Porto day 2 – A walk through the city

        In our second day we went for a walk…for like…the whole day. It was cardio day mostly 😅. But it was a great opportunity for us to see more of this beautiful city.

       The first destination was Jardins do Palacio de Cristal. Being autumn, you can imagine we couldn’t find so much of a flowery-green-garden, but for that time of the year, it was still pretty colorful and neat. We had the pleasure to meet a family of peacocks walking freely in the garden 💙. Since the garden climbs up a hill, there are different spots for landscapes of Duoro River and the other side of the city.

         To continue our walk, we went then to Farolim de Felgueiras, which is “just” 5km away but it took us “only” one hour. It was a very pleasing experience and we saw many beautiful buildings on our way. Here we admired a 10m-tall lighthouse from 19^th century made out of granite. It situated right at the point of discharge of the Douro River into the Atlantic Ocean. The scenery of the heavy waves breaking into the rocks is very dramatic. There are also beaches nearby: the very little Praia das Pastoras on one side, and Praia do Carneiro on the other side.

        For lunch we found here the most fancy McDonald’s so we didn’t miss the chance and take a meal there. I don’t know about your country, but in mine McDonald’s has that specific taste of fast-food. Well here, I don’t know what receipe they used, but all the food was very tasty  😍 and didn’t have that oily-fast-food taste. Also they have a big variety of sandwiches which I haven’t seen anywhere else.

        In the afternoon, we went on the other side of the city, called Vila Nova de Gaia that is crossed by Luis I Bridge over the Douro River. The bridge is double-deck and is 185m long. On the upper level runs the subway 🚇 and on the lower level the cars 🚗; both levels can be walked by pedestrians. We walked on the upper level for a spectacular view of both cities and we also encountered one train passing by.

        On the other side of the bridge, there is a very nice park / garden up on the hill, named Jardim do Morro. Here people were sitting on benches or simply on the grass enjoying music and the wonderful sunset landscape. People can also get here by cable car. The garden is nicely decorated with flowers, palm trees, rocks and little pools of water.

        In the evening, we could not left Porto without a wine tasting. We found a nice pastry called Natas D'Ouro where we bought a couple of glasses of wine (followed by the purchase of a couple of bottles of wine 😇) and tried out some of their traditional pastry called “pastel de nata”. We paid 3€ for an offer containing one glass of wine and 2 natas. We couldn't stop at one for each so we tasted more from different flavours; they were made in Heaven 💛. The price for one nata is 1€. 

        And this is how we spent our (last) day in Porto. We then went back home and prepared for our flight back home in the morning ✈.