Porto!
We did a day trip into Porto on Friday, which was a 45 min walk to the train station in Marco de Canaveses, followed by a 1 hr 10 min train ride into Porto. A lot longer than the Uber we took from Porto when we got here, but also a fraction of the price!
We made it into Porto, which was gorgeous from the moment we stepped into the station. We walked around Porto for a while, admiring the gorgeous architecture. We had a general aim of making our way to Livraria Lello, a bookstore I was dying to see in person. We took a long, circuitous route to get there due to construction road closures, but we didn’t mind as there was just so much beauty to see!
We made our way to the shop and found it to be pure chaos! Well-managed chaos, but oh my… the crowds and lines were insane! We loved that the shop had a free wifi station outside where you could get onto their wifi, scan their QR code, and book tickets to go in at the time of your choosing. In fact, you couldn’t go in without buying tickets. We decided to get tickets for 1 p.m. and come back a bit later.
We then spent some time wandering back to a fountain we had all spied that was gorgeous and the girls were dying to see up close. It was a beautiful blue colour. Just across the courtyard from here was a beautiful church from 1736, Igreja do Carmo. Emmeline was in awe when she saw it and took sooooo many photos with her camera! After a quick lunch across the street, we went in to see the inside. Which was even more impressive than the outside! We have been in a lot of old churches and cathedrals, but never have we seen the intricate 3D artwork that we saw here. It was spectacular!
The church also had access to the Hidden House (a small multi-level home for the priest), catacombs, various religious rooms, a fancy dining area for entertaining, a library, and historical items from the church. We were able to climb up to the roof of the church to get a great view of the surrounding area. The girls were extremely intrigued by the skeleton remains in the catacombs and couldn’t believe there were real people buried under the church that you could see! All in all, it was an impressive church and was probably our favourite thing we all saw and did during our day trip.
After we left the church, we had a stop for gelato and then onto Livraria Lello. It was still sooooo busy inside, definitely a huge tourist attraction. The workers said we chose the slowest time of day to go, which is crazy to think of. I can’t imagine how busy it would be at the busier times of the day! The building interior was as spectacular and intricate as I expected, though I felt the actual book selection was a little lacklustre. The girls both found some books from an English author that wrote one of Katia’s favourite books ever that she has at home and reads over and over! They each bought two of her books, and we bought a pretty deck of cards.
After buying the books and leaving the store, we were all feeling hot and overwhelmed. We were going for a walk to a park Jon wanted to see, and the girls asked if we could just have some quiet time under a shady tree to read books. We were going to, but the grass was wet from recent watering, so we decided to find a café instead. We came across a cute wine shop rather than the café we were looking for, and decided when in Porto! The girls happily sat in the booth reading their hearts out, oblivious to the world around them while we enjoyed a local glass of red wine and a chance to chat with each other uninterrupted. We have mostly just been doing white and rose wine since it’s so hot, so it was nice to try a red finally!
We walked around a lot more for the day, browsing tourist shops, listening to live music while snacking on Margherita pizzas, olives, bread, and olive oil, walking the boardwalk and checking out the famous Luís I Bridge, and buying our Portugal magnets. For those who don’t know, we collect magnets everywhere we go and have a huge magnetic whiteboard where we put them all. We love to just sit and reminisce over them from time to time!
We trained back to Marco and arrived around 7 p.m. While the girls were begging us to walk back home, Jon was not up for the 45 min mostly uphill walk! After walking over 20,000 steps the day before on our trek to Marco and subsequent explorations, an early morning, and a long day in Porto where we walked another 15,000+ steps, I think it was understandable he was feeling a little worn out! The girls have limitless energy, but we adults do have our limits!! We cabbed it home in about 5 minutes and were all sleeping by 8:30 p.m.
All in all, we had a great day in Porto. It was a beautiful city full of gorgeous architecture and sites. But at the end of the day, we are definitely small-town people! We found all the tourists, crowds, hustle, and bustle to be overwhelming and exhausting. Not to mention the costs in bigger cities are insane! Jon thanked me for having the foresight to rent a place in a small town just outside of Porto where we can easily do day trips to see the City. We will go back once or maybe twice more. But we are both much happier exploring the more authentic small towns out in the country.