Rowkin Rovings Blog

God awful early start this morning as we had a 9.30am train from Lisbon to Porto.

First time in a week Di has managed to drag herself out of her bed before 9.00am so we were both thankful that today of all days she managed it. She really doesn’t 👀 too impressed by it all.

We still can’t believe we have managed to travel so light and both of us will admit that there is at least one item each that we could have left behind in Calgary. It makes for such easier travelling when you are not having to lug large bags around.

We have splurged and upgraded to first class which was nice though the rolling stock is pretty dated. Having said that though, the line was electrified, and that thing moved. We had just over 300k to travel and did it comfortably in 3.5 hours. As we travelled north, the weather changed from overcast to clear blue sky.

When arriving into Porto, you come onto the Douro Valley where Porto is stretched along both sides of the valley. It is stunning. The valley is extremely deep with buildings all the way up, roadways, bridges, tunnels and every man-made structure you can think of crammed up either side. It kind of defies gravity.

We made our way to our accommodation which when we chose it on line was the usual crapshoot but this time the 💩 hit the bullseye and we had a win.

Appearances can be deceiving, and, in this case, the dungeon door entrance did not give us a lot of confidence to begin with. Well, what a little gem. The hotel has only been open for seven months, has only 14 rooms 👍, boutiqueie++, excellent location and very well appointed. It only has a two star rating because it only has the one entrance, and the staff must come in the same way as the paying guests. It doesn’t earn another star because it hasn’t  a bar or lounge – that is a big yes for us as that just means no noisy, young boozers. We would put it at a 4-5 star hotel where we are from. We are going to enjoy this place!!

We were greeted by the concierge with a glass of white port and tonic, chocolates and a very personalized touch. Once we settled in and marvelled at our room, we blasted out to join our 2.5 hour guided tour. We thinks that Porto is hillier than Lisbon. It has a nice vibe to it and every way you turn there are spectacular views of either the river valley or the many beautiful buildings.

We started at the lovely, refurbished copper fountain of the lions and then set off on foot to the train station.

We had been told by a few people that the station was worth a visit and that was very good advice. There are 22,000 hand painted tiles inside the main hall of which all of them were done by one person who took 11 years to complete the job. Presently they have a white film all over them due to renovations, so they appear to have lost a lot of their colour. There is a new metro line going in which is causing mayhem/havoc/disruption throughout the city and the tiles are just one of the victims of this progress.

Lots of lovely green parks dotted all over the place. The temperature was about 23c but just that little touch of coolness to the breeze which is indicative of how much further north we are. Absolutely perfect walking weather.

Our first real view of the Pont de Louis I bridge.

Love how the skyline has no tall buildings.

This is the Se Cathedral which is the main catholic cathedral in Porto.

Slowly we made our way around the route ending up at the Pont de Louis I bridge.

We walked over the top deck, and it is a hell of a long way up. You would not want to be afraid of heights.

By now Di was just about ready to melt into the pavement so we got a taxi to a recommended restaurant where Fras wanted to experience Porto’s version of a heart attack on a plate. Oh god, how to describe this catastrophe. Di was not having a bar of it as her gut lining is in preservation mode still and will be for a while longer. So, what is this gastronomic delight??

Francesinha is a Portuguese sandwich, originally from Porto, made with layers of toasted bread and assorted hot meats such as roast, steak, wet-cured ham, linguiça, or chipolata over which sliced cheese is melted by the ladling of a near-boiling tomato-and-beer sauce called molho de francesinha – a.k.a. Di is about to puke at this stage.

End result……..

He later complained when we got back to the hotel, that his tummy felt heavy. From someone who has just about lost their stomach lining through no fault of their own to someone who gleefully and willingly did a full frontal assault on theirs, there was no sympathy coming to the latter from the former!!!!!

Steps  11,031 – yes, yes, heading in the right direction again.