In September 2025, I visited Porto with my husband, Bryan; our son, Stuart, and his wife, Laura; and our youngest son, David, and his wife, Jenny. A couple of years earlier, we all enjoyed a trip to New York to celebrate a significant birthday of mine, and we had so much fun that we decided to repeat the experience, but slightly closer to home. Originally, we intended to visit Dublin, but found the accommodation so expensive that we considered alternatives. Eventually, we settled on Porto, the second largest city in Portugal, and, I’m ashamed to admit, I had never heard of it! Surprisingly, we found that five nights’ accommodation in Porto, including flights and transfers, cost us less than a couple of nights in Dublin. It was a no-brainer, and I’m sure the weather was better, though I would still like to visit Dublin one day.
Our youngest son, David, is very good at booking everything, and he found us excellent accommodation right in the centre of the city, which was ideal for sightseeing. We arrived in the late evening and, having enjoyed a meal, we all retired to our beds. The next morning, we awoke refreshed, and after a continental breakfast, we felt ready for a day of sightseeing. We strolled through the city to get our bearings and soon found that the terrain is steep and, in places, the streets are cobbled. We headed downhill to where we assumed we would find the river.
Porto, 280 km north of Lisbon, is Portugal’s second-largest city and sits on the River Douro.
This is a photo of the metal-arched Dom Luis I Bridge, named after King Luis I of Portugal and built between 1881 and 1886 by Theophile Seyrig, an architect who had previously worked with Gustave Eiffel.
The upper deck is for the metro and pedestrians, and the lower deck is for road traffic and pedestrians, which we crossed later in the day.
The Douro River is a picturesque area offering riverside cafes and access to the Douro Valley vineyards. Naturally, we took some photos for the album, and here we are, Bryan and I, Stuart and Laura, and David and Jenny.
From above, the bridge provides the most amazing views of the Douro River and the Ribeira district with its colourful houses and cobbled streets. A trip on the cable car is well worth the money, and although it is a short ride, it provides a view of the Sandeman port merchant’s warehouses.
Porto is, of course, famous for its port wine, and whilst wine had been made in the area for centuries, in 1678 English Merchants fortified it with brandy to enable it to survive the long sea voyage to England. In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, British merchants such as Fladgate, Sandeman, Cockburns, Croft, Harris, Taylors, Graham, and Warre became prominent in the port trade. Names that are still familiar today.
Our walk through the city led us along narrow, cobbled streets, and I was glad I had worn comfortable shoes. Many of the shops are ornately tiled, making them very attractive. Sardines are popular in Portugal, and on the right is a photo of a shop selling tins of the fish. Portugal has a long Atlantic coastline, and historically, sardines have always been plentiful and are easily canned for preservation.
Situated near our accommodation was the Livraria Lello, and Stuart and Laura decided to visit the famous bookstore, which required advance booking and payment. It seemed unusual to have to pay to visit a bookshop, yet queues of people were willing to do so. Built in 1906, they discovered that it was not very large, but its picturesque stained glass windows and famous wooden staircase with elegant curves contributed to an interesting neo-Gothic design. The building is said to have inspired J. K. Rowling when writing her famous Harry Potter series, for she lived in Porto from 1991 to 1993 and worked as an English teacher.
Also close to where we stayed was a lovely park called the Jardin de Joao Chages, after a famous writer and politician.
It contained an avenue of some wonderful trees providing welcome shade, which I discovered were London Plane trees, planted in the mid-1860s.
The trees had a bulbous trunk, apparently caused by so many years of pollarding.
The park also contained many sculptures.
Among them were four groups of benches with thirteen bronze life-sized figures sitting on them.
I found these really attractive, particularly as the statues of men were all happy and laughing.
One day, we journeyed to the Douro Valley, renowned for its vineyards and beautiful scenery. We travelled in a small coach that first took us to the picturesque, historic town of Amarante. It was early in the morning and surprisingly chilly, and as we strolled along the cobbled streets, we were pleased to find a pretty little cafe with a lovely view where we enjoyed a cake and a coffee. Amarante is situated on the Tamega River and about sixty kilometres from Porto. It dates back to Roman times and is famous for the Sao Goncalo Bridge, named after a 13th-century saint associated with marriage and fertility. The town is also famous for its sweets, made from a pastry dough of egg yolks, sugar, cinnamon, and almonds, often baked into erotic shapes. In the past, nuns used large quantities of egg whites to starch and stiffen their habits, veils, and altar cloths; hence the abundance of egg yolks.
Here are three photos of the beautiful town of Amarante.
Our trip continued to the Douro Valley, where we visited the Kopke vineyard, established in 1638 and credited as the first port wine shipping house in Porto. Having admired the vines on the steep, terraced hillsides, we enjoyed a meal and sampled various ports. Whilst not my preferred beverage, some of them were very pleasant on the palate! Below is a photo of the stunning scenery in the Douro Valley.
When we returned home, someone suggested I watch the Michael Portillo television series about cities in Portugal, and I wish I’d seen the programme about Porto before my holiday, because it featured many other places to visit I had been unaware of. The whole series is well worth watching.
I thought I would end my post with a couple of photos of the family. The one on the left shows us enjoying a beer after we arrived on the first night, and the one on the right is of Bryan and me, with our sons Stuart and David, resting during a walk around a steep-sided park.
We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Porto and decided that five days just wasn’t long enough, though we crammed a lot in. It’s a city that I recommend for a short break, and I would love to visit it again one day.
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