A Tour of Portugal — The Towering Travelers

I hope you’re excited to see a lot of pictures of beautiful Portuguese architecture, because that’s much of what this blog is going to be. When our friend Bella planned a birthday celebration in southern Portugal, we took the opportunity to add on a few days in Lisbon and Porto as well.

We arrived in Lisbon several hours late due to a flight delay and a missed connection (thanks, Condor), so we spent a single day in Lisbon (for the second time - we had been here for about 24 hours at the end of 2019). We took the opportunity to go to some adorable coffee shops, eat good food, and walk up some of Lisbon’s many steep hills.

Picturesque churches and trolleys are everywhere in Portugal (photo/Jason Rafal)

A patient dog sitting beside an excellent example of how patios must be built on hills in Lisbon (photo/Jason Rafal)

Lisbon was just as I remembered - colorful, beautiful, absurdly clean, and constantly hilly.

A steep pedestrian street (photo/Jason Rafal)

A person sits on a railing halfway up a set of stairs between two buildings. — Classic Lisbon (photo/Jason Rafal)

A don't even know what's happening here (photo/Jason Rafal)

A fado mural in one of the pedestrian stairwells (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole sitting on a bench partway up a stairway between two buildings with tassels hanging overhead. — Resting partway up the stairs (photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the nice things about cities with lots of steep hills is that they tend to have lots of great viewpoints.

A view over the rooftops of Lisbon, with a bridge and waterway in the background. — The beautiful view from Miradouro da Graça (photo/Jason Rafal)

A retro blue car following a yellow trolley up the street. — Antiquated-looking transit in front of the Arco da Rua Augusta (photo/Jason Rafal)

People walking across a plaza, with stately buildings and a statue of a person on a horse on one side. — The Praça do Comércio (photo/Jason Rafal)

A huge, brutalist concrete building jutting out against the blue sky. — A big brutalist building among the colorful houses (photo/Jason Rafal)

A tiled building with tons of plants coming out of the first floor balcony. — A beautiful building facade (photo/Jason Rafal)

A large tree with massive roots snaking on top of the ground in a park. — A giant tree at the lovely Jardim da Estrela (photo/Jason Rafal)

A wide panorama of Lisbon from a viewpoint. — Sunset views from Miradouro da São Pedro de Alcântara (photo/Jason Rafal)

An ornate fountain with people sitting on the edge in the evening sun, with a church in the background. — Evening views (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two trolleys side by side on a very steep street. — Trolleys hanging out on an incredibly steep street (photo/Jason Rafal)

From Lisbon, we drove down to Alvor, where we met up with some of our favorite people to celebrate our friend Bella’s 30th birthday. It was three wonderful days of eating and drinking and laughing and we have very few photos (and most of the ones we do have are ridiculous).

Bella's birthday bash (photo/random person on the beach)

On our last day in Alvor, we took a boat trip from Lagos to Luz, along some of the stunning southern Portuguese coastline. It was a lovely afternoon spent cruising in a catamaran and swimming in the Atlantic with friends, and we ended the weekend tired and with full hearts.

A stone bridge between two rocky land masses over the ocean. — Natural and manmade rock formations (photo/Jason Rafal)

View of layers of rocky land masses in front of a plant-covered cliff face with a staircase going down to the water.. — More beautiful coastline (photo/Jason Rafal)

Boats and kayaks in the water in front of large rocks jutting out of the water. — A good day to be on a boat (photo/Jason Rafal)

After a wonderful weekend with friends, we flew to Porto, in the northern part of the country. Jason and I have been wanting to go to Porto for years, and we fell in love with the city immediately. It’s beautiful, interesting, welcoming, covered in tiles, and a little run down. It has so many tiny, amazing restaurants, coffee shops, and antique shops.

People walking up a narrow cobblestoned street. — Colorful buildings and cobbled streets (photo/Jason Rafal)

A view of a spire through an open passageway between two rows of stores. — I loved this green roof/garden on top of an outdoor mall area (photo/Jason Rafal)

We booked a free walking tour for our first morning in Porto, which is something I always recommend (though they’re not actually free, because you do need to be a good person and tip the guide who is showing you around). Our guide, an Italian expat, walked us around some of the churches and government buildings and gave us context about the city. While it was never the capital of Portugal, Porto was the center of merchant power in the country. They’ve always been anti-authority, whether it’s the authority of the church, or the king, or the guidelines presented by UNESCO (apparently they’re constantly putting their status and funding at risk by building new, non-historic things in the historical center).

Looking up at the front of a church. — Looking up at the Igreja do Carmo (photo/Jason Rafal)

A row of tiled houses next to a church spire. — A very narrow church at the edge of the old walled city (photo/Jason Rafal)

A view looking out over the rooftops of Porto toward the river. — The view from the Miradouro da Vitória (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two modern tiled rowhomes in yellow and orange. — Even the more modern buildings are colorful - I wish we would go that direction in the U.S. (photo/Jason Rafal)

A corner of a building, half concrete and half covered with old-looking rock. — I don't even know what's happening here...seems like art, or a metaphor (photo/Jason Rafal)

Porto is famous for its iconic blue tile buildings, and while I had assumed that blue was tied to the city’s identity from the beginning, our walking tour guide told us that blue is used most frequently because it fades the least in direct sunlight. In the San Bento train station, which you can see below, the walls on the left that never got direct sunlight had many more colors in the tiled scenes.

Looking into a crowded train station with blue tiled walls and a yellow ceiling. — The beautiful Sao Bento train station (photo/Jason Rafal)

The dragon is the symbol of Porto - from what I can find, it symbolizes heroism, resistance, and the city’s invicta (unconquered, invincible) identity. Paired with this dramatic symbolism, I very much enjoyed the statues that featured little cat-sized dragons sitting on people’s heads.

A statue of a man holding a spear with a dragon on his head in front of rooftops. — A statue of a man with a dragon on his head to represent Porto (photo/Jason Rafal)

A row of tiled buildings along a street. — Beautiful tile everywhere (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking up at a blue-tiled church building with a blue and yellow striped banner. — The Church of Saint Ildefonso (photo/Jason Rafal)

The inside of a coffee shop with a menu that says "C'alma" on the wall. — Our favorite coffee shop of the trip (photo/Jason Rafal)

We spent a lovely evening at the dramatic Casa da Música, where we toured the building (highly recommended if you’re a fan of weird brutalist architecture, which I’m not really, but it was still cool) and then saw a fado performance.

Looking up at a set of windows in a concrete wall against a partly cloudy sky. — Brutalist vibes at the Casa da Música (photo/Jason Rafal)

The inside of a concert hall, with metalic tiger stripes through the walls on either side. — The main concert hall (photo/Jason Rafal)

As usual, some of the time we enjoyed the most was just spent wandering around, seeing parks, viewpoints, and buildings along the way.

Looking toward a stadium dome over lawns and flower beds. — The beautiful Jardins do Palácio de Cristal (photo/Jason Rafal)

A peacock looking at the camera with gardens in the background. — One of the many free-ranging birds at the gardens (photo/Jason Rafal)

Groups of people standing or sitting along a rock wall watching the sunset. — The crowd taking in the sunset next to the Parque das Virtudes (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking out at the sunset over rooftops, a terraced park, and the river. — My favorite view in the city (photo/Jason Rafal)

Turquoise paint wearing off and revealing gold paint on a letter slot that says "Cartas". — Some sort of metaphor about layers of paint (photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the top attractions in Porto is Livraria Lello, a bookstore that is said to have inspired J.K. Rowling’s description of Flourish and Blott’s in Harry Potter. It’s a really beautiful bookstore, but for me it’s not worth the pain of dealing with the lines and crowds of people trying to get perfect photos. I’m sure it’s better in the offseason, but if you do want to go in the summer, try to reserve the 9 am slot (days in advance) and be there by about 8:30 if you want to get in quickly.

Crowds of people standing in loose lines on the street. — The insane crowd outside of Livraria Lello (photo/Jason Rafal)

A line of people walking toward an ornate staircase up, with a view of the stained glass roof above. — The admittedly beautiful staircase and ceiling in the bookstore (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking over a railing at bookshelves, with the lower ones filled in modern books and the upper ones filled with older books and ceramic busts. — I enjoyed the contrast between the modern books for sale at the bottom and the ones to look old in the upper cases (photo/Jason Rafal)

A house narrowing into a corner with stone walls, a chimney, and graffiti. — Corners (photo/Jason Rafal)

While I was napping, Jason went to explore the Portuguese Photography Center at the Cadeia da Relação, a former prison. The building houses photography exhibits along with an incredibly extensive collection of cameras, mostly from a professor.

Looking into a room with glass cases full of old cameras. — A hallway looking into the prison photography museum (photo/Jason Rafal)

The prison is a key location in Porto’s most famous love story, and the two lovers are immortalized in stone in the courtyard. Camilo Castelo Branco and Ana Plácido were two writers who met at a dance and were friends and then lovers for many years. Eventually, Ana left her husband for Camilo. When the affair became public, Ana was forced into a convent, but then escaped and returned to Camilo. Then, because her bitter husband filed an adultery lawsuit against them, they were both imprisoned in the Cadeia da Relação, where Camilo wrote his most famous novel, Amor de Perdição (Doomed Love). They were eventually released, and much later the prison was turned into a photography museum, but the story and the statue remain.

A statue of a clothed man and a naked woman embracing. — The doomed couple - I'm not sure about why there's such a difference in clothing (photo/Jason Rafal)

A view of the river over treetops. — Looking out over the river from Torreão do Jardim do Palácio (photo/Jason Rafal)

A clean, modern market with people walking between fruit stalls. — The very clean and modern Mercado do Bolhão (photo/Jason Rafal)

A chapel covered with bright blue tile. — The ornately decorated Chapel of Souls (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two stairways converging between a row of houses and a greenery-covered wall. — I love a green wall (photo/Jason Rafal)

People walk between covered stalls selling goods in front of rows of tiled houses. — Wandering near the waterfront (photo/Jason Rafal)

On our walking tour, our guide told us a joke about how the best thing about Gaia, the city across the river, was its beautiful view of Porto. On our last day in the city, we headed over the pedestrian and transit-only bridge to the Jardim do Morro. It was indeed a beautiful last view of the city.

Looking back toward Porto from the top of a bridge. — The view back across the river from Gaia (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking at Porto over the river, with a gondola and boats in view. — One more view of Porto (photo/Jason Rafal)

We really enjoyed spending more time in Portugal - it’s easy to navigate, beautiful, and has great food. Lisbon, Porto, and the southern coast were all worth the trip (though I am, as usual with European destinations, jealous of the ease with which east coasters can visit - it’s a trek from Seattle). Next time we travel to Portugal, my top priorities are visiting Sintra and spending some time in nature. Until then!