Porto, Portugal
07/10/2022
Saturday was set for a tour to the more unknown spots of the city. We got picked up at the hotel once more, this time by a former German teacher turned Porto tour guide. We walked straight past Avenida dos aliados and São Bento station up a hill to the Fontaínhas quarter. This also took us past many graffiti and street art.
After walking a main road for a while, our guide took us into a secluded alley which led to a block of working-class houses that formed Bairro Herculano. The small paths were quite tidy and neatly decorated by the inhabitants. Turning around the corner, the noise level was suddenly significantly more peaceful. We walked around it for a while, continued past Bairro de São Victor – a social building project – and then were invited into an adjacent private back alley of Rua de S. Victor by an inhabitant.
From these quarters, Douro river was not far, though because of how hilly Porto is, there was quite a difference in altitude between us and the water. So upon reaching the walkway, we made our way westbound for some lunch, coming by Miradouro das Fontainhas which offered a nice view possibility to launch my drone and also had a public garden below.
From there we walked quite directly to ‘Restaurante do Terreirinho‘, a local restaurant where we had reserved a table. They had a variety of local and Portuguese specialties.
After replenishing our energy, we approached the nearby waterfront and finally crossed Ponte Luís I, the landmark bridge of the city.
Having crossed to the less populated side of town, this allowed us to look at the interesting, offering a fascinating view. It is just like how to get the best view of Paris, you should not go onto the Eiffel Tower, since then you don’t see the Eiffel Tower 😉 .
From there we followed the shoreline for a little while before turning left to walk up a hill towards the Niepoort wine cellar, where we got a tour of the premises with a look into the storage facilities. Of course, we also did a tasting of some port wine.
When we left, we found ourselves in the midst of a nice late-summer sunset, adding colour to the already beautiful scenery and making for an awesome photo opportunity.
Naturally, such a nice scenery deserves to be photographed from different angles, so I quickly started my drone to fly towards the city centre a little.
Upon landing, we walked a few kilometres westbound towards the ocean (left side of the river in the picture above), slowly but surely leaving the populated part of town behind. The air near the water became increasingly foggy, creating a mystical atmosphere.
A half-hour walk along the waterfront later we arrived at ‘Tasca 7 Vidas‘, a local fish restaurant. The somewhat remote suburb Vila Nova de Gaia was quite peaceful, without much of the bustle from Porto’s city centre. Many of the restaurants grilled their fish on charcoal grills placed on the parking lots in front of the buildings. We ordered a wide variety of fish & seafood with some sides to conclude the day right.
Adeus!