Plucky Survivors See Europe Day 61: Porto

I spent the morning exploring Porto and taking an absolute boatload of pictures.

I walked down the hill through the Ribeira district, finding picturesque little streets and alleys.  It was early, so most of the stores and bars that are along them were closed.  The good news is that I mostly had the to myself, so it was a peaceful walk.

There is a lot of street art in this area, including murals big and small.

I found St. Lawrence Church, built by the Jesuits in 1577.  There’s a big veranda next to it with some stunning views of the city.

Right next door is the Museum of Sacred Art and Archeology.  I wanted to go in but it wasn’t open yet and didn’t feel like waiting, so instead I headed to the Porto Cathedral.  This involved stairs.  Lots and lots of stairs.  Stairs that you think have ended only to turn a corner and find more stairs.  I love you, Porto, but would it kill you to put in an escalator or elevator or something?

Construction on the Porto Cathedral started around 1147 and took about 400 years.  Can you imagine?  If a Tik Tok video is longer than 30 seconds, most people get bored and move on.  There were also some amazing views from there, which I was expecting because, you know, stairs.

I also almost got run over by a Viking Cruises bus.  It’s been 9 years since I quit that job and they’re still trying to kill me.

Then it was on to Ponte Luis I, the two-level bridge that spans the Douro.  It took five years to build between 1881 and 1886 and at the time of its opening, it was the longest span of its type in the world at 172 meters.

Crossing the top level on the narrow sidewalk with street cars whizzing by inches away was not, perhaps, my greatest idea considering my paralyzing fear of heights.  At one point I made the mistake of looking down and there was about a 1-inch gap in the deck that allows you to see straight down.  I nearly fainted.  But the views were amazing.

I wanted to go down to the riverfront, which involved going down a steep hill or taking the mostly glass cable cars.  Can you guess which I chose?  Cool views from the road on the way…

The Ribeira side of the river has lots of vendor stalls, with (mostly) handcrafted souvenirs; boat tours; street musicians; restaurants; and bars.  I’m told it is very lively at night – the place to be for tourists who want to experience some Porto atmosphere. 

At one of the vendor stalls, a cable car model captured my interest, and I asked the woman manning the table if it was made locally.  She looked at me with her eyebrow raised.  I said, “I’m a stupid American tourist, just tell me it was made locally.”  She said, “It was made locally.”  I bought it.

I was hungry by that point, but most of the restaurants on that side of the river didn’t have great reputations and/or weren’t open and/or were only serving heavy, big dishes for lunch.  So, I walked back across along the lower level of the bridge to the other side of the river to the community known as Gaia.

This riverfront area has a ton of port and wine bars, wineries, and museums devoted to wine.  I’m not usually a drinker of wine but this would’ve been heaven if I had been.  More great views of Porto and some cool buildings, including one example of almost Miami-style Art Deco, which I’ve seen in a few places around Porto.

For lunch I went to Mercado Beira Rio, a small market with about a dozen food vendors.  It had just opened and many of the stalls weren’t serving food yet so my choices were limited, but I found one that had a smoked ham eggs Benedict sandwich on a brioche bun, so I ordered it.  It was a great idea, but the execution was not on point temperature wise.  I’m not sure how they had cooked ham, egg, and melted cheese but it was still cold (or lukewarm at best).

I ate a few bites and moved on to another vendor where I got a chicken Tinga empanada and pao com chourico, or Portugues chorizo bread.  Both were fantastic, although also not as warm as I would’ve liked.  They need to work on their temperature settings.

I looked it up while I was eating… the elevation change from where I started and where I was clocked in at 108 meters or just about over 350 feet.  That’s roughly the height of a 30 story building that I’d have to climb to get back to the hotel.  Have I mentioned how cheap and quick Uber is in Porto?

I spent the afternoon working and finished revised storyline for a 2027 fall movie and then had a conference call for notes about a 2026 Christmas movie.

Once all that was done, I headed out for dinner.  I was in the mood for Italian for some reason so I found a nearby restaurant called Bellano where I had focaccia with garlic and mozzarella, a Caesar salad, and fettucine bolognese.  I know they talk about portions being out of control in America – supersize me! – but it’s just as big of a thing here as well.  Evidence in the photo.  The salad was a little underdressed, but everything else was terrific and I was very happy with my choice.

Then it was time for magic at the Helder Guimaraes show, “Time for Magic.”  I have been looking forward to this for weeks and even rearranged a big chunk of my itinerary to be able to be here for it.

I’ve seen several of Helder’s shows and consider him to be one of, if not THE, best slight of hand magician in the world.  The things he does are beyond belief; seemingly impossible.  He did one trick tonight that involved turning four blank cards into matching cards that an audience member had chosen and those blank cards never left our sight or his hands.

But one of the reasons I like his shows so much is that they go beyond simple tricks.  Helder tells stories that he weaves in and out of the tricks, giving them more resonance… more magic if you will.  A lot of the stories tonight centered around the ideas of decisions and coincidences and he ended the show with a trick that culminated in a deck of randomly shuffled, cut, and mixed several times by the audience all rearranging themselves into matching pairs – the two red fours, the two black kings, and so on. 

As he did this, he said something profound, which is that we should all be open to the idea that the decisions we make can lead to beautiful coincidences.

I couldn’t help but relate that to the journey I’m on now.  I made a decision about my itinerary that put me in Rome on a weekend that just happened to be the Pride celebration and I ended up marching with thousands of people in the shadow of the Colosseum.  I decided to be in Barcelona on a day that, coincidentally, happened to be when Spain won the World Cup and I got to see what pure, unadulterated joy looks like.  I decided to visit Porto and had already booked a hotel when I found out that Helder was doing a magic show two blocks away.

Every coincidence you experience happens because of a decision we made.  What a powerful and empowering concept.

For this and many other reasons, add Porto to the list of cities I’ve fallen in love with and want to return to someday.

Tomorrow, I start several days of the European version of Cannonball Run with a 400+ mile, 8-9 hour drive to Bilbao, Spain.  Wish me luck.