That should be Part 1, perhaps after too much port. I spent a few days in Porto visiting a laboratory for a digital pathology workshop. Of course, I couldn’t come this far and not spend a bit of time exploring the city on the Douro.

Plane. Train. Automobile. And bus. That’s how you get to Porto. I wish we lived a little closer to a major airport, but two hours is the minimum you’d need to get to Bristol. I opted for the Falcon bus this time as I didn’t have any specific time pressures and parking the car is an expensive exercise. A bus ticket is about a third of the price of car parking for the same period, and that doesn’t cover your fuel for the car journey. (although it would have only cost me about £5 in electricity for the Polestar 2)

Straight out the gate, the metro in Porto is simple to navigate. I stepped out of the airport and on to a train that brought me five minutes away from my hotel. It’s like the tube from Heathrow, but less miserable. I arrived in late on the first night to a vibrant European capital that I knew I was going to like. This was no Brussels.

In character, my hotel was closer to Japan than Portugal. I had a double bed inside a wooden box, with a generously-sized ensuite. The room was quite comfortable if a little stretched for storage space. The room key came tethered to a welcome beer, which was more than welcome after the hours of travel. I was considering going out for a midnight pastel de nata but decided against it whenever I realised how tired I was.

Morning came and it was time to set off. What’s the best way to see a new city? Wander aimlessly? Join a tour? Walk up to one of the many tour groups and pretend you’ve booked? I opted for a self-guided one roughly following a schedule from this website. The route was about five and a half miles, and there are plenty of hills in Porto, so I was glad of some mild weather. And a taxi. I did end up giving up when my feet gave out after a few hours. In my defence, it was a lot of walking.

The route took me past a rather stately looking McDonald’s complete with art deco glass displays and chandeliers. As fascinating as that combination was, I still couldn’t bring myself to sit down in there with the rest of the city to explore. And since I’d walked a few feet, it was time for a break. Enter Manteigaria.

Manteigaria is just down the hill from Torre dos Clérigos, my next stop. Where better to have nata than a bakery where you can see them made live. Tucking into a couple of warm egg custard tarts with a coffee is an ideal breakfast while you watch through the glass to the kitchen at the back where the magic happens. Beautifully flaky pastry combined with a slightly runny custard made for the best nata I have eaten to date. It was a little more expensive than some of the other bakeries, but £4.25 for two nata and a cup of coffee was reasonable compared to the UK. Coffee can be a bit hit and miss in Porto unless you opt for an espresso, and this was a little on the miss side. With a constant stream of customers and queues most of the day, this isn’t the kind of place you sit around. Moving swiftly onto the next stop.

Torre dos Clérigos catches your eye immediately walking up the hill. The baroque church and tower were built between 1732 and 1763, and it’s a pretty good place to head if you’re into religious iconography and art. I’m not at all, so I took a hike up to the top of the tower for some excellent views of the city. Most of Porto is low rise so even though the tower isn’t particularly tall, it offers excellent views over the city.

Onto another Portuguese specialty. Right next to the Clérigos church is a sardine shop stocked floor to ceiling with tins of every kind of sardine. And pretty much every other fish. It was impressive, if a tad overwhelming. Towards the coast there is a sardine cannery where you can see the workers in action if you’re feeling particularly enthusiastic. There is hardly a specialty shop or market stall without a few stylishly decorated sardine cans knocking about.

My route brought me past Livaria Lello, the most famous book shop in Porto and one of the most iconic in the world. The central twisting staircase is said to have inspired both the Grand Staircase in Hogwards and Flourish and Blotts bookshop. It’s like stepping back in time…until you hit the velvet rope and the queues. Yes, it’s become so immensely popular that you have to book online through a god awful website and paid an entrance fee. The ticket price can be used against the purchase of a book at the very least. I didn’t attend at that time, but came back later in the day when things had quietened down. You can get an idea of how many people were crammed inside from the photos. The crowds do take some of the majesty away, but it’s still worth a visit as it’s a truly beautiful shop.

I headed back down the hill to Sao Bento station, a beautiful old train station with some incredible porcelain tile paintings. Another hub for tourists. I was starting to get hungry again, and right next to Sao Bento is the Time Out Market. I had no idea Time Out had connections to physical locations, but here in Porto the name is attached to a modern and well designed two floor market complex with a series of food and beverage vendors. I opted for octopus fillets with octopus rice in Casa Ines given the strong seafood connection in Porto, and wasn’t disappointed. The fillets had a texture halfway between octopus and white fish, and were quite tasty. It was a tad expensive though for lunch as it came to £17.90 including a small beer.

I had a quick walk past Se Cathedral, then made my way down to the riverside before hiking back up the hill again to cross the bridge. Little did I know that I could have just walked down to the lower deck and crossed there. I didn’t make it easy for myself.

The south side of the river is where the grape action is. This is where the port houses have their cellars, and from a distance you can make out “TAYLORS”, “SANDEMAN”, “GRAHAMS” in massive white lettering on the rooftops. It’s a little odd to see so many English names in a Portuguese city. I had read about one particular port house with an excellent tour so I headed for Augusto’s. Or is it Quinta dos Corvos? Who knows? I’m certainly not going to tell you until the next edition.

To be continued…