2024 Portugal: Travel to Porto, Bolhao/Sao Bento Area

It was an anxious few days leading up to our trip to Portugal which would involve 5 days in Porto followed by 3 days in Sintra before heading to Lisbon for 7 days.  Just a week before we were to fly, Porto was calling for 75-100mm of rain on the day before our flight, followed by 35-40mm on the day that we would land.  On the other hand, Sintra had closed all access to its palaces (the only reason for visiting the town) due to the risk of local forest fires!  We were simultaneously hoping for rain and not rain at the same time!  Luckily the weather gods seemed to be with us.  By the previous day to our flight, the actual rainfall prediction had reduced to 30-40mm and the rain more or less subsided by the time we landed in Porto.

We flew Air Transat which gave us a direct flight to Porto, added Option Plus to our tickets which gave us priority boarding and baggage delivery and were able to use the lounge passes offered by our BMO Infinite Mastercard to sit in the Plaza International Premium Lounge in Pearson Airport’s Terminal 3 while we waited to board.  The overnight red-eye flight was uneventful and we were even able to catch a few hours sleep before landing in Porto around noon Portugal time.  The Porto airport (OPO) had an installation that was part of the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art’s traveling exhibits.  A large sculpture of a rotund man (possibly a self-portrait) titled “The Artist That Swallowed The World” by Austrian artist Edwin Wurm gave us a taste of the whimsy that we hoped to see when we would visit the Serralves Museum in a few days.

To get to central Porto from the Porto OPO airport, we would be riding on Porto’s subway system.  Luckily, the path to from the airport to the metro was well marked.  Too bad we could not say the same a few days later when we would take the CP national train from Porto to Lisbon. To get to our accommodations in Porto, we took the metro line E to Trinadade, then switched to Line D, ending at São Bento Metro Station which was a few blocks from where we would be staying.  Rich and I each purchased the blue Andante card (equivalent to Toronto’s Presto card) which would get us on subways and buses in Porto and loaded a Zone 4 fare to get from the airport to our hotel.  The card cost just 0.6 Euros but you could only load one type of Zone ticket at a time.  We planned to use up the single Zone 4 ticket, then reload our card with five Zone 2 tickets that would get us around the city during our stay and then to the train station when it was time to leave for Sintra.  Unfortunately, once we reached Sao Bento station, we could not figure out how to reload our cards and at that time, there was no one to ask.  Finally giving up, we bought brand new cards (since the price of a card was trivial) and loaded our Zone 2 tickets onto them.  Now we were set for our 5-day stay in Porto from a transportation perspective.

For our stay in Porto, we selected Letheshome Apartments, located conveniently just a few blocks away from the Sao Bento Metro station.  The route to our accommodations would have been really easy to get to were it not for the massive construction project, possibly to expand a metro line, happening at the major triangular intersection and throughout the city centre.  The construction took room away from the cars and meant we had to cross two traffic lights while fighting crowds and dodging whizzing vehicles to get across each intersection.  It also blocked off a major square that we planned to visit and forced us walk around to the back of the Sao Bento Train station in order to access it.  The construction made it a bit less pleasant to traverse the area but we quickly adapted.  I had used Google Earth and Google Street View to survey the area prior to our trip so we knew what to expect. 

We stayed 5 nights at Letheshome Apartments, an apartment hotel which is conveniently situated in Baixa just a few blocks away from Sao Bento train station. It is on Rua de Sá Bandeira which is a bustling street full of restaurants, shops, and surrounded by historic buildings.  Being assured that we could leave our bags prior to check-in time, we arrived at the hotel around 1pm and just caught the receptionist about to leave for lunch.  She kindly (albeit a bit begrudgingly) allowed us to check in since our room was ready.  This turned out to be extremely lucky since we never saw anyone else at the reception desk for the rest of our stay.  It turned out the receptionist took ill and there was apparently no replacement.  

There was an option to try to contact someone via phone, text or Whatsapp but who knows how long it would have taken to have someone show up while we stood outside with our luggage.  When we moved on to Sintra and Lisbon, both those establishments reached out to me on Whatsapp to confirm our arrival time and open a channel of communication that we maintained throughout our stays. It was great that use of Whatsapp, which requires data only, is prevalent in Europe since our eSim cards have no cell service for SMS texting or phone calls.  The apartment was roomy and serviceable with a sitting and dining area, kitchen fridge/freezer/microwave/coffee maker and eating utensils, as well as a large shower that was really slippery until we discovered the suction mat on Day 3. 

A nice touch that differentiates Letheshome Apartments from other rentals is the fresh basket of bread that they leave hanging at your door every morning, along with coffee pods, tea, hot chocolate, butter, jam, oil and vinegar.  It was also great that they restocked the coffee pods each day, as opposed to our other places where we had to ration what we started with. Our only issue with the place was how long it took to get hot water from the taps, but we learned to just let it run as soon as we got up until the temperature heated up.

There are many historical buildings surrounding our apartment, with many now converted at least partially into storefronts.  Immediately next door is Teatro Sá da Bandeira, the oldest performance space in the city, dating back to 1846. Back in the day, it hosted international stars such as Sarah Bernhardt. The beautiful Art Nouveau building continues to show theatre, music and comedy performances, but also houses Armazém do Caffè and the audio shop Dance Planet.  One block away is the Municipal Theatre Rivoli (Teatro Municipal do Porto), a 1913 Art Deco theatre that showed cinema, opera, dance and music.  The façade of the building is decorated with a bas-relief frieze by Henrique Moreira, depicting various aspects of theatre.  Heading south from our apartment, we walk by the Hotel Peninsular, a green-tiled building featuring Art Nouveau decoration above its windows, but a Mid-Century Modern styled sign.  The anachronistic design feature makes it difficult to date the building or the hotel.  Also nearby is the Igreja de Santo António des Congregados, one of the many churches and buildings in Portugal that are covered with blue and white Azulejo painted, tin-glazed ceramic tiles that the country is famous for.

One of the most impressive series of Azulejo tilework can be found inside the historic São Bento Train Station, which occupies the site of the former Benedictine Convent of São Bento da Avé Maria, named after Saint Benedict.  Designed by architect José Marques da Silva, the station was built from 1909 to 1916 as a U-shaped three-storey granite structure designed in the French Beaux-Arts style. In the Grand Hall, large stained-glass windows along the outer façade provide natural light into the station and are surrounded by a decorative trim depicting motifs of stylized trains and female forms.  The other 3 sides are covered with ceramic tilework depicting key moments in Portuguese history.

Approximately 22,000 azulejo tiles spanning 551 metres were created by artist Jorge Colaço to depict key moments from significant battles as well as scenes of regional vistas and cultural traditions.  The free-hand painted tiles were fired in kilns for 8 hours at high temperatures to produce the glaze results.  Scenes depicted in blue and white tile include the Battle of Arcos de Valdevez, the Conquest of Ceuta and a depiction of Prince Henry the Navigator in the Conquest of Septa that took place in 1415.  Above some of these images are multi-coloured azulejos depicting modes of transportation used by people in various parts of Portugal including horses and wagons.  Sao Bento Train station is open 24 hours a day and is filled with commuters and tourists alike most of the time.  We tried to stop by later one evening to get a better view of the tiles and while it was less busy than earlier on, there were still many people milling about.

Attached to the southern end of the Sao Bento Train station is a vibrant, high-end food hall and cultural market called Time Out Market Porto that brings together a variety of gourmet food vendors and a few gift shops. Covering 2000 square metres, the market offers 2 bars, 12 kitchen counters including ones run by chefs who have earned Michelin stars.  You can choose from a wide variety of foods including seafood, burgers, pizzas, vegetarian meals, desserts and more.  There is indoor and outdoor seating but we chose to order takeout items to bring back to our apartment where we could supplement with drinks and vegetables that we had previously purchased.  We selected dishes from various kitchens and ended up with fried polenta, zucchini and bacon bits covered with a gorgonzola sauce, duck fried rice and a lobster brioche.  Paired with some slices of heirloom tomato and olive oil, this made for a fine meal.

When visiting a new city, we like to rent an apartment with a kitchen or at least a small fridge/freezer and microwave so that we can buy groceries for a quick breakfast “at home” each morning before heading out for the day.  Usually, we are in search of fruit, perhaps some yogurt, and a small amount of milk for my coffee.  We first visited the Mercado do Bolhão, a tourist attraction in its own right.  Situated in the parish of Santo Idelfonso, the iconic market dates back to 1839 and is reminiscent of our St. Lawrence Market in Toronto.  At the mercado, you can find fresh fruits and vegetables, cheeses, meats, seafood, mushrooms, olives, pastas, sandwiches, pastries, wine, flowers and more.  Starting out as a collection or bubble (the meaning of bolhão) of wooden stalls, the current Neoclassical building was erected in 1914 and features granite stonework including sculptures above one entrance depicting bounty and harvest.  There are over 80 stalls, 38 street-facing shops and 10 restaurants spanned across over 8000-sq-feet of space.  While there is a small seating area for people to dine on prepared foods purchased from the kiosks, it is charming to see the tradition of people just sitting on the swooping staircase to enjoy their meals.

At the market, we were looking for items to augment our daily breakfasts.  We already had a head start on the meal since Letheshome Apartments provided us with butter and jam, delivered fresh bread each morning and supplied coffee pods with sugar, but no milk or even creamer.  We purchased some oranges, apples, grapes and heirloom tomatoes to bring back to the apartment.  While at the market, we sampled some deer and beef carpaccio snacks from one vendor and purchased a mixed cheese tray that included a gooey Flor-do-Vale cheese that looked really yummy.  I also bought a small package of dried orange slices to bring back as a souvenir to add to cocktails.  What I could not find at the market and had difficulty locating even in the local Pingo Doce grocery store was fresh milk.  I soon realized that the Portuguese do not refrigerate their dairy products including milk and butter. Cartons of milk are found on the shelves and are UHT (ultra-high temperature) treated.  Wanting just a small supply of portable milk that I could transport when we moved to Sintra and Lisbon so that I did not have to repeat my search in each city, I bought 3 small, sealed bottles of chocolate milk and used one per city.  We also bought a pack of 4 yogurts to supplement a few breakfasts.  Now we were all set for our 5 days of exploring Porto.

On Rua de Passos de Manuel, which is the same street where we found the Pingo Doce grocery store, there are two gorgeous Art Deco styled buildings found facing from each other on either side of the street.  Garagem Passos Manuel is a public parking garage constructed in 1939 that features Streamline Moderne style.  The elaborate building reflects that era’s fascination with automobiles and modern transportation, serving as a “temple for cars”.  We saw many more beautiful garages in both Porto and Lisbon.  Since the mid-2000s, the multi-story car park also hosts “Maus Hábitos”, a bar and cultural space on the top (4th) floor.  Across from the garage is Coliseu do Porto Ageas, a performance venue built in 1937, also in the Streamline Moderne Deco style.  The building features an asymmetrical façade with the word “COLISEU” written vertically in block letters and a horseshoe-shaped auditorium.  The National Symphony Orchestra played the first performance at the venue, followed by opera, dance and popular music concerts.

Porto, as well as Lisbon as we would find out later on our trip, is full of steep, narrow streets often covered with cobblestones or long series of stairs leading between dramatically different elevations within the city.  One of these streets is Rua da Madeira, located just north of the Sao Bento train station.  Originally known as Calçada da Teresa, the street follows the line of the old city wall and serves as a link between lower and upper parts of Porto.  The street starts off as a steep ramp lined with cafés and eateries on one side, then turns into a winding series of stairs that ascend towards Praca da Batalha, which we would visit in a few days.  At the top of the steps, we had a great view looking back down on the Sao Bento area.

One of the restaurants on the slope of Rua da Madeira is O’Rápido, which we selected to try authentic old-school Portuguese cuisine.  As it was a chilly night, we each had a bowl of vegetable soup and then ordered some traditional dishes including the Codfish Rápido which was described as fried codfish topped with unions, pepper and a tomato sauce, as well as the daily special of roasted veal ribs with roasted potatoes, carrots and rice.  We accompanied this with a small green salad and by the end of the meal, we decided that the best thing we ate was the salad.  We found the rest of the food to be bland and flavourless, the ribs to be dry and there was not much tomato sauce to speak of with the cod which was full of large bones.  Now that we had tried “authentic” Portuguese cuisine, we decided we did not like it and canceled the reservations for other traditional restaurants for the rest of our trip.  Perhaps we just picked poorly the first time and would have done better at another restaurant, but we did not want to take the chance.  After this, we enjoyed the meals that we ate in Portugal, but stuck to modern, hipster Portuguese fare as well as restaurants of other ethnicities.

We did choose well in terms the location of our accommodations since we were within walking distance to so many interesting attractions and also close to transportation including the metro, buses and train stations.  Over the next few days, we would wander further afield to explore more areas within walking distance of our apartment, including Ribeira where the cathedrals and waterfront were found, as well as Bolhao and Aliados to check out some pedestrian shopping streets.  We would take the bus west twice to visit an art museum and to check out the Porto beach area.  For all of these treks, we were perfectly situated to easily get to our destinations.