On our last real day in Porto, we explored the two sides of the Douro River more. We started the day out by wandering down the stairs to the river. We stopped on the way for some food in the cafe. They didn’t have any natas at this one and were stuck eating some not so great sandwiches instead. We were all jealous of John’s choice and were happy that they were at least cheap. We then continued on to try and catch the boat tour we bought the day before. We missed that one by about a minute, but just killed a little time until the next one loaded up in 30 minutes. The tour we did was a rather simple one, but was perfectly fine for what we wanted. We did the Douro Azul tour which had audio sets for everyone with 16 different languages you could listen to. The recording’s timing was a bit off and at times it took a bit to figure out what they were talking about on the shore, but overall it wasn’t bad and we were happy to get the extra insight. We also decided that we actually did want to see the Crystal Palace Gardens after all. When buying the tickets for the river cruise we had been given a deal if we bought the port tasting option as well. So next up, were two port tastings. We thought they were both tours, but the first we stopped at was Porto Cruz. That was just a one room stop where they had a pink and a ruby. We got to try one so each couple did one of each. We quickly determined that there was right order to taste them and those that started with the pink finished the pink. We then walked down to the other one on the tour which was Calem. They had actual tours and we weren’t going to be able to get in for an hour so we grabbed the spots and headed off for food.
We headed over to the Mercado Municipal de Gaia, which we had accidentally discovered earlier in the day and thought it would be a great place to grab lunch. It is a big fancy food court area with many different options to select from. Brian spotted a burger place which looked amazing called Alta Burguesia. It happened to have veggie and chicken burgers too so we both got food there. Mine was a deconstructed chicken burger with 3 different Indian style sauces. Oh my god was it good. John got the typical salted cod dish in a salad form which he thought was pretty good as well.
All fed and ready to continue on we headed back to Calem for the tour. Their tour has a museum you start in and then a small tour of the barrels and vats. I would probably rank in the second of the three we saw while their. My favorite tour was Sandeman’s. We got to wander the floor more at Sandeman and we learned nothing new at Calem’s.
From there we took the gondola up the hill, enjoying the view and ending up near the convent. The gondola’s drop off was right at the same market we had visited the day before, so we enjoyed some ice cream and music before walking up to the convent. Mosterio da Serra do Pilar has some great views. We decided not to climb up the dome, but did check out the museum briefly. Honestly though the best part was the view from outside.
After that we headed across the bridge to catch an Uber to Jardins do Palacio de Cristal. It is a huge park that people were just wandering around or just lounging around. We walked through most of it and checked out the tower that looks over the river. We then left the gardens to get another uber and planned to go to Guindalense Futebol Clube again to enjoy their view and grab a drink, but since it was Sunday it was closed. So instead we walked up the hill a bit and then wandered over to an area that looked like it had some great restaurants. We walked up to La Ricotta and lucked out. They were able to seat us at the front table that we wanted even though we didn’t have a reservation. Wow was it good! We shared some fabulous fish carpaccio and great entrees. Brian had a huge tiger prawn saffron seafood risotto. I had amazing seafood squid ink linguini. John had their octopus. Such a fantastic last meal of our trip! We truly enjoyed Porto as the last stop on our trip. The next day was pretty much just a travel day back to the States and reality!
