Porto/Oporto
The main impression I’m left with from this lovely trip was the value of simplicity. All the cafes and restaurants we went to were immaculately clean. They opened for a couple of hours at lunchtime and would put their meal of the day outside on a board. One choice. If you don’t like that meal, go to the next place. Simple. Mid afternoon they stop serving, wash down the facility including mopping all the floors, and close up.
This meal was amazing, my favourite restaurant meal we had in Porto. Their lunch offering was fried sardines, with a side dish of rice and beans. White wine included. €5 per person. It was delicious. Not far from the river. I didn’t take a note of the name but I reckon I could find my way back there.
Another favourite meal was our last in the city, cooked at home with the excellent produce purchased at the corner store….the size of the vegetables and grapes would, in a UK supermarket in my area at least, denote a flavourless item but the reverse was true here. It was delicious, simple, and we enjoyed watching the full moon from the small balconies of our apartment which looked out over the river, nestled in the wedge below the old city wall and next to the intricate iron bridge.
The food was simple but visually, Porto was a feast. Looking back at the photos after nearly ten years I’m struck anew by the incredibly complex layering. Bridges, a funicular, trams, trains, cars, boats old and new and cable cars weave across the river and traverse the city. Grafitti, washing lines and derelict buildings of all sorts jostle cheek by jowel with beautifully ornate and cared for buildings, intriguing modern art sculptures, gorgeous tiled villas, churches whose exteriors are pictures created with tiles, fountains simple or ornate, palm and plane trees.
I found the layering of the view from our apartment on the opposite bank really fascinating. This is just one section.
The opposite side of the river from where we were staying, location of the port cellars.
Porto has so much going for it. It’s even close to the sea, where the Douro flows out into the Atlantic.
We took a trip up the Douro river, where there was an interesting variety of homes, vineyards and port producers clinging to the banks.
The train journey back to Porto gave us an interesting glimpse into the gardens of homes along the track. Each home had a vegetable patch - kale was ubiquitous. Grapevines weren’t uncommon. On the flight back we were sitting next to a young Portuguese man who had been home to visit his parents. He couldn’t find work in Portugal so had moved away. He said his parents still had such a vegetable garden - it’s necessity, not preference, driving this custom. Our over commercialized, technology infested society sometimes seems to make the ‘simple’ life more appealing to us than to those that are living it … but fresh local produce readily available and/or the time to grow it would seem a luxury for many in our more ‘developed’ countries.
