Porto
Porto was the third stop of our Portuguese vacation—and the briefest.
We flew from Madeira into Porto and had just two days in the city, one of which was dedicated to a 10-hour wine tour in the Douro Valley.
I'm glad we made it happen, because the Douro Valley alone was worth the trip. I'm sure we could have spent many more days exploring Porto itself if we had the time, but I feel like we made the most of it.
1 — This is a view of the Douro River. The wine tour we did in the Douro Valley included a boat ride where our guides told us all about the valley and what makes it unique.
2 — Pastel de nata from Castro, which was the second most-recommended place for us to check out. I think we marginally prefer Manteigaria, which we tried in Lisbon, but these were great too.
3 — Madi on the riverfront, with the Dom Luís I Bridge in the background.
4 — This was one of the many spreads of food we tried at the Bolhão Market. We walked in, grabbed some wine, made a lap and picked out a ton of different food: our first bifana, sardines, cheese, more wine, olives (for Madi, not me—gross) and the ceviche and oysters pictured here.
5 — The second floor of Livraria Lello, a popular historic bookstore that we had to buy a ticket and wait in line to check out. This place was cool because they have their own special editions of a lot of classics and you can put the cost of your ticket towards the purchase of a book as well.
6 — Our Livraria Lello purchases. I got Moby Dick. Madi got Pride and Prejudice.
7 — One of Madi's favorite parts of the trip has been looking at all the tile buildings in the country. Here she is tile hunting in Porto.
8 — Dinner at Federica Ribeira, which was recommended by about half the group we were in Lisbon with.
9 — Selfie in the Douro Valley halfway through our wine tour.
10 — It would have felt wrong to post this photo-blog without a picture of a wine glass and the Douro Valley in the background.