Porto. Has anyone been to Porto?

Excuse the shocking colour correction.

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Porto is cool. We had an amazing dinner for €30 a head at Mito (you’d pay double that in London for similar innovation and quality. Booking essential). Epoco has excellent coffee and veggie breakfast & lunch - think leather clogs, brown rice porridge and Kinfolk. Not out of place in Melbourne or east London.

Places we want to eat when we go back: Mondo Deli, Camafeu and Nabos da Pucara. We travel on our stomachs 😉

Lupin was mediocre and comparatively expensive, but if you're vegan and want to try the two Portuguese classics of pasties de nata and francesinha, it’s ok. Weird vibe though. I didn’t want to hang around.

I hired a carbon road bike from Gaiabike (who delivered it to the hotel for free).

Did this today. It was good.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1273666172

If you only have hand baggage the port in the airport is about €1 to £1 (UK prices) so not crazy cheap but ok. Drink vihno verde when you’re there.

Oh, we did the Croft tour. It was good and their tasting room was really nice. Didn’t do any others though so can’t really compare. I get the impression it’s a bit more... classy than some. Whatever that means.

Serralves permanent collection left me cold, but Cassa Serralves was amazing - essential if you have any interest in Art Deco architecture. There are lots of steezy apartment buildings dotted around town too.

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Thank you so, so much.
Are you there right now?

Nah, on the bus back from London Bridge.

Smashed a francesinha and chips after that ride too - probably replaced every single calorie burnt in the preceding 6 hours.

Aduela is a nice little neighbourhood bar if you’re near too. Feels quite local. The Bock Bengal IPA is good.

This gives me some consolation in my post-cycling diet...

So Porto was amazing!

Incredible wine and wonderful food. And all really quite cheap.
At 1.5 - 3 euros a glass the weekend was very boozy indeed :)
All in, flights, accommodation (2 nights in an entire apartment), and spending money (for food, drinks, and a few souvenirs) came to £250 each. Very happy with that.

Thank you @dbr for all the recommendations.

We went to Epoca for breakfast on Saturday. It was lovely honest food and great coffee. Oh, and fresh orange juice too.
Friday afternoon we went to Nabos da Pucara and had olives, bread, the cheese board and bruschetta, plus 4 glasses of gorgeous wine and the bill was something silly cheap like 25 euros, crazy.
EDIT: We also went to Lupin on Sunday for a late lunch and I agree the atmosphere was a bit weird. Kind of perfect for lunch, we tried the veggie Francesinha, but would have been disappointed if an evening meal.
We found Capela Incomum really, really, nice. Mainly the atmosphere but the food was lovely and the wine selection was marvellous. The waiter was just bringing over a different wine each time and giving some insight or personal favourites. Excellent time had by all.
Another favourite place was A Sandeira do Porto. A tiny sandwich place basically, but again atmosphere was great, food was yum and wine was great.

We went to Casa da Musica to watch the local Orquestra Sinfónica. The venue is a marvel and well worth a visit. I was pretty hungover and tired which did spoil it a little but that's what you get for burning the candle at both ends and in the middle.

Have some shabby phone photos.

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Holiday photos! Hahah.

Glad you had a good time. Portugal has an excellent price/quality/enjoyment/old-world-charm ratio.

Portugal has an excellent price/quality/enjoyment/old-world-charm ratio.

This.

ahh, I also just went - thanks for this thread (and I'm afraid your photos are already blocked by photobucket).

Photography museum was amazing! I also ate in a pretty amazing restaurant - called O Torreão - http://www.torreao.pt

Off in a week or so...Any more updates gratefully received

Back from Porto after a few days up in Viana do Castelo.

VdC is pretty sleepy compared to Porto (about an hour by coach or 1 1/2 by train)although the bolas de berlim from Fernanda Natario were pretty epic. Hired a bike from FeelViana and had a good ride up into the hills - they've were really good and pointed out how to avoid tailwinds on the route :)

Figure in London I'm spoilt for photography with the Photographers' Gallery so loved the setting but wasn't so taken with the collection.

Cassa Serralves was beautiful from the outside but would have been much more entranced by it if it was furnished (recently been to Eltham Palace which is amazing and something of a comparison point). Enjoyed the museum but would have loved to have seen more local work - again figure Londoners are spoiled with the Tates and all the dealer galleries.

Priscina das Mares is a lovely salt water swimming spot although pretty rammed come the weekend - provides something of a respite from the rather cold Atlantic Sea

Food was generally great although gf generally avoids gluten and dairy which meant that it wasn't an endless stream of custard filled pasties (although i did get my share). Ate plenty of ice cream given weather was screamingly hot and was generally v good.

Street art is pretty amazing and love the tiles and architecture - they've done a pretty good job of keeping the centre pretty intact.

We stayed in an Airbnb which was lovely although the fan was on through the night as temperatures were high. Found Spot Hostel useful spot for dumping our luggage before our evening flight. Taxis aren't cheap but Uber is.

Found both VdC and Porto to be very white (suntans aside...) which I found pretty surprising given Portugal's colonial history - but then I guess my comparison point is London which is a bit of an outlier.

few days up in Viana do Castelo

We had a week in Moledo just up the coast from here last year. Lovely place. What is Viana do Castelo like?

Viana do Castelo is pretty sleepy...not necessarily in a bad way but wouldn't recommend staying more than a couple of days unless you're into kite or windsurfing. Definitely get the feeling it's a Portugese place rather than one where lots of foreign tourists end up in