Poppin Over to Porto

January 15, 2016

Porto Portugal: Day 1

When we flew in to Porto we simply grabbed a cab to our hotel rather than rent a car or take public transportation into the city.  It was cheap and super easy!  We stayed at a nice hotel called the Porto Trinidade Hotel.  It was plain on the outside but very fancy on the inside.  It reminded me more of Italy than Portugal with it's art that was in the room.  

Porto Trinidade Hotel

The entrance was really nice with marble everywhere

It may have been a bit fancy but it was also very welcoming

There was a very long hallway coming into the room

Looking back towards the room door

Two separate beds is very common in Europe

The art reminded me of Rome

Simple but kind of neat

We dropped off our luggage and went out for some food and drinks.

Just look at the details on the City Hall Building!

Porto's City Hall

Although it looked very bright out, it was actually just at the beginning of sunset.  They even served Port wine at the cafes!

We giggled at the name of this place but stopped when we got the bill!  It was so inexpensive and the food was AMAZING!

The pictures don't do justice to the vast selection of food.  This was just the dessert section.

By the time we left the cafe, it was getting dark so we went back to our hotel to rest up for the next day of adventuring!

January 16, 2016

Porto Portugal: Day 2

Day 2 began with me finding the famous bookstore that inspired J.K. Rowling's Hogwarts and the uniforms for the students.  She lived in Porto for 10 years and would sit in the bookstore, drink tea and watch the Portuguese students.  My sweet husband allowed me to pull him out of the hotel early in the morning, really before people were out and about.  I promised him a breakfast beer and, boom!  We were ready to go.  ;)  We sat outside in some pretty cool weather while we waited for the store to open.

He would have sat there all day if I would have let him.  Finally the bookstore opened.  You had to pay just to get inside.

Lello & Irmão Bookstore, considered the third most beautiful bookstore in the world

There is a lot going on in this place!

Most people just come in to take pictures

The top of the staircase

Picture of the top of the staircase from the internet to show how many books are there

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The stain glass ceiling

After the bookstore we started walking towards a church.  Now we know it was Clerigos Church.  Porto has many beautiful churches.

Heading towards Clerigos Church

Clerigos Church

Details of Clerigos Church with the tower

The second church we came across was the Carmalitas Church.  Many of the churches have beautifully had painted blue tiles on them.  This is common and traditional and Porto is well known for their blue tiles.

The detail was very beautiful

 We then walked through a park and began walking upwards.  That's the only way to describe it.  As we were walking towards the warf and all the boats, there started to be a very steep incline and it took us to what seemed to be the top of Porto and then we walked down to the warf.  There was lots of cool stuff to see on the way to include statues and Porto's Stock Exchange.

Another really neat store on our way

A city park we walked through

The trees were pretty neat

Statue of Pedro I of Brazil

Many of the houses were really colorful

Some were actually tiled

There were also cool little hands on some of the buildings, I'm unsure of the meaning however

The Exchange

Statue of Prince Henry

Statue of Prince Henry in front of the Stock Exchange

At the top of Porto

The warf was pretty spectacular.  We spent a couple hours there before we walked across the bridge to Vila Nova de Gaia and the wine tastings.

Dom Luis I Bridge looking towards Vila Nova de Gaia

Just being on the warf was amazing.  It was one of my favorite parts of the day

My handsome Captain Jack

I truly loved the buildings around the warf

The was some sort of very old pathway in the city but it was really short as if it was built for children or super short people

More colorful houses

We spent a couple hours at this little place.  They didn't speak a word of english

After we had a couple drinks, some food and rested a bit, we made our way across the bridge over to Vila Nova de Gaia which was the town they have all the port wine tastings.  We had wanted to go to Sandeman's which is one of the largest port makers but they didn't seem to have any tours or even seem to be open so we went to some other almost equally famous port houses.  We did have some amazing food though at the restaurant next to Sandeman's.

Looking back at Porto from the other side of the bridge

Quevedo's was our next stop

The barrels were so neat!  I wanted to take one home!

There weren't many people around, probably since it was January

Ruby Port...very nice!

Jack wasn't a huge fan but I drank his for him!

The next place we went to was Ca'lem.  They had a really cool set up.  We got lots of cool pictures but I was the only one drinking the port, so I have a feeling I had a better time than the man did!  ;)

We bought a couple bottles of port for our friends and one for me and started our very long way back home.  The view was worth it but I think I had 20,000+ steps on my fitbit that day!

Sao Bento Train Station

The hand painted murals in the train station were very impressive

An example of the Porto Blue tiles

I popped in quickly to get a picture of the inside of the train station

Porto at sunset with the cathedral to the left and the Dom Luis I Bridge at the right

We got back as the sun was setting and we stopped at a little restaurant for food.  We were talking about my husband finishing a Koi fish tattoo that he had been talking about for a number of years.  We were saying how he should get it there in Porto.  There happen to be a barber shop next door that had a sign about tattoos so Jack went in to inquire.  The brought him out to the table next to me and one of the guys sitting there was actually their resident tattoo artist.  He said he would open the shop the next day (a Sunday) just for us.  Talk about kismet!

January 17, 2016

Porto Portugal: Day 3

Our last day in Portugal was dark and rainy AND it was a Sunday, which anyone in Europe knows, is usually very boring since most things are closed.  Luckily that was the day Jack was going to get his tattoo so we had a very lazy morning.  We went back to that wonderful little cafe from the first day and relaxed.  After a couple hours and lots of window shopping around Porto (all of which were closed), we went to get his tattoo.  It took 6 full hours of work and by the time we were done, we had gotten to know the tattoo artist very well.  His name was Nelson Graf Reis and not only was he an incredibly talented artist, he was equally as amazing at tattoos and to top it all off, he only tattooed so that he could fund himself traveling the world and playing in his band We Bless This Mess.  He was one of the sweetest souls I've met and we still keep in touch.

Thankfully this was our last day in Porto and all the others had been beautiful!

Nelson in front of Barbearia Porto

Barbearia Porto

It was a very neat place

Nelson tattooing Jack

The pictures don't show just how vivid the colors are

Nelson did all this with a single needle.  He drew the koi as we sat and watched.  He is an amazing artist

This was more of his art

Nelson on his Album cover We Bless This Mess

January 18, 2016

Porto Portugal: Day 4

One the fourth day we flew home.  When we walked in the door Jack checked his email and found out that he was offered an amazing opportunity to teach at West Point as a Physical Education Instructor.  That was the good news.  In order to say yes to the offer however, we would need to move back to the United States and he would have to start another Masters degree by the end of April.  I was devastated to leave Europe but knowing the incredible opportunity that was being offered to my husband, I knew we had to go.  I did not create a budget count of Porto due to all those changes and it has taken me 8 months to even get this blog updated! :)