Bolhao Market

As our Porto experience comes to an end, there are some amazing things here that don’t cost the earth, and have enriched our experience.  For Gareth and I, walking around the Mercardo Bolhao with a glass of Vinho Verde (thanks Doug for the tip!) while sampling raw Deer on toast and Beef Tartare was a relaxing way to see the markets, i’m impressed the kids also got into the spirit of trying new things and also ate raw meat (kinda weirded them out, but at the same time they both like the raw Deer and Capriccio - not so much of a beef tartare fan).  We went to the market twice, Kaia missed out on playing the community Piano there so we had to make the trip back for her to play a tune..... (yes the whole market can here that piano).  And to Zach’s delight they had set up Novacoil tubes of various lengths with Jandels so you could play them like a set of pipes.  So both kids got their music fill at the market.

I don’t think Porto is really for vegetarians or vegans.  If you were on a Keto diet this place would be your mecca.  We sampled as much as we could, they had something called the special hotdog which is basically an american hotdog layered in mozzarella cheese, then covered in a spicy sauce, but the pinnacle was the Francesinha.  It's 3 layers of different types of meat, a thick piece of bread on top, then a layer of mozzarella cheese, followed by a sea of some sort of sauce.  It's delicious but also, probably clogging my arteries.  Everything is uphill from the river where we had brunch, and with a belly full of Francesinha, my body feels like lead.

Porto is a walkable city, we never ended up using the metro here after our one experience and I don’t regret it.  There’s so many little streets and shops to explore by foot. 

Thousand year old buildings, 5 stories high, with the most amazing tile outsides more often than not with a statue in their residences, situated next to crumpling old ruins of those that couldn’t be maintained to the standards here.  It doesn’t matter where you stand, the architecture in all its differing forms is everywhere, easy to view and immerse yourself in.  This is the opposite of the Liverello bookstore.  The line was huge and they had curtains up so you couldn’t look inside or take pics from the footpath.  For those not deep into the Harry Potter series, it looks very much like flourish and blotts although J.K Rowling has repeatedly said it wasn’t her inspiration.  At least the Majestic Cafe where she did some of her Harry Potter writing is open and accessible, but again due to its popularity, the lines were out the gate.

Would we come back to Porto? Hell yeah.  But this time a holiday home outside of the main city to spend a bit more time with nature.  I think that's something we are all missing a little.