Porto

Off to Porto for a few days next month.

I'm looking for recommendations. Food, sights, the usual

I wrote a load of copy for a Porto hotel website a year or so ago that might give you some tips. I've never been, though, but it covers a decent spread of stuff to see and do in and around Porto, including sights, where to eat and drink, etc.. Let me know if you want the Word documents. Annoyingly, the hotel has since taken down those pages.

That sounds great. Yea, if you could send that my way it would be great

dm'd you

You have to try a Francesinha.
In fact have it twice, once in a caff and once in a fancy restaurant (maybe one on water on the south side of the Douro near PonteLuis). Then compare and contrast two different but both amazing creations.

Cheers for the suggestion. Got back last week.

Francesinha was had. What an invention. Best I had was in this small tucked away restaurant where after they meal they gave us a bottle of some unidentified spirit to help wash it down

What / where was the restaurant please?

I didn’t make a note of it but i’ll see if i can find it

Tnx. Taking my wife for a weekend next month, want to show her the sandwich extreme.

I was there in September 22 with my wife and we went to the ODE Porto Wine House.

it's very close to the river and we sat outside on a lovely hot evening and the food and wine was great.

Its one of those places where the owner comes and chats to every table for a few minutes which may or may not be your thing but we enjoyed it.

i would suggest getting one to share as it’s a monster sandwich, the fries are great dipped in the sauce too which inevitably leads to a food coma

If you’re on the look out for something other than Francesinha, we had Meia-Nau recommended to us by a local but couldn’t get in as we hadn’t booked, only got the recommendation on our last day but couldn’t check it the next day. It’s up the street from Aduela, which you should definitely visit, great bar with good tapas. If you’re looking for any other recommendations just holler.

@MTB-Idle Reminds me that when we went about ten years ago we were in an otherwise empty bar when an elderly Portuguese gentleman who had not renewed his wardrobe for several decades suddenly appeared, sat down, transfixed us with his glittering eye, and told colourful stories about his night-time adventures ashore in London and other English ports, and then equally suddenly arose and disappeared.

@wheel_or_no_wheel Many thanks.

I’m reading a lot of great reviews about Porto at the moment. Mrs M and I hoping to visit in October, this would be my first visit to Portugal, had intended to go to Lisbon and Porto.. but I reckon Porto deserves four nights for our first trip together.

Tragically we never got around to ordering a Francesinha. Nevertheless we had a great time. The vibe is great, Porto is so very friendly. We had a day of rain and visited the Museum of Contemporary Art (the Fundação de Serralves, a very attractive building) with a special show of art from the period of the revolution, all of which was extraordinarily interesting and something way beyond mere propaganda and more a window into the Portuguese mindset, and then a glorious next morning (when the weather had flipped to the good) of sailing out of the Douro into the Atlantic, followed by delicious seafood in Gaia (where the marina is) on the south bank. To top it all everything costs about one sixth of what it would cost in London. Go Porto!