It's interesting when you stay a month somewhere because you have time to really slow down a bit and spend some days at a slower pace rather than racing around trying to fit everything in during a short vacation. We feel so lucky that this has allowed us to explore a wide range of things.
One of those was the six bridges tour which is super popular here and several boat companies offer it on both sides of the river (1 hour - 15 euros). We started on the Porto side and the boat had recorded audio that described each of the six bridges as we passed them. The information they gave was interesting and just the right amount. It's always neat to see things from a water perspective and I admit I'm obsessed with the buildings in the Ribeira. This district spreads alongside the Douro river and used to be a centre of intense commercial and manufacturing activity since the Middle Ages. I adore their shapes, colors, the way they cluster around each other, the red roofs......everything about them. It's fascinating to think of the stories they might share if they could speak!
Traditional Portuguese food doesn't typically include a lot of vegetables (other than potatoes and steamed cabbage) and salads often have no green in them, but we've been pleasantly surprised at the number of vegan/vegetarian places we've found here offering just beautiful food. Some of them have been all you can eat buffets. Here's some images of vegan meals we've had! It's been really nice to mix up eating the traditional things with other stuff like this. Some of our favorite places: Nola Kitchen Kind Kitchen
This is one of our favorite street murals close to the Trinidade metro station.
We noticed some parks on Google Maps we hadn't visited yet so headed out one time to find them. We started in the landscaped garden at Jardins do Palácio de Cristal and then walked through to several other gardens that are connected to it. Some were really wooded with lots of picnic areas and others terraced with stunning gorgeous river views.
We loved them so much we came back, one evening, to visit several of these areas during a golden hour with some low beautiful clouds and a buddy that wanted to share my bottle of wine.
We've also been re-visiting some of our favorite spots and finding new ones.
The food looks so good! Glad you got to see the whole city by the end of it.