Sara had been in Portugal for two weeks by the time my plane landed. She was waiting at arrivals with a rental Skoda and a full itinerary.
The flight from Stockholm left at 6.30 in the morning, which meant a taxi at four. Ryanair to Porto, non-stop, arrived late morning. We drove into the city and found parking near the music academy, then spent the rest of the day on foot.
The Ribeira is Porto’s old waterfront district, running along the north bank of the Douro, and it’s the natural place to start. The houses lean over the narrow streets, tiled or bare stone, many of them in various states of repair. The river is wide here and the light on the water in the early afternoon was clean despite the overcast sky.
From the Ribeira we walked up to the Dom Luís I Bridge. The upper deck is for pedestrians and the metro; the lower carries road traffic. It was designed by Théophile Seyrig, a collaborator of Gustave Eiffel, and completed in 1886. Standing on it you get the full width of the Douro and, looking back, the city climbing the hillside on both banks.
The Sé cathedral is a few minutes further uphill. It started as a Romanesque structure in the 12th century and has accumulated additions ever since: Romanesque nave, Baroque chapel, Gothic cloister. It sits on a high terrace with a view over the rooftops to the river. We spent some time there before heading back down to the car.
By late afternoon we were out of the city and driving south along the coast. Dinner was in Espinho, a small seaside town about 20 kilometres south of Porto. The food was good and the sunset was spectacular, which is a combination that tends to make a restaurant look better than it might otherwise deserve.
The Airbnb was in Esmoriz, a few kilometres further south. A quiet beach town with nothing particular to recommend it except proximity to the coast and a convenient position for the drive south the next morning.
A long first day. A full one.