Viana do Castelo
Last leg of our trip in the North of Portugal ‘Porto’. However, before arriving there, we decided to first pay a short visit to Viana do Castelo, a town located at the seaside. It was a bit deserted at noon.
We strolled through the streets and had a snack and a drink on the waterfront. Then we drove up the hill to visit Santuário de Santa Luzia. The church was very beautiful from the outside as well as the inside. The architecture was Byzantine inspired with some Gothic elements. From the top of the hill we had a nice view over the city.
Porto encounter
After the visit, we headed back to the airport to return our car since we would not need it during our visit of Porto. We first thought to keep it in case we would decide to do some excursions out of the city. However, we had been informed that the hotel that we had booked was closed due to Covid, and the alternative was situated in an area that was not really accessible by cars during the day.
‘The Pestana Vintage Hotel’ was located at the Praça Ribeira. We got an upgrade of the room providing us with a view of the Douro and the Luis- I bridge (also called the Eiffel Bridge). We could have done much worse !
Introduction to Porto : I could not say what I liked best. The shops, the lovely streets, the restaurants or the architecture … but I knew that it was love at first sight !!! Really, it was such a clean and beautiful city.
First things first, we went for an apéro !!! We were lucky since it were free tapas until 7pm.
Koen had found a nice tapas restaurant on TripAdvisor, just behind the station. The latter was a must-see, really very picturesque with the azulejo tiled walls at the entrance.
Tapabento, our favourite !
The restaurant was called “Tapabento” and it turned out to be our favourite restaurant in Porto. The food was so good !!! I could have spent all my dinners there …
While we walked back to the hotel (more or less 15 minutes without any detour), we enjoyed Porto by night. We had such a nice evening! After having experienced another great day, we were ready for a good night’s sleep…
