[Porto, Portugal, May 8, 2025]
Our only full day in Porto turned out to be a busy one! And this was without any planning on my part! My only contributions to the day were a couple of sights in the morning and the lunch reservation. The rest was up to the group and I loved not having to look up all the sights myself.
With our 12:30 pm lunch reservation looming, we decided to check out a couple of churches near our AirBnB. Like in Italy, churches can occupy all of your sight-seeing!
The first was Capela De Fradelos. The Neoclassical building was inaugurated in 1893. The signature blue and white azulejos cover the main façade and the interior. I am not tired of seeing them yet! The azulejo murals were designed by Jorge Colaço. He also designed the tile murals of the Sao Bento train station, which we saw later.
Just as interesting was its neighbor, a multi-story circular parking structure built in 1964. I wish it weren’t there, as it was impossible to take a good picture of the church without the parking structure in it.
This church was off the beaten tourist path unlike the next stop, Capela das Almas (Church of Souls, also known as Chapel of Santa Catarina). Its location right on Porto’s prime shopping street, Rua de Santa Catarina, adds to its popularity. 15,947 azulejo tiles, or around 360 square meters, cover the facade. They represent the deaths of of Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Catherine.
As we headed to our lunch spot, we walked by a big building that seemed popular with people. We went inside to find Porto’s historic market, Bolhao. It occupies an entire block in in the city center and houses 79 stalls on the ground floor, 10 restaurants and 38 shops facing the street. It dates back to 1839, when the city of Porto purchased the land to establish a market square. The land was marshland with a spring, giving the market its name (Bolhao means bubble). The current building dates from 1914.
Since we had lunch reservations, we zeroed in on some sweets for later. We definitely got some pasteis de nata, but Teddy also picked another heart-shaped chocolatey type of pastry that looked amazing. But it would it be as delicious as pasteis de nata?
We also walked by Porto’s city hall, which overlooked a huge square.
We made it to Brasao just in time for our reservation. There are several locations in Porto now but we went to the original, Brasao Aliados, which is just around the corner from City Hall. Brasao is known for its Francesinha, Porto’s famous sandwich. It contains layers of meat and cheese and is served with the signature tomato and beer sauce, mollo de francesinha. You can also get it with an egg on top, which is what we did. The sandwich’s creator wanted to adapt the croque monsieur to Portuguese tastes after returning from France and Belgium.
We also indulged into more bacalhau (smoked cod), another Portuguese obsession, this time in the form of croquettes.
With our bellies full, we continued down the hill towards Porto’s historic center, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Our first stop was the Sao Bento train station. Scaffolding covered the façade and we originally thought that meant the station was closed, but then realized we can go inside! Sao Bento was famous for the azulejo murals by the same artist as the first church we visited. There are even more azulejo tiles here – 20,000, covering 551 square meters. The murals represent moments in the country’s history. It was gorgeous but quite busy already, as you can see from the photos!
There was a Timeout Market right beside the train station. They are all the rage both here and in Lisbon, but loved Bolhao much better.
Next, we went to the Porto Cathedral, (Se do Porto). The construction of the cathedral began in the late 12th century, but it was rebuilt and renovated multiple times since. The cathedral sits on one of the highest points in the city and we enjoyed our first bird’s eye view of Porto.
The views from the tower were absolutely magnificent.
After the cathedral, we meandered the narrow streets that lead down the hill towards the river. We didn’t follow any sort of plan and we loved discovering little squares and gorgeous buildings.
Soon, we found ourselves in front of the Church of St Francis. This 15th century Franciscan church is now a museum. You have to pay to enter but it’s well worth the fee! The facade features a Gothic rose window, while the rest is Baroque style.
The interior is one of the most splendid things I’ve ever seen. Between 300kg and 500 kg (550 to 1100 lbs) of gold were used in the interior decorations.
Right outside the church was a stop for the historic tram line #1! I hadn’t had a chance to ride one in Lisbon yet, but I anticipated the historic trams would be much busier there. This one was not busy at all and we hopped on without waiting in line!
We rode it for a few stops, then walked for a good 25 minutes or so uphill. We were definitely not in the city center any more! One of the gals wanted to see the distinct polygon building Casa da Musica. This concert hall was designed by Rem Koolhaas and opened in 2005. I just looked him up for this blog post and wondered if he’s done any other buildings I’ve been to. And he has, indeed – the Seattle Central Library, which I discovered on the last day of my 2018 WA national parks trip!
We were all in consensus that while the building was unique, it did not warrant such a huge detour. It did, however, give us the opportunity to finally use the Portuguese metro! I was actually surprised I had not used it yet. Vessi’s apartment in Lisboa was far from the center or even Belem, where I went on my second day in Portugal. However, the Lisbon metro wasn’t the best way to get there, and the other modes of transport were going to be rather slow. Here though, there was a stop close to Casa da Musica and it took us only 10 minutes to get to Trindade stop. I believe it took us longer to get tickets than it did to ride the metro. The machines were finicky!
We went back by Bolhao because we needed to replenish our stash of the pastry that’s even better than pasteis de nata. And that pastry is … drumroll, please… delicia do Porto! It was born in 2019 during a competition between pastry chefs and confectioners, who were asked to create sweets that would portray the city of Porto. Delícia do Porto took inspiration from the ingredients used by the Benedictine nuns of the now extinct Saint Benedictine of Hail Mary Monastery.
I also tried port for the first time! The fortified wine was created accidentally. The need to preserve wine during long sea voyages from Portugal to England led to the practice of adding brandy, which created the unique characteristics of Port.
In the evening, we had dinner reservations at Maus Habitos. Vessi had selected it to celebrate her birthday, which was that very day. Maus Habitos was on the 4th floor of an otherwise non-descript building. It is part restaurant, part club, part concert venue. We enjoyed the food and cocktails, and the pistachio cheesecake was quite memorable. I couldn’t have imagined a better way to end this fantastic day!
