Destination: Praia de Mira
As we had arrived at Quinta Viana quite late last night, our first activity of the day was to have a good look round.
The site was really lovely, well organised but still very chilled. There were plenty of shady places to sit and relax, a great pool, nice showers and loos and a fabulous firepit for socialising. In addition the owners cultivate their own food, and make their own olive oil which is available in the little shop. I really liked the very sustainable approach of the site and the owner was incredibly kind and helpful.
I happened to have a super important job interview coming up the next day. And as I’d had a WiFi disaster on the ferry, I still had a presentation to submit before the noon deadline. Luckily, I was able to sit in a lovely shaded area to work on it. When I explained to the site owner what I was doing, he told me not to worry about the check out time, and just take as long as I needed. That really took the pressure out of a quite stressful situation. Thankfully, there was no repeat of the WiFi disaster today and I was able to submit my finished slides before the deadline!
If I’d not had to spend the morning prepping for my interview, I’d been hoping to go and see a few things around Braga. I’ve heard the inside of Braga cathedral is pretty spectacular, and Bom Jesus do Monte also looks great. But these are going to have to wait until my next adventure now, at least I will have time to find out more about them!
Just as we were getting packed up, a UK car pulled up alongside. We got chatting to the couple who were also camped at the site and who were due to go back the same day as us. Imagine our surprise when we discovered they live just a couple of miles from us in the UK and regularly visit our town!
Having said our goodbye’s to beautiful Quinta Viana, we headed to our main stop of the day at Porto.
Porto
We drove into the city on the West side and almost immediately spotted some parking at the Cidade do Porto shopping mall. I headed up the next left turn, expecting to loop round. As it happened there was lots of on street parking there as well. So we just pulled in and paid for a few hours on the meter.
We did head up to the shopping mall anyway, to check it out and use the facilities. If you also visit, make sure to use the nice loos on the upper floor rather than the dodgy ones in the basement.
Once we were all sorted we headed into town. On our way we stopped at the Rotunda da Boavista to check out the monument.
From there it was around 30 minutes walk into the centre of town. We didn’t mind the walk and saw a few interesting things along they way. We particularly liked the pedestrianised area at Cedofeita. It was absolutely buzzing and seemed to be a really popular local centre, rather than overly touristy.
By now it was mid afternoon and we were getting a little warm. So we made towards Oporto and the main reason for our visit. I’d booked tickets for an attraction but they weren’t for another hour so we decided to get food. Luckily there was a bar serving cold beer and snacks in the Jardim das Oliveiras practically opposite. It was a gorgeous afternoon, so we just people watched for a while until it was time to get into the queue for the bookshop.
Queue for a bookshop? …. yes, queue for a bookshop!
But this wasn’t just any old bookshop, it was the incredibly beautiful and world famous Livraria Lello.
If you are a fan of Harry Potter and the inside of the bookshop looks strangely familiar, it’s for good reason. Livraria Lello was the inspiration for Dumbledore’s study in the Harry Potter books and films. And for this reason has become a very popular destination with tourists. So many people now visit, that there are timed entries and security on the door. So if you do want to visit, be sure to book your tickets early!
The cost of entry is just 10€ and you get that back off the price of a book. And although we did have to queue for a short while I thought it was definitely worth waiting for. But then I do love books, and while I was there bought a few to read while travelling. I was particularly happy with my purple bound Livraria Lello limited edition copy of George Orwell’s 1984.
Praia de Mira
We’d had a lovely afternoon in Porto, and I’d particularly enjoyed the visit to Livraria Lello but it was soon time to leave. I had been hoping we might get to do a river cruise as some of the riverfront views are spectacular. But this is something else that will have to wait for our next visit. For now we were going to be heading south for our overnight camping at Praia de Mira.
It had taken us a while to get back to the car in Porto, and we had around 1.5 hours drive. So the sun was already setting when we reached the little seaside town. By this point we were both quite hungry and decided to find somewhere to have dinner before heading to our campsite.
We settled upon a lively Irish Bar on the sea front, which had vegetarian as well as meat options, and was clearly popular. Dan had been given a recommendation from his friend who lives in Portugal to try Francesinha, and it was on the menu. So he ordered that, not actually knowing what it was, and I ordered a veggie burger with fries. We were surprised when both of our meals came accompanied by a fried egg. But we were assured by the waitress that was a local tradition.
The food was delicious, and Dan loved his Francesinha. That was right up until he searched the recipe. He discovered it was mixed meats including chicken gizzards, another Portuguese favourite!
As we ate we were entertained by a stray dog, selectively pretending to limp when people went by. Clever little thing certainly knew how to get sympathy snacks.
Then it was time to head to the campsite I’d booked for that night, Parque Orbitur Mira, another Pitchup find. If you are staying here, be sure to take good lights with you as there are very few on site. We were helped out by some kindly neighbours while we pitched up in the dark. Then after stretching our legs on the dunes it was time for bed.
The waves were absolutely thundering onto the beach just over the dunes from the site. As I lie in the dark I half expected them to come crashing over the car. But we’d had a busy day, and I had an interview in the morning, so thankfully it wasn’t long before we were both fast asleep.
