It’s not often that rain/weather stuff totally waylays us on a trip, but the weather we experienced after getting to Porto sure tried its damndest to make that happen. Ugh!

The day started normally enough, with us waking up earlier than either of us wanted to after having been out a bit late having drinks the night before, but we had a train to catch, so wake up we did. It honestly wasn’t that early, around 8 AM, but because we’ve been sleeping a little later on this vacation, it felt pretty early! I was hoping we would have time for breakfast at the hotel before heading out, but alas, we didn’t. 😦 So we only had ONE tasty breakfast at our Lisbon hotel! Since it was just “okay” as breakfasts go, my heart wasn’t broken. If something was going to break my heart though, it would be almost missing our train to Porto!

Okay, here’s how it went down. We were packed up and ready in what felt like plenty of time and then went down to check out, which we did with no issues (though maybe with one, hungry glance towards the breakfast buffet). Neither of us have an issue using a subway/public transport, but with luggage in hand, we thought taking an Uber to the train station would be easiest. We had NO problems getting Ubers during the rest of our time in Lisbon, but of course the one time we HAVE to get one on time, it took foreeeeeever. We eventually had to upgrade to a pricier option (still not that expensive – €22) to get a driver, but we were still good for time, or so we thought. Between the rain (did I mention it was raining?), multiple emergency vehicles needing to pass us, and what felt like an interminable number of traffic lights, I honestly thought we were going to miss our train, which isn’t a fear I’ve had many times before (maybe never, actually).

As it happens, our driver got to the station at 10:02 for a 10:09 train, so we had to dash towards the platforms, figure out which one our train was on, and then get to it. We went up one escalator as the sign for our platform pointed that way, but it turned out we needed to go down an escalator further down the station, so we had to go back down the first one and then fly up another one. We did that to find…our train wasn’t there! I had a brief moment of panic because I thought we were at the wrong platform or that the train had already left, but there were lots of people waiting and the platform sign told us we were at the right place, so in a stroke of good fortune, we made it! The train pulled up a couple moments later and we made our way to the carriage and seats we’d booked through Rail Ninja a few months ago, finding room for our luggage along the way (which was surprisingly easy – I was afraid there wouldn’t be enough space for our full-size suitcases). I did have to explain seat assignments to the folks sitting in our seats because they didn’t realize the seats were assigned. I looked at their tickets and told them where to go (they were in the right carriage by pure luck, but didn’t know how to read their tickets to get seat info) and they were thankful for the help! Meanwhile, we were thankful to be seated and on our way. 🙂

As train rides go, this one was A-OK. The seat was comfy, with plenty of legroom, and the train had free wi-fi, which I used to finish up a blog post, so that was helpful. The snack area was in our carriage, so there was a little bit of traffic walking by us, but that wasn’t bothersome at all. It was rainy for most of the journey, so the only “issue” is that we didn’t get any good views, but no one can control that. You can rest assured I still took a couple pictures though!

Gaze upon my train selfie and behold my leg room! The tray table that slide up and out was actually pretty functional.

I managed a couple of photos through the window and edited them as best I could. Wanted to be sure I captured the ocean view, such as it was.

I think there were only two stops before our station in Porto and the journey took right at three hours, so not bad at all (not like, for example, the seven hours we spent on a train to get to Bergen, Norway a number of years ago, which was picturesque, but loooong). Getting off a train is always so much less fussy than leaving an airplane, isn’t it? Just grab your bags and exit the station! We did that and I immediately caught a good vibe from Porto, even though it was QUITE windy and spitting a bit of rain. Being in another new city with our luggage, we knew an Uber would be the best way to get to the hotel, so that’s what we did.

Porto is less than half the size of Lisbon, but it has plenty of the same narrow streets, which slows traffic down, so it took ~20 minutes to reach our hotel, even though it’s not far from the station. Oh, and our hotel is down a hill, right in Ribeira Square, which is an excellent location for many reasons, but not for reasons of Uber drop-offs, as the driver had to let us off at the top of the hill and we had to (carefully) walk down the wet concrete with our bags in tow. It was still raining at this point, but not pouring, which we were thankful for.

The train station in Porto and the area right in front of it. It would look nicer if it wasn’t rainy.

Know what else we were thankful for? A hotel room that we could check into a bit early! Our home away from home here in Porto is the Gran Cruz House, which is another boutique hotel offering a small number of unique rooms. It’s a very tall, narrow building, so each floor has a specific use, with reception on the ground floor, public bathrooms on the next floor, the restaurant on the next floor, and then four floors of guest rooms, but each floor only has 1-2 rooms on it. After a check-in process (and welcome drink!) with a slightly eccentric, but very nice, man (he had music playing when we walked in, which he then started singing along with, then gave us a brief history lesson on that music, and then very precisely folded our receipt before actually giving us our keys), we were on our way to our room, Reserve (all the rooms here have names, rather than numbers). Another room to unpack in!

A couple shots of our hotel, which is kind of tucked away in the square, at least from some angles. Those stairs on the right side of the left photo lead up to the restaurant, which has a door to the outside as well as an entrance for hotel guests inside.

The restaurant is a cute, cozy space. And it’s apparently well-known for its food, too.

Certainly not as large as our room in Lisbon, but cozy and quaint.

Both sides of the bathroom, which is probably larger than it needs to be. Well, except the shower – that’s pretty small. Reminds me of the shower in our Amsterdam Airbnb, many years ago. Except that shower was in the kitchen!

Honestly, we just couldn’t bring ourselves to do much with the rest of our first day in Porto because the weather was SO miserable. 😦 It started raining more heavily and there was plenty of wind, but both did taper off at one point, so we figured we just HAD to go out and do something so the day wasn’t a total waste. We decided to do some walking around to take in some of the sights and then pay a visit to a nearby church, Igreja de São Francisco (Church of Saint Francis). Well, I say nearby, which it mostly is, but it’s of course uphill from here, as most things are. When we told our Lisbon food tour guide we were going to Porto after Lisbon, she told us to wear our walking shoes and get ready for the hills. We found that to be true immediately!

The church was an interesting enough visit, especially as it’s a really old one (most of what’s there today was finished in the early 1400s). We paid €9 each, which seemed a little pricey, but it included access to the church, their small museum, and the catacombs, so not bad considering all that.

A couple of angles on the church exterior.

More intricacies along the sides of the main church.

The catacombs and ossuary. I think they’re really stretching the defintion of “ossuary” though as what you see in the photo is all that was visible, through a clear panel in the floor. Generally, ossuaries are room(s) full of bones, like what we saw in Milan.

By the time we wrapped up our visit to the church, it was raining harder and we just…couldn’t. So we went back to the hotel, ordered Indian food, and had a chill night in. The Indian food was really good and we wished we had a refrigerator so we could save the leftovers (we had one in our Lisbon hotel, but not here). We’ve now wrapped up our first full day here in Porto and we have one more day left before we fly home early on Friday, but as a sneak peek of the next post, I can confirm the weather was MUCH more cooperative today and we got to see and do quite a bit. Read all about it soon.