Sunny. Seventy degrees. Yawn. Bus to São Bento station. Then the train to Braga. Twenty-five stops later, we’re there. The basic idea was to go north and stop in some picturesque town before we got to Spain. Braga, whose citizens are reputed to be the happiest in Portugal, seemed a good pick. Besides a brooding…
Photos: A Taste of Porto 2
https://photos.app.goo.gl/m7DVaVQFbC5t9WJv9
Photos: Livraria Lello
https://photos.app.goo.gl/rNfABCNPhfQv14UM9
And the day’s food report
Gelato. In this shop, you purchase a cup or cone in your desired size and then you are entitled to as many flavors as can be crammed in. I chose Chocolate, Café, Bourbon (cream heavily flavored with bourbon) and Pistachio. Grubb’s choices were Indian mango, fig, blueberry amoretto and strawberry cheesecake. That kept us going…
Finally, we enter a church…and on Good Friday!
But after the beautiful bookstore and before the church, we stopped for a Delta cappuccino. The Igreja do Carmo or Church of the Venerable Third Order of Nossa Senhora do Carmo was built on land adjacent to the Church of the Carmelites. At the time, two churches were not allowed to share a wall, so the Casa Escondida do…
Nobel prize collection
You might have heard of a bookstore in Porto, the Livraria Lello, beloved by Harry Potter fans. One the most beautiful bookstores in the world if you’re inclined to favor wooden two story shelves with a deep golden varnish bisected by a crimson spiraling staircase spreading its Victorian wings along the upper landing. Narrow and…
Harry Potter fan?
The Livraria Lello bookstore, opened in 1906 and is billed as one of the most beautiful bookstores in the world. J.K Rowling lived in Porto for a couple of years (prior to her rise to stardom) and is said to have frequented the bookstore. Harry Potter fans may notice a striking resemblance to the Flourish…
Photos: A Taste of Porto
https://photos.app.goo.gl/NE7spVxeoZcFxHbr6
Uncorking a Coke
Or rather, uncorking a memory of corked Coke was my arresting moment of time travel today… But first I had to wake up to another day of resplendent sunshine and balmy breezes. And I wasn’t able to fully take it in until we had our morning cappuccinos on the Ribiera dock. Ella pointed out that…
It’s all in the cork
The other side of the Douro River was today’s destination. Requiring crossing the Luis I bridge…on foot. The warning – if you have vertigo, don’t try this at home. We don’t, so we did. Reminded us of getting married on the catwalk 5 stories above the soundstage at the Albuquerque Studios (now owned by Netflix)….