Our train to Porto didn’t leave until 10am, so I had plenty of time to pack and eat a bit of breakfast before heading out. As Porto is a good haul away from Lisbon, the train left from the Lisboa Orient Station which is just a quick Uber ride away.
Our business class tickets cost €74 a piece, which wasn’t too shabby for the three plus hour ride. We got a set of four seats together.
The ride through the Portuguese country side was beautiful.
About 50 miles outside of Porto, we hugged the picturesque coastline before crossing the Duoro River into the city.
After detraining, we hopped an Uber to our AirBnB in central Porto. As a points and miles, addict I prefer hotels. But AirBnBs are fantastic with a group, and this particular property might just convert me over to short term vacation rentals.
The AirBnB has three bedrooms and three baths, with one of bedrooms and baths in a loft upstairs. We drew straws for the single and I won it.
The large balcony had beautiful views of the city.
Having not eaten since much earlier that morning, we proceeded to a eatery just a couple of blocks over which just happened to be the next stop on our Bourdain tour: Gazela Cachorrinhos da Batalha.
It’s a tiny little eatery with just 10ish stools, and we were lucky to timed our visit right after the lunch rush. Of course, we had their signature cashorrinhos on our minds. At first glance, cashorrinhos looks like an ordinary hot dog. And it is most certainly not an ordinary hot dog. The perfectly charred Portuguese spicy sausage is served on crisp mini baguettes, cheese, and a delightful spicy sauce. It paired perfectly with crispy fries and lots of beer. I’m not ashamed to admit I wolfed down several of these delicious treats.
The owner eagerly showed off his operation and happily regaled us with tales of the Parts Unknown filming. He was also happy to take pictures of us and with us.
After chowing down, we burned off some calories shopping at the nearby Christmas market and shops. Even I got into the action picking a couple of pairs of very comfortable Portuguese shoes.
We then headed back for an afternoon snooze at the AirBnB and woke up to an absolutely stunning sunset.
With some time to kill before dinner, we headed to the nearby Livraria Lello, which is a bookstore that has some sort of connection to Harry Potter. Not quite my couple of tea, but it was an absolutely beautiful place.
They also had a pretty interesting collection of first edition books.
We did a couple of laps around the area and checked out the Santo Ildefonso Church before hopping an Uber to dinner.
We had a reservation at another Bourdain haunt: Esplanada Marisquiera Antiga.
Our expectations were high given its Michelin star. But our experience was a pretty big let down.
We started off with fish soup, which was pretty flavorless.
That was followed by the seafood tower. The presentation was gorgeous, but as far as the quality of the seafood wasn’t quite on par with Cervejaira Ramiro.
Perhaps the most disappointed part of the experience was the service, which was mediocre at best. It was dang near impossible to find a waiter to order another bottle of wine, so we pretty much gave up from there. The dessert cart did venture into our area, so I ordered a passion fruit mousse just to try it. It was pretty good.
Afterwards, we hopped another Uber back to our AirBnB where we unwound by watching the Parts Unknown Porto episode. I’m very well aware there’s a TV in the background, but I couldn’t figure out how to stream to it.