SQ26/25 SIN-FRA-SIN A380 Biz & Suites: Frankfurt Xmas Markets & 2 Weeks in Portugal

[yflyer]

After checking in, we left the hotel in search of lunch. Just steps away, along the Gaia riverfront, was Mercado, an upscale food hall...



Inside, a range of Portuguese specialities, in a casual, inexpensive setting...



It was all self service...you found yourself a seat at any available table...



then you ordered what you wanted from the many stalls selling a whole range of different dishes...



The main dining level was packed at lunch time, so we headed up to the 2nd level, and indulged in Portuguese wine, cod soup....



Fish fritters...



...and Feijoada, a dark stew made of beans, meat and sausage, popular in both Portugal and Brazil...



What a delicious way to start our visit to Porto!

[yflyer]

After lunch, we took a short cable car ride from the riverfront up to the top of the Luis I Bridge on the Gaia side.



It was, of course, possible to walk to the top as well, but we decided to do the touristy thing and try the cable car...



The weather forecast for the rest of the day was mixed, with some clouds and light rain expected...



We were lucky: when we got to the top of the bridge, a passing shower had just cleared, and a brilliantly coloured rainbow had just appeared close to the Luis I Bridge...



We took a slow walk across the bridge to the Old Town...



...taking in the gorgeous view as we walked...



For a few fleeting moments, a full rainbow was visible over the Douro river...



What a beautiful city this was...

[yflyer]

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the old town...



...with it's narrow streets and winding alleyways...



We could see why the Porto old town had been designated a World Unesco Heritage site...there were few places in the world which still looked like this.

We visited Sao Bento train station...



...to view the large tiled images adorning the station hall, with more than 20,000 tiles painted and installed between 1905 and 1916.



We headed down to the riverfront...



...to catch a 1 hour river cruise...



It was only when we were onboard that we realised that the cruise commentary was all in Portuguese...



Oh well, we would just take in the sights along the river first, then use Google later to learn more about what we saw...

After that, we took a stroll back across the Luis I Bridge, this time on the lower level of the bridge, and walked back to our hotel in Gaia, taking in the sights along the river as we strolled...



Back at the Hilton, we headed to the hotel bar, where we sat by the large picture windows....



...and ordered a couple of cocktails...



...and sipped them slowly, taking in the views as the sun set...



A very pleasant way to spend the early evening before dinner...

[yflyer]

Mrs yflyer was in charge of seeking out the best eats in Porto...for dinner she picked Rogerio do Redondo, a restaurant in a quiet neighbourhood specialising in traditional Portuguese dishes...



This was a very popular restaurant...



With walls lined with a huge selection of wines...



...and a counter showcasing the day's fresh seafood...



Traditionally, Portuguese restaurant dinners began with a few starters, such as cured meat, olives, cheese and/or bread, and these were already placed on the table, and were chargeable, however the rule was that you could decline these, and they would be taken away and not charged.



The menu was Portuguese only.



We interpreted the lack of an English menu as a good sign. This was no tourist trap. Locals ate here!



We we frantically googled translations of the menu items, the staff were kind enough to get one of their English speaking waiters to come over to assist. The friendly gentleman invited Mrs yflyer over to the seafood counter to pick out what she wanted...

For this restaurant (And indeed practically all restaurants we went to in Portugal), the portions were large, so it was best to come in a large group, but the 2 of us did the best we could.

While Mrs yflyer ordered the food, I went over to the wines on display and picked out one of them, more or less at random (Although I did use my Vivino mobile app for some due diligence...)...



Wines here were great value. At many restaurants, you could have a whole bottle of very fine Portuguese for the same price as one glass of wine in Singapore.



Soon our food began to arrive. We began with hearty soup...



Then, sardines, simply fried with a light crust...piping hot and delicious!

[yflyer]

Our next starter was prawns...



...which were just so sweet....



Our shared main was batter-fried fish, which came with a soupy rice dish as a side...



This really hit the spot, wonderfully tender flesh, with great flavour...



What fish was it? Sandra wasn't sure, the fillet was cut from one of the large fish on display, but the waiter didn't know the English name...

The rice accompaniment was great too. We learned that the Portuguese ate a lot of rice with their meals, and this type of rice dish was a common accompaniment to meals...



We ended dessert with a traditional dessert, which was ordered by the piece.



"Only one?" the waiter asked, "It's really small!"

It was delicious! But we were really too full after the prawns and fish to have more.

The food here was simply presented, but what wonderful flavours, with very warm and friendly service too.

There were so many other items on the menu we wanted to try, but simply didn't have room in our tummies to. If we had time, I would have been happy to return to this restaurant again to sample their other dishes, but alas our schedule for our remaining time in Porto was packed, and a return visit would have to wait until a future vacation.

[yflyer]

Early the next morning, I headed out for a morning run. I didn't have a detailed route planned, but keyed a few landmarks into Google Maps as a rough guide, and then left it all to the app to guide me along...

I stepped out of the Hilton, turned left, and headed towards the waterfront...



I continued along the Gaia waterfront...



...towards the Luis I Bridge...



Google Maps directed me to turn into one of the side lanes leading uphill...



Some amazing street art along the way...



I continued uphill past deserted town squares and narrow roads...



The dawn sky was filled with streaks of red...



More narrow alleyways leading upwards...thankfully the weather was cool, otherwise I would have been soaked in perspiration...



Some staircases to help with the upward climb...this set of stairs had some great street art painted on it...



The artist sure had a sense of humour!



The final push up to Jardin do Morro, the hill overlooking the Luis I Bridge...



A sign indicated that this would be a good place for a short rest before continuing uphill...

[yflyer]

Finally at the top of the hill garden, Jardin Do Morro, I was rewarded with sweeping views of Porto and the Douro River...



This was just beautiful!



I took pictures, and sent them Mrs yflyer, who was back in the hotel room, probably still in bed...



I continued my run over the upper level of the Luis I Bridge...



This was a really scenic route...



The bridge had pedestrian walkways on either side...



Trams also ran across this bridge...



These were quite slow-moving trams, so there was little risk of accidents, although you always had to be aware of your surroundings as you walked...

[yflyer]

Across the bridge, in the old town, I passed Sé do Porto, or Porto Cathedral...



...and continued to Sao Bento train station...



...where I had another look at the tiled paintings in the station hall...



From there, I turned round and headed back towards the Douro River...



...heading down Rua das Flores...



This was a street that had been in use since 1521...



From there, I headed to an open square with the Statue of Prince Henry the Navigator...



...before heading to the Douro riverfront, but not before passing a more modern landmark: A McDonalds restaurant, of all things...



At that point, I wasn't sure which way to turn, as there did not seem to be a clear running path ahead, but in the distance, I noticed other runners, and decided to see where they went...



...I saw another runner continue along the waterfront, then disappear from view after heading down the slope by the river past some buildings...



Great! So there was a route along the waterfront! I continued along the same path...



Where did this staircase lead?



I rounded the corner...bingo! There was a walkway that would lead right to the Luis I Bridge...



I looked up and admired the buildings lining the waterfront...



The waterfront was not busy at this hour in the morning, but later in the day, the whole area would be packed with tourists...



I crossed the Luis I Bridge to return to the Gaia side, but this time I would do so on the lower level of this double decker bridge...



There was some engineering work going on at the lower level, so there was only a narrow walkway available for pedestrians to cross this bridge, in single file in either direction...



Back on the other side, I headed down the waterfront back to the Hilton.



Total distance that morning was just over 5km. Not a long run, but what a scenic route!



I would highly recommend this route for a morning run in Porto, but maybe not later in the day, as some sections of the run would get very busy with tourists and pedestrians later on.

[yflyer]

Back at the hotel, I had a shower before heading out for breakfast with Mrs yflyer. We took an Uber to Tavi, a cafe by Ingleses Beach, by the Atlantic Ocean, for breakfast.



Tavi had a pastry shop in front...



...with many delectable pastries on display...



...but the unique selling point of this cafe was the dining room in the back, with sweeping views of the Atlantic Ocean...



We had breakfast there...





...before taking a stroll along the Atlantic Coastline...



...to the tram stop at Passeio Alegre to catch the historic tram line 1 back to the old town...



These trams were in great condition...



The trams could get very busy later in the day, especially Line 1 from the old town to Passeio Alegre, but the reverse route we were taking, from Passeio Alegre back to the old town, was less busy...

[yflyer]

We took the tram for the entire length of Line 1, ending at Infante...



...where we visited the Church there...



...then walking along the waterfront, back to the Luis I Bridge.

The stretch we walked was the same route as my jog earlier in the morning, but it was much more crowded now.



At this hour in the late morning, it would be impossible to run along this path...even walking was slow given the crowds...



We spent the afternoon exploring the old town, with it's many churches...



...and narrow streets lined with colourful buildings...



We took another stroll down Rua da Flores...



..with it's many shops selling everything from tourist trinkets to Port wine...

[yflyer]

"I have made a reservation to go to a beautiful bookshop...", Mrs yflyer said, "...here it is on Google Maps, but you can't miss it as there is always a big crowd."

With iPhone in hand, we navigated some very hilly terrain through Porto to arrive at the bookshop entrance...

She was right: In front of a beautifully ornate shopfront was a long queue...



This was Livraria Lello & Irmćo, a bookstore with an incredibly long history, having first opened in 1906...



The interior of the bookstore was just stunning...



There was an entrance fee of EUR 5 to enter the bookstore, but this could be offset against any book purchase. That said, I suspect many folks just went in there for a browse and a photo.



Any thoughts of social distancing went out the window. I spent just a few minutes in there before heading out. It was a lovely bookstore, but just too crowded.

I waited outside while Mrs yflyer spent more time browsing, and she later emerged with a few book purchases.

We continued our walk through the streets of Porto...



...before making our way to Casa Guedes, a cafe serving traditional Portuguese specialities, for lunch...



Here, we took a deep breath and dived in the deep end, with a bowl of Papas, which was a traditional soup made of pigs blood, as well as a dish of fried intestines, paired with beer and sangria...



Delicious!

We also shared one of their signature pork sandwiches...

[yflyer]

In the late afternoon, we headed back to Gaia for some port tasting...



This was the home of Port, and there were both casual and fairly serious port wine tastings available.

On the casual end of things, you could have 5 tastes for 5 Euros...



We decided to head to Kopke to see what they had to offer. We picked Kopke as their port was on the menu on SQ.



Kopke had a large tasting room, with many different flights of wine available to sample. It was also possible to taste individual glasses.



We opted for a tasting flight of 5 wines, including 2 dry wines and 3 Port wines....



These came with full tasting notes...



...as well as some very useful explanations from a helpful staff member...



This was a very tasty and educational experience...

It was very tempting to stay on and add on additional glasses to our tasting, but we were getting light headed from all the delicious wine, and decided to quit while we were ahead and walk back to the Hilton, just down the road.

To be continued!

[sfvoyage]

Thanks, OP, for this excellent trip report. In the shower room at SIN's T3 SKL, do you recall if body lotion and after shave/cologne were provided?

[yflyer]

Thanks, OP, for this excellent trip report. In the shower room at SIN's T3 SKL, do you recall if body lotion and after shave/cologne were provided?

Thanks for reading, sfvoyage! There was definitely a bottle of hand/body lotion by the sink, and one smaller Penhaligons bottle of clear liquid next to it, which could have been cologne but I can't be sure.

[yflyer]

Continuing with the TR...

The next day was a full day excursion to the Douro wine region, to Quinta do Vale Mećo, one of the vineyards of the Douro Boys, 5 producers of wine in the Douro region that banded together to raise the profile of dry wines in the Douro valley.

While Port wine has always been produced in Porto (if it's not from the region, it's not Port...), dry wines from the Douro valley are a fairly recent phenomenon, beginning in the turn of the 21st century, with credit due to the Douro Boys, whose tireless efforts to produce excellent wines, and travel the world to raise the profile of the Douro Valley, have really elevated the Douro Valley to one of the world's best known wine regions for still wines, in addition to Port wine.

Quinta do Vale Mećo was about 200km, from Porto, located close to where the Douro river meanders the most, in an area enclosed by a sharp bend in the Douro River. This was a 2 hour drive from Porto, but Mrs yflyer had learned that the 3+ hour train journey to Pocinho station, near the Quinta, was very scenic, so we decided to catch the train there.

It was an early start to the day, where we caught the 7.25am train from Porto...



The train itself was modern and quite comfortable.



The first hour of the train ride passed mainly through countryside and farmland, but from the 2nd hour onwards, the train followed the route along the Douro River...



...which really was very beautiful...



The vineyards along the Douro River were high up on terraced slopes, which necessitated picking of grapes by hand, a very labour intensive process.



Along the way, we saw a longship which operated cruises along the Douro river.

Some pax on the train got off at Pinhao, which had a very pretty station building, while a small number of pax continued all the way to Pocinho.



The train ride was a great way to appreciate the scenery along the Douro river...



On the day we travelled, the sky was grey and overcast, which evoked a slightly melancholy, reflective mood.



At Pocinho train station, we met up with our driver, Luis, who would be bringing us around that day, and also driving us to Fatima and Lisbon the next day.