siesta for our hot weather trips.
For dinner we went back to the Ribeira area and went to the balcony level, above the main restaurants where we had eaten before. The balcony level was less popular but the view was much better, and we found a restaurant that turned out to be not only cheap but also delicious. We ate appetizers while an aggressive seagull watched us carefully, drank a cheap bottle of local red that was better than it had any right to be, and looked down on all the tourists and the river below us. A guy pretended to be a statue and only moved when people gave him coins in his bucket. A group of kids played soccer with their tiny pug as tourists walked by and looked on. As for our meal, we had steak with mushroom sauce and shrimp, cod croquettes, frites, and rice. Behind us the full moon was rising over the bridge, the weather was mild, and our restaurant featured some live music, so it was a very nice romantic meal for us. After we wrapped up our meal and paid our bill, we got up, and just at that moment they started shooting off fireworks over the river. We had no idea that this was in the cards, so we got a free fireworks show as well. It seemed like the whole day had perfect timing.
We felt like we should get one more glass of port and some cheese for dessert, so we went to a little restaurant that was located just below the bridge on a stone outcropping over the river. We had port and cheese there, but the weather was starting to get cool quickly, and we were exposed to the wind being right out on the river. We wrapped it up quick – I’ve never seen Kuniko drink a glass of port so fast! As we walked back to our hotel there was a lot of live music playing on the streets and in restaurants, and it made for a nice finish to the evening. Also, going uphill was good for burning calories! It was another great day in Porto.
