Turning 30 in Portugal

In addition to walking 191 kilometers of the Camino de Santiago,  my mom and I decided to finish our trip with a few days in Portugal. Which also happened to coincide with my 30th birthday! 

Day 1

Picking up from where I left off with my post about the Camino we woke up to our last morning in Spain. We caught one last Spanish sunrise and made our way to the bus stop. Unfortunately there were no one way buses to Porto from Finisterre so we would have to change buses. 

   

While driving back to Santiago de Compestela it really drives home the difference between walking and driving. What took us 4 days to walk, we drove in less than an hour! The drive was quite beautiful. The route took us along the coast so we got some lovely views of seaside towns.

After about an hour we got off in Santiago de Compestela.  We had a bit of a layover here but unfortunately we were a little ways outside the main city. Not too much do while we waited. We did grab a bite to eat while waiting for our next bus. I think we might have been there 2 hours or so before we were off once again, and this time back to Portugal! 

At the bus stop in Porto we couldn't find a spot where Uber was allowed, so we ended up taking one of the taxi's nearby. It was a crazy drive to our accommodation. He was driving so fast through such small cobblestone streets. It was a wonder we made it there in one piece! 

We got ourselves situated and jumped up and down at how nice the place was and how beautiful our view was. We could see a bit of the river over the rooftops. It would be such a cozy stay the rest of our time in Europe. We rested a bit on our couch and made a plan to find a store to buy some new outfits that were not our camino clothes! With our small bags we didn't want to add any unnecessary weight to our walk! 

We then embarked on our first tour of our new city. The streets and walkways were all variations of stone. I don't recall even seeing any pavement. We walked past the enchanting architecture with towers and beautifully sculpted water fountains. 

In a shopping district we bought ourselves a few outfits from H&M. To end our first outing in Porto we of course has to find ourselves a new cookie place! I had found one on Google maps called Cookie Club. We took our cookies back to the hotel to enjoy. They were very very tasty! 

Day 2

Today was my 30th birthday! We got changed into our new outfits and got ready to have another amazing day. First stop was the Livario Lello. A famous bookshop in Porto that JK Rowling used to sit at and may have been some inspiration for the staircases at Hogwart's. 

When we arrived there were already people lining up. To get in you need to purchase a ticket. The money goes towards a book so it's basically free admission. They just want to maintain the amount of people in the store. We got the gold ticket so we were some the first people in the store. Because of this I was able to get some photos with hardly anyone or sometimes even noone in the photo. 

The bookshop is truly magical. The outside looks like your typical European style front,  but once you walk through the doors you see the amazing wooden stacks, and railings and detailing on the ceiling. At the center of the shop is the curving staircase with the red carpet that is a prime photo location. Looking up you can see a beautiful stain glass window in the ceiling. Definitely one of the most, if not the most beautiful bookshop I have been in.

Of course, as a booklover I had to explore the many shelves of books. They had some lovely special editions limited to only in the store. I got myself a copy of Peter Pan. I was also on the hunt for a copy of The Hobbit in Portuguese. During my search I noticed the giant photo of Time magazines cover of LoTR and absolutely had to get my mom to take my photo under it. Unfortunately they were sold out of Portuguese versions of the Hobbit but I did manage to find a Spanish copy and ended up with a Portuguese copy of Fellowship.

With my new books in hand we begun our self led tour of the city. We both loved the architecture and I loved that all the roads and walkways were of stone. Some of the buildings had tiles covering the sides of white and blue with lovely images painted into them.

We went up the Torres dos Clerigos which was a tower that gave us a stunning view of the city below. So many of the buildings had roofs paneled with reddish brown that gave it a very unique look compared to what I'm used to at home.

 

We then checked out the train station that like many European train stations, had beautiful architectural designs on the inside. The walls had that white and blue tile we had seen all over the city with the incredibly detailed images. The details always impress me so much. Architecture is so dull and unimaginative nowadays.

After some time navigating the construction, we finally found a path to our lunch spot: the Imperial McDonalds.  This isn't your typical Mickey Ds. The entrance is fronted with a golden lettered sign with a stone eagle perching on top. The inside featured stain glass overtop the cashiers, and crystal chandeliers as lighting from the ceiling. It feels way to fancy for a McDs but we were both excited to visit for my birthday lunch. While sitting outside to eat a tour group even came by. It amused us that walking tours include this McDonald's. 

We continued to explore the city afterwards seeing more beautiful architectural buildings and structures, and more of that lovely blue and white tiles. Stopping back at the hotel for a quick break the woman who owns it gave me a box of chocolate for my birthday! Such a pleasant and unexpected surprise.

Our afternoon took us to the river front where we took in the lovely water views and markets along the riverfront. We crossed the bridge to the otherside to catch some new perspectives.  We found a large store of sardines that look so colourful and appealing you would think it was a candy and chocolate store. Unfortunately it was sardines. 

We came across a really cool outdoor art piece of a giant rabbit built into the corner of a building, before finding ourselves another market to walk through and bought ourselves some fresh fruit smoothies. We hopped in the Gondola to take us back up the hill so we could cross back over the top part of the bridge we had walked over beforehand. On the top portion a train also went by right next to us. I thought it was pretty cool. I don't think my mom was a fan. Didn't help that we were also quite high up. Beautiful views though! 

We decided we wanted more of those delicious cookies from yesterday and started walking in that general direction. Along the way we noticed a sign saying "Ohana Market" and "free entry" and decided to check it out. They had a lot of really neat artisans. I was drawn to a sweater with a small embroidered red panda on it. They were a Portuguese clothing company called Angura. We thought my brother would also really like them. The sweaters would be bulky to bring back so I got t-shirt instead and got my brother a polar bear shirt. 

Back at the Cookie Club we bought enough cookies to last us the next two days so we wouldn't have to come back! 

For my birthday supper we went just a little ways down  the hill from our hotel to enjoy a nice bowl of ramen. One of my favourite meals! It was very tasty and we tried some dumplings for the first time. A perfect way to end my birthday in Porto with my mom! 

Day 3

Today we decided to go on a tour outside the city. We could have potentially did the touring ourselves via train but figured we could learn more this way and it would take the pressure off trying to get around train hours.

We started our venture by heading towards the town of Braga. Before leaving the Porto area we were told that one of the bridge architects also designed the Eiffel Tower. 

The day was a overcast with light rain here and there. Probably a good thing we chose the tour! The first stop was Bom Jesus do Monte; a catholic church residing on top of a giant hill. We got to drive to the top but there are stairs that people can walk up. Would be quite the work out! 

At the top where the cathedral is we had time to walk around. There were some stunning views of the countryside and we could see rolling hills far off in the distance. We had an amusing moment when my mom pondered out loud whether or not we had walked those hills. I just straightfaced said "no I don't think so" before further going on that these were hills in Portugal and that our walk had started in Vigo, Spain. We both got a laugh out of that. At some point during travel you sometimes get a little loopy and forget the day, the place, what we're doing, haha. 

We also got to walk down some of the steps to give ourselves a spectacular view of the grand white staircase leading up to the cathedral. 

We then went down to the city to get a tour of the city itself and the many beautiful gardens and fountains, and lovely architecture along the way.

The main stopping point here was the Braga Cathedral. 

I myself am in no way religious,  in fact I would consider myself an atheist. Nonetheless, the architecture of cathedrals and churches always astounds me. The details and the art is always so beautiful. When we got to the main room our guide told us to not look up. I thought we would get in trouble or something. He then told us to sit in one of the pews and when he gave the okay, we could set our heads back on the wooden pew and look up. Once we got the okay we were all wowed by the amazing architecture on the ceiling with the golden sculptures, the organ intricately incorporated into the art and the painting in the center. It was amazing to look at and I really enjoyed the suspense our guide built by having us wait and not look up beforehand. 

After that my mom and I found a little restaurant down the street to enjoy some pizza. We also stopped by a store to try the Portuguese treat: pastel de nata. The famous custard tart. Despite how fussy of an eater I am, it was really tasty! I would definitely eat one again.

We then rejoined our group and left the city of Braga to head towards the city of Guimaraes. We first stopped at the ruins of an old castle from the 10th century. It's always a treat to visit a medieval castle. There is nothing of the sort in Canada. 

It was starting to rain a little more now and we brought out the ponchos. This didn't not deter our interest of the castle. If anything it added a really cool atmosphere to the old eroding ruins. 

From there we started making our way through the town walking towards the bus. Before leaving the castle our guide did show us a cork tree and we learned that most cork comes from Portugal. Something I did not know. Then partway through the walk in the city he showed us a shell carved into the walkway. My mom and I obviously knew what it meant since we had just spent nine days following the little shells. He explained to the rest of the group what the camino de santiago was and how it is more of a mental challenge the  a physical one. You walk hours a day, just to wake up and do the same over and over until you reach the end of your camino. Definitely made my mom and I feel proud of ourselves! 

We then grabbed a little bit of ice cream and said our final goodbyes to the new Portuguese cities we got to explore as we returned to Porto. 

Back in the city we stopped at the Imperial McDonalds one last time for supper before returning to our hotel to rest up for our travel day home tomorrow. 

These last few days of our trip were a lot of fun and I am really glad we got to explore some different parts of Portugal. It was a great way to end our camino trip. Celebrating my birthday in Porto was also a added bonus. I really like trips like this where there is a active/adventure aspect and then a more relaxed urban aspect. I do hope to have more hiking type trips in the future! Top on my list are the Tour du Mont Blanc, Inca Trail, laugavegur trail, and Patagonia.