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Saturday 20 April 2013

Beautiful Porto

I still find it quite amazing how with living in Europe you can be in other countries so quickly. It was like that with going to Portugal today. We left home at 9.45am and were wandering the streets of Porto by 2pm - fantastic!

The trip all went well although Hannah did seem to think that we were coming home and was expecting Granny and Grandad to meet us at the airport! We had organised a taxi to meet us and it was great to come into the terminal and see a man holding a piece of paper with our name on it - so easy.

We wound our way down very narrow streets and arrived at our apartment. Our holiday was all booked very last minute as we had had to change our dates due to James work and our original accommodation was full on our new dates. The place we got though is fantastic. It is a building of three apartments and the owner is a really nice young guy who works out of the office downstairs as an architect. He has restored the building and designed all the furniture. Very modern, minimialist style. We have the loft with great views over the city. When we got to our room there were chocolates and cookies waiting and the owner gave us some port to sample.

The view from our apartment balcony.


We headed down the alleyways to the river and were greeted by musicians, street vendors, buskers and tourists. We walked over the bridge and found a lovely cafe which sold ice creams and port so the kids had ice cream I had port and James had both!













We decided we would like to go on the cable car that went from the river up to the castle, which was great fun.








We then had a bit of an explore at the top of the cable car and then walked over the high bridge.












One of the most striking things about Porto is the fantastic architecture and especially the amazing tiles on the outside of the buildings.














We were all starting to get a bit tired and hungry so decided to find somewhere for dinner. Bruno the hotel owner said that restaurants didn't open till 9pm so we were doubtful if we would find anything. Luckily most of the cafes along the waterfront were all serving food so we found a nice little cafe a bit off the beaten track and had a nice meal.







We headed back up the hill to our apartment and are now relaxing while the children try to go to sleep - I think they are a bit hyped from the days events plus the music from the downstairs apartment is drifting up through the floor. Hopefully they'll go out for dinner soon and turn the music off!

We are picking up a hire car tomorrow and heading down the coast. Am looking forward to some sun and sand.
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1 comment:

  1. Looks so nice - and you all look great and you deserve a break. Have a fab hol! Lots of love Sus

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