A tale of two cities…sorry Charles Dickens! - Portugal Road Trip part 5

Porto versus Lisbon - which one did we like the best?

This is going to be a long one…

Whilst the next stage in the journey was to arrive at Porto, I think it seems a good idea to compare the largest and second largest cities in Portugal. We enjoyed them both but which did we enjoy the most? Some ground rules need to be set before a fair comparison can be made, so we need to rule out that it was beautifully sunny in Porto, on the second day at least, and not in Lisbon, Porto was easier to get to as we stayed in the city, although the train journey into Lisbon was part of the experience, more of that later. Porto was more compact and therefore more accessible and Lisbon was competing with two lunchtime margaritas…

So how do they fare? 

Livraria Lello bookshop

One of the reason’s for getting to Porto was to visit Livraria Lello, one of the oldest bookshops in Portugal, known for its beautiful wood panelling and staircase and unfortunately linked to Harry Potter, which is why when we visited, even with timed entry tickets, we had to queue for half an hour past the time of our entry.

The staircase!

 It also costs 5 euros to get into the bookshop which could be redeemed against a book…books are not cheap in Portugal however, and the English language texts were all classics that I already own, so we didn’t purchase anything…almost a first for me. The crush inside and the posing by many on ‘the staircase’ meant it was altogether a disappointing experience, we wasted 2 hours of our day…sorry Pi! 

We did get to see some old Time magazine covers with images of Virginia Woolf and George Orwell and an exhibition on Nobel Prize winners for Literature, which didn’t seem to be as popular as the staircase!! I now know of the only Portuguese writer to win the prize and have made a note to find some work by Josef Saramago, so some good did come out of it.

Despite this eating into our day, we still seemed to have plenty of time to do what we wanted to do, including the time honoured hobby of people watching in the sunshine by the river.

 The day before was a fairly dull weather day so we visited as many inside things as we could, climbing to the top of the cathedral and seeking out many of the azulejos tile clad churches; this filled the afternoon quite nicely. 

Pi was brave at the top of the cathedral tower and despite the lack of sunshine we still had great views across the river to the port houses. Seeing the famous names made us want to try some, which we did later with a delicious white port. Unfortunately this time round we did not have enough time to visit any of the houses.

Porto Cathédral

Ceiling inside one of the chapels in the cathedral

Tiles in São Bento Train Station

Just around the corner from the cathedral is São Bento train station which is particularly spectacular, covered with tiled walls depicting historical scenes. The building was completed in 1903 and is considered one of the world’s most beautiful train stations, on the inside at least. The 20,000 tiles depict many battles and Henry the Navigator’s conquests. It seemed most people in there were tourists standing gazing at the walls. 

São Bento Train Station

The azulejos tiles are striking and cover the outside and insides of the churches and houses all over Portugal it would seem, but they are really noticeable in Porto, I cannot seem to stop photographing them and I know they will all blend in to one when I look back at the images, but there is something quite beguiling about the blue and white images. 

After wandering for over 7 miles we decided the rest would have to wait until tomorrow, which turned out to be a good decision as the sun came out the next day.

Ponte de Dom Luis I - Rio Douro 

 

Today was about staying outside and getting a feel of the neighbourhoods, in particular the Ribeiro district, which is the older area with cobbled streets and narrow passageways leading down to the Douro river. When I say down, it really was ‘down’,  a long way down. Like much of Portugal, we will discover in our time here, this city is very hilly and towns all over the country are either up on hills or have many hills within them, our muscles are certainly being firmed up…not to mention the aching that is occurring in certain areas of my body at the end of each day…that tens machine has definitely come in handy. 

 

Porto reminded us very much of an older San Francisco, especially when you factor in the cute trams that are moving tourists around the hills and streets. We opted to keep walking though as we like to discover more hidden areas.

Hazul’s street art

Spotting some street art by the artist Hazul, whom I had read about, was quite exciting as it showed I was actually taking in some of my research. 

Making it to the river got us up close to the famous bridge, Ponte de Dom Luis I. This is probably one of the most photographed bridges in the country and was designed by a student of Eiffel. It was quite stunning and many photographs from many angles were taken to try and capture the spectacular engineering.

Ponte de Dom Luis I

The views up and down the river from here are stunning and we sat listening to buskers, all of whom seem to have the obligatory Vespa parked next to them... this is what holidays should be about. We wished we had more time, in fact we debated staying another day, but we realised we were being seduced by the sun and all we would do is sit and watch people, so thought we had better move on as we still had too much to pack into our time in this country.

Pastel de Nata 

Before heading back to Daisy we tried the very famous and ubiquitous Pastel de Nata, which I knew I wouldn’t like, but felt we had to try. It was warm and flaky and sweet and there the pleasure stopped…the inside is really not a texture I can cope with, so I tried one but it confirmed that it really was something I didn’t like! Pete was of the same mind and he doesn’t have the same texture issues that I have!!

Houses in the Ribeiro  district 

Passing the waterfront properties, we attempted to get the funicular back to the top of the city but the queue for this put us off, so we have to rely on good old fashioned legwork.

Capela das Armas

Walking back did allow us to find Capela das Almas, which is an 18th century chapel covered in azulejos; it was absolutely stunning!  A quick look around and then picking up empanadas for a take away lunch, we headed back, stopping to eat in a fantastic cemetery,  hoping this wasn’t offensive to those who lay there. 

Right on time to pick up Daisy and then head into the Duoro valley wine region to stay in the much anticipated vineyard at Quinta do Monte Travesso; more later in a whole vineyard blog!

Vineyard at Quinta do Monte Travesso 

Lisbon begins with a stay in Cascais, a beautiful, well-heeled seaside town, where many Lisboetas come for the weekend or have second homes. Apparently many Brazilians are also buying up properties and moving there permanently; it is easy to see why. Right on the Mediterranean Sea, it feels very clean and safe, the graffiti that blights many towns all over Europe is not present here. The cobblestone pavements are also devoid of any traces of dog, which is really good to see, as some of the street lighting at night is somewhat dimmed. 

Cascais from the lighthouse

We opted for a hotel as nights on vineyards had left us without showers and the campsite closest to Lisbon got particularly poor reviews. So staying outside Lisbon seemed to be the best plan.

Getting to see the sea as quickly as we could, we arrived at the local attraction of Boca do Inferno, it wasn't so amazing…  pretty but no powerful waves today, but you could imagine what it could be like. However, a walk along the coast watching the waves make splashes on the huge rocks was a different story. This doesn’t seem to ever get old, many others around us were also delighted as some of the waves splashed up in front of us. Weaving in and out of the rocks, we made our way round the shoreline to the lighthouse and paid just 2 euros to climb to the top. 

Another fully tiled building and an exhibition on the lighthouses of Portugal, it was well worth the entrance fee, although the incredibly narrow ledge around it at the top was a test for Pi. A delightful park behind the 19th century summer houses that now mostly house museums, brought us to an unusual sight…free wandering cocks and chickens, the park was full of them, and they were also wandering all over the roads the next morning. We did see some chicks which were particularly cute. 

Neighbourhood surveyed, we headed back for what we had hoped was going to be a lovely meal, alas no, fortunately my meal was refunded as it really was not good, but it did make us do a night-time walk; feeling completely safe we wandered up to Casa do Guia, another old house that had been turned into restaurants and we booked for the day we were due to leave Cascais, this time ensuring a fabulous meal at Os Prazeres da Carne.

Casa dans Historias Paula Rego

Cascais main square

An early start as we had a 30 minute walk to the train station and even before we factored in taking photos on route and being distracted, we knew this was going to be another big walking day. The tickets cost just over ten euros for both of us for a 40 minute return journey, imagine that in the UK! The train was also prompt in its departure and clean. A little anxious as we hadn't been on public transport at all, even in the UK, we soon settled to watch the scenery pass by. The route travels along the coast bringing you into Lisbon and you get to see some of the most amazing sights. 

Notably the Tower of Belem and the Explorers monument. In the full interest of disclosure, I have been to Lisbon before nearly 30 years ago and these two buildings are really all I remember about it. They are some way out, so to pass them on the train was a good way to see them, knowing we had limited time.

First stop was to investigate the Time Out market and food hall, which is right next to Casa do Sodré Train station, the last stop on our journey. It was really crowded so we passed by some stalls and made a note of where we would like to eat for later. The sun looked like it might hold so we headed for a drink in the sunshine, five minutes later there was a tremendous downpour so one margarita turned into two, coupled with some food, round one then round two, in the wonderful little Asian Street Food restaurant. 

A couple of hours later we braved the grey skies and set off to explore. Neither of us wanted to ‘see’ anything in particular so we wandered up and down streets, more mighty climbs, and seemed to get stuck in a not so interesting shopping street.

We were headed for tram 28, the most tourist travelled tram route, but like with most other things, even at this point in the year, the queues were enormous so we wandered around some more. Heading to Carmo Convent we came across the walkway of the Elevador de Santa Justa, which transports people 45 metres up from the streets below. The walkway they spill out on to, we had managed to arrive at by climbing to the convent. We got to see the best views across Lisbon for free! 

One quite arresting sight was the church of São Domingos. The interior is like nothing I have seen before. Most churches are either plain or extravagantly over the top or somewhere in between, this was quite macabre and desperate looking. It had suffered many catastrophes including earthquakes and more recently a fire in 1959 and the majority of the damage was left for all to see and I am certain I could smell the smoke still in the air. 

 The weather was not looking good and we quickly took shelter under shop canopies as the skies opened again, we had been in Lisbon for about seven hours and concluded that the rain wasn’t going to stop so it was time to make our way back. 

Doesn’t look much here but it was fabulous

Before leaving though we wanted to try two restaurants in the food hall in particular, Marlene Vieira and Henrique sa Pessoa. These are well known Portugueses chefs and have kiosks in the Time Out food hall. With a glass of white wine, which was quite delicious, we tried mussels in a tomato sauce and crab with avocado and finished with a fabulous chocolate brownie, all we had room for after the eating we didn’t intend to do earlier!

A thoroughly exhausting day with all the walking and the climbs and we didn’t even begin to do it justice, but we did it at a pace we wanted to and having been on the move for quite some time, we didn’t really want to ‘do’ or ‘see’ anything touristy, we just wanted to soak it all up, besides we had another 30 minute walk back from the train station to do. Glad we did it though even though it ended up making this part of the trip quite costly.

So which city do we prefer…Porto won easily!