Porto and Guimarães – Awesome Time Traveling in Portugal
This is the fifth post in a series about our first European vacation. We booked a repositioning cruise aboard the Celebrity Apex, which would depart from Barcelona, Spain, sail west through the Straits of Gibraltar, stopping in Portugal, first Lisbon then two nights in Porto, with a final stop in La Coruna, Spain, before disembarkation in Southampton, England. Check out our charming and tasty day in Lisbon, Portugal!
Guimarães
Overnight, the Celebrity Apex had navigated west along the Tagus out to the Atlantic Ocean, traveling up the Portuguese coast, and docked at the Porto Leixões Cruise Terminal by 10:00 AM the next morning, where it would remain for two days. This afforded us the opportunity to try two very different experiences.
For our first day, we had booked a shore excursion with Celebrity – Destination Highlight: Guimarães Birthplace of a Nation. Though we normally would have used an independent tour operator, this tour seemed reasonably priced at $112 for the two of us, and above all, it appeared genuinely interesting. Guimarães is often called the birthplace of Portugal, and its historic town centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as it is an example of a carefully preserved medieval settlement having evolved into a modern town.
The tour began at 2:00 PM, so after a relaxing morning onboard the Apex, we disembarked, and made our way through the cruise terminal, which features a modern, wave-like architectural design. Our bus was lined up right outside, alongside several others. There were about twenty fellow passengers on our tour. Our human guide, whose name we sadly cannot recall, handed out audio guides for some of the spots along the tour, then introduced us to the driver, who started the wheels in motion for the 45 minute drive to Guimarães. Interestingly, as the bus departed Leixões midweek in April, there was a crush of young people arriving by light rail, carrying coolers and towels, and heading toward the beach.
The bus dropped us off along the edge of the historic town centre, just down a hill from Castelo Guimarães, a restored medieval castle that was built in the 10th century. The tour guide led us up to the castle, though we did not go inside. It was initially meant to defend a nearby monastery from attacks by Moors and Norsemen. Portugal’s first king, Afonso Henriques is believed to have been born within its walls in 1106, 1109, or 1111, depending on the source or legend you believe.
The tour continued slightly down what is known as the park-like “Sacred Hill”, or Colina Sagrada, stopping at the 13th century Church of São Miguel do Castelo. The church has undergone restoration in both the 19th and 20th centuries. We walked the perimeter inside the church, which featured unadorned granite walls and a floor paved with inscribed granite slabs, many serving as funeral sepulchers for knights. Beside the baptismal font is a plaque, its inscription roughly translating to “In this font was baptized the King D. Afonso Henriques by Archbishop S. Geraldo in the year of our Lord 1106”. Obviously, whoever made this inscription is in the “born in 1106” camp.
Farther down the hill we arrived at the reconstructed Palace of the Dukes of Bragança, originally built in the 15th century by Afonso, Count of Barcelos and future first Duke of Bragança, as a residence for himself and his family. The palace became a national monument in 1910, and for a time served as a residence for the president, until it became predominantly a museum. We spent about half an hour in the palace, its rooms featuring tapestries, paintings, original furniture, weaponry, a chapel, and some occasionally creepy statues.
Heading down to the street, Camino do Castelo, we paused in front of a bronze statue of the first king, and founder of Portugal, Afonso Henriques. This is a serene spot, popular for photos.
Our tour now led us past Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Carmo, a 17th century church, its facade featuring a tile mosaic depicting the Virgin Mary. We then proceeded down Rue de Santa Maria, a medieval street, with quaint shops and cafes on each side. This brought us to the hustle and bustle of Largo de Oliveira, a medieval square in the center of Guimarães. Several restaurants with outside seating line much of the square, but most notable was Padrão do Salado, a striking national monument built in the 14th century to commemorate the Battle of Salado in 1340. This sits in front of the 10th century, Church of Nossa Senhora da Oliveira.
For the final stop on the tour, we walked down to the corner of Rue Alfredo Guimarães and Alameda de São Dâmaso, just across the street from the Garden of Largo, Republic of Brazil, a beautiful square with a fountain and manicured gardens. On the far end of gardens sits the Santos Passos Church, an 18th century Portuguese baroque church, with Mount da Penha rising up behind it. The view here is picturesque and tranquil.
At this point we had some free time before meeting the bus for the ride back to the ship, so we had a snack at a cafe on the corner called Pastelaria Supremo Gosto. We ordered at the counter and they brought the food to our table. The orange-chocolate cake was fine, though the fly buzzing around our table made us regret not waiting on the long line at the gelato place around the corner.
As a fitting end to the day, as we sat on the bus returning through some Leixões traffic, we once again observed the hordes of young people from earlier, now getting back on the train, presumably heading back home from the beach. What a life! As for ours, overall, given everything we had seen, we were quite pleased with this tour. Tomorrow, we would explore Porto on our own.
Porto
With the ship docked overnight, we were fortunate to also spend time in Porto itself, and this time without a tour. Our intent was to walk around Porto, into some places, and like most guided tours, past a few others (walking photo opportunities!). We’d done our planning, having saved the location of each destination in Google Maps.
Porto itself is not particularly walkable from the Porto Leixões Cruise Terminal, and so we had considered a few options. Due to the inconvenience on embarkation day in Barcelona, the ship had arranged a free bus that would take us into Porto, though not where we had intended to go. We had considered walking from the cruise terminal to the metro light rail, then changing trains at another station, a 30 – 40 minute journey, or walking to the nearest Hop-on Hop-off bus, which had mixed reviews. In the end, we decided on Uber, which while not a great option in Barcelona, is fully available in Porto.
After disembarking again around 9:30 AM, we climbed aboard a free bus that took us to the cruise terminal entrance down the road (you can walk, but this was easier and faster). While on the bus, I ordered an Uber, which met us just a few minutes later at the entrance. Twenty minutes after that, $10 lighter, and a few local stories richer, our talkative and friendly Uber driver dropped us right near Livraria Lello, our first stop.
Livraria Lello is often known as the world’s most beautiful bookshop, with its grand, curved staircase, ornate woodwork, and stained glass windows. First opened to the public in 1906, stories abound that it was the inspiration for J.K. Rowling when she created the Harry Potter series, while living and teaching English in Porto. The Hogwarts Library and various staircases in particular resemble the inside of this bookshop. However, the author has never visited, and denies it was an inspiration.
We had purchased “silver” tickets for 10 Euros each ahead of time. There is a line to get in, so it’s advisable to purchase directly on the Livraria Lello web site. On the bright side, they credit the cost of the ticket on any purchase you make. The shop has several “Livraria Lello” editions of classic novels. We mixed with the crowd, purchased a few books and gifts for the family, then after about half an hour, headed back outside, down the Rue de Carmelitas toward Igreja dos Clérigos and Clérigos Tower. Along the way, we paused to watch a really cool street performer.
Clérigos Tower, completed in 1763, served as a bell tower, lookout post for fires, and a military observation post during the Napoleonic wars. It is the tallest bell tower in Portugal. We weren’t going inside, and after snapping a few photos, kept on keeping on. It was time for snack #1, near Liberdade Square and so we continued down Rua dos Clérigos, in the midst of Porto’s historic center.
What would have been a five-minute walk turned into the horrors and drudgery of an eight-minute walk due to a great deal of construction preventing us from crossing the streets Google wanted us to cross. Still, just a few minutes late, we arrived at snack #1, the alleged most beautiful McDonald’s in the world. There’s a lot of “most beautiful” things in Europe, so we just went with it.
This Mickey-D’s is housed in a former 1930’s cafe, with an impressive Art-deco interior, chandeliers, stained glass, and mural. It’s still McDonald’s, though, and we ordered on the same “don’t talk to a human” kiosks we have at home.
They did have snack wraps, which at the time weren’t available at home anymore, plus a number of things particular to Portugal. If you google Portugal McDonald’s you can find their unique McMenu. After picking up our $7 order of a snack wrap, a McCrispy something-or-other , and a soda of undetermined size, we climbed down the treacherous Art-Deco staircase to lower level seating. The restrooms are also downstairs, and you can gain admittance using the code printed on your receipt. One note about the soft drinks in Portugal, and probably much of Europe, they are far smaller than you find in the U.S.
After a satisfying fast food snack and a stop in the “for customer use only” rest rooms, our attention turned to Portuguese ceramic tile, and where else would you look for a beautiful example of ceramic tile, but a train station. Therefore, off we went in search of São Bento Station. Seriously.
After ten minutes of navigating more Porto street construction, we were standing inside this station’s main hall, which features over 20,000 hand-painted ceramic (“azulejo”) tiles depicting scenes from Portuguese history and rural life. These iconic murals were created by artist Jorge Colaço when the station opened in 1916. This is a fully functioning train station, but plenty of tourists like us were ogling the tile. On the way out of the station’s side doors, we stumbled into a shop selling local artwork, and bought a monochrome of Porto, featuring Dom Luís bridge spanning the Douro river.
This first view of ceramic tile only made us hungry for more, and so we set out for our next stop, the Chapel of Souls, otherwise known as the Chapel of Santa Catarina. This was a partially up-hill 15 minute walk toward Rua de Santa Catarina, a busy shopping district. Google Maps did us dirty at first, and took us a back way through a fairly isolated road that featured a rickety-looking staircase that seemed to climb forever, but Rona convinced me this was a bad idea.
Construction of the Chapel of Souls began in the late 18th century. Remodeling occured in the 20th century, at which time 15,947 azulejo tiles covering approximately 360 square meters replaced the original white-plastered facade. The amazing tilework depicts scenes from the lives of Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Catherine.
The chapel’s intimate interior is not to be missed either, with its neoclassical style, altars dedicated to various saints, a stained glass window depicting souls in Purgatory, and yes, more tile work.
With our need to view ceramic tile well and truly sated, it was time for shopping and some seafood snacks. The chapel sits across the street from Mercado do Bolhão, similar to Mercat de La Boqueria in Barcelona, though perhaps less touristy and as a result, less crowded. We entered the two story building in which the market sits from its Rua Fernandes Tomás entrance, and headed downstairs to the market proper.
Mercado do Bolhão is large, but does not feel quite as overwhelming as Mercat de La Boqueria. After much browsing and consideration, we stopped at Peixaria Sara’s for freshly shucked oysters and peel-yourself-some-shrimp-but-mind-the-head. We took our tasty snack to sit along the stairs from whence we came, chatted with another couple from the U.S. and chowed down.
Snack #2 complete, we walked up and down the many wide aisles of the market, checking out the cornucopia of food, grocery, and gift stalls. Fulfilling Rachel’s request for “chocolate from every country”, we purchased chocolate in decorative containers in which you’d otherwise find processed fish. For Scott and Veronica, we bought actual locally canned fish – a few different varieties, and made sure not to mix them up with Rachel’s gifts. On our way out of the market we ordered and promptly slurped down freshly squeezed orange juice, much like we’d done in Barcelona, and we called it good.
We had one more stop, which naturally involved more snacks. This was our last day in Portugal, and we had only tried Pastéis de Belém while we were in Lisbon — Belém to be precise, and you can find that trip report right here. As mentioned in that post, you can only get the real Pastéis de Belém in one place in Belém, but you can get a similar custard tart called Pastel de Nata anywhere in Portugal.
There is great debate over who has the best Pastel de Nata, and so we had several to choose from. This trip, we chose Manteigaria – Fábrica de Pastéis de Nata, two minutes from Mercado do Bolhão’s Rua Formosa exit. For the devilish price of $6.66, we ordered two Pastéis de Nata, coffee, and an iced tea at the counter, and took our final Porto snack to a table for one last relaxing moment in this picturesque city.
Ubering back to the cruise terminal entrance that afternoon cost $13.50, but it was tricky to meet the driver near Mercado do Bolhão on the narrow Rua Formosa, since there are limited spots where they can pull over. There was considerable walking back and forth to find him. So we recommend ordering an Uber when you are on a wide, more obvious location in Porto.
Overall, we found Porto an easily navigated, easily walked, and very safe city. While we did see everything we intended to see this visit, we did not get to see some other sights, including Porto Cathedral, everything along the Douro River, walking across the Dom Luís bridge to Vila Nova de Gaia, not to mention Port tasting somewhere in Porto. We would definitely go back, and these items will be atop our list.
Tonight, though, we are looking forward to an amazing sail away meal back on the Celebrity Apex in the Eden restaurant. Tomorrow morning, we’ll wake up in La Coruna (A Coruña), Spain for our final port of call before ending in Southampton, England.
For those who’ve tried both, which do you like better, Pastéis de Nata or the original Pastéis de Belém? What’s your favorite place for a Pastel de Nata?