Porto

We headed to Porto and checked in hotel 'Dom Leal' at Valonga after a lot of effort and waste of time trying to locate it as the roads can be very confusing and you will end up doing rounds of unwanted driving. Hey but look at the positive side, we got to see the narrow lanes and awesome cosy dwellings in Porto.

*Please book your hotel in advance in Porto.

oh yeah!!! One thing I was very disappointed about was that I could not meet Remo Fernandes :( (yes Remo lives in Porto!!!)

As guided by Alexander, we drove to 'Antas Commercial Center' and parked our car (free parking outside). Excellent advice as there is absolutely no parking space or exorbitant parking fees), Walked straight, left and right towards 'Combiante metro station'. We purchased 2 trips pass each for 3 of us (Cooper was free) to C1 (Porto area) zone for Z2 and got into 'O Viedo' train towards 'São Bento' station.

We met so many helpful people ❤️ who guided us. When we stepped out of the station we were greeted by loud live music and a man singing to a band with a speaker and Swithun fell in love with the music and spent a while listening to them.

Porto was so crowded, a less polished version of Lisbon City but beautiful in its own way. We walked for 10 minutes to see the Cathedral O Porto. Rich exteriors with a brass statue of a soldier on a horse. The cathedral was surrounded by homes and residents poked their face out to observe the tourists fall in love with their home.

Sea gulls perched on the roof top as the sun was going to set soon. We walked around the São Bento station to the University building and walked down the street of Harry Potters Hogwarts Cafe Library, and many lovely restaurants, stores, souvenir stores by the roadside. We picked up some stuff for our friends and had dinner at sit out restaurant and had clams and grilled sardines with Mojitos before we headed back to the metro station (via train Hospicio de Joao) to Combiantes. 

We drove back to our hotel and called it a day. Swithun was very unhappy that i didn't let him book the commercial sightseeing. Being a naturalist, I prefer less crowded areas with more history and i assured him the next day he would be a happy camper.