Porto: Dia Uma

For Thanksgiving, we took a two-day trip to Porto. The city sits along the northern coast of Portugal with temperatures reaching the mid-50s for the end of November. A river also runs through it, and as we found out, it is a very hilly city.

Because we flew RyanAir, which leaves from an airport nowhere near a train-line, we stayed with one of our friends who lives closer, has a car and joined us for the trip. We arrived at the airport with plenty of time but ran into an unruly middle-aged woman who felt we should be privileged she cut in front of us with her entire family because it was Thanksgiving… rrrr… I’m sorry, but Americans are the worst travelers with super high anxieties.

Anyhow, Porto was a lovely city. The weather report predicted rain, but all we got were some strong chilly winds. Our hotel was just off the main plaza, and the city was small enough that we could walk to most places. Because it was Thanksgiving (even for us, Crazy Lady), we walked over to the shopping district to enjoy a lunch at the Majestic Cafe. The architecture was nice and service fantastic, but the food was only so-so. As Porto is on the ocean, most of the food served is seafood. That was primarily a problem for our one friend who does not eat seafood. 😛

Afterwards, we wandered over to Clerigos Tower, part of a church, and got some great views of the city. By this point, it was getting chilly and dark, so we went back to the hotel to warm up and pick a place for dinner. We just wandered the streets some more until we found an actual restaurant (Portugal does not seem keen on restaurants; they are quite sparse). Again, we received fantastic service (and at one point had four people serving us), and the food was okay. It was a good restaurant for Thanksgiving dinner; no one left hungry.