With university done for the year, and Sushil's company closed for the holidays, we decided to visit Porto, Portugal's second city. What this northern port city lacks in eponymous creativity, it makes up for in charm. The city is beautiful but scruffy, and, other than the LuÃs I Bridge, which you can't help but come across, there are no real must-sees, so you can take your time. We spent most of our visit just picking a part of the map and wandering about.
Oddly, given its geography, Porto reminded both Sushil and me of Venice. There's a similarity in the faded glory aesthetic and the way the buildings hug the roads. Porto has been on my radar for some time, and it's popping up in media more and more. But, for now, it hasn't been hyperdeveloped or had its charm glossed away for the benefit of the perfect Instagram shot. There are still boarded up buildings metres from the River Douro, and prices away from the riverfront quickly descend from tourist to local levels.
I've read that Lisbon has adopted the London model since I was there in 2007, becoming an investment haven, squeezing out locals in favour of newbuild flats for overseas investors. Fortunately, from January 2022, Porto has been excluded from Portugal's golden visa scheme, so that might relieve some of the pressure. Still, there was enough scaffolding around town to imply that change was coming.
The streetscape outside our lovely hotel.
The riverfront Ribeira neighbourhood.
Sushil at the Igreja de Santo Ildefonso.
Night in Ribeira.
The Ribeira and LuÃs I Bridge from Miradouro da Serra do Pilar.
Miradouro da Serra do Pilar
What €1.75 will buy you in Porto.
Based on the description, we took a daytrip to Braga, expecting a quaint town in the countryside. Instead we found a drab, postwar bedroom suburb with a small preserved centre. The only real notable sight was the Bom Jesus do Monte, some way out of the centre. Braga will not make the revisit list.
From Porto we flew to Bremen, Germany. Pops is living there with Lara and her family currently, and Lisa and Danai flew over so we could have a family Christmas. Bremen was part of the Hanseatic League and has solid, wealthy bones as a result. Its port has been eclipsed by nearby Hamburg's, and most visitors to Northern Germany have Berlin firmly in their sights, so Bremen mostly flies beneath the radar, and seems content with that. It is a nice, but unexciting city.
However, I can see what keeps my sister's family there (besides Alberto's job), as my niece and nephew seem to be thriving. Bremen is big enough to have all the things teenagers are interested in, like dance studios, bars, clubs, shopping, along with an excellent public transportation system. The kids are able to have the independence and freedom to experiment and be their best teenage selves, without Lara and Alberto having to worry unduly about their safety or them falling in with the worst elements.
The visit was mostly lovely, but Pops was unwell (not covid, per several antigen tests) the whole time we were there. He was diagnosed with dementia in Summer 2020, so there was a natural cognitive decline, but it was exacerbated by whatever virus he had going on. Lara said he was much more forgetful and out of it than normal, and Pops missed a couple of the evenings as he was wiped out. He returned to health a couple of days after we left, so it was just rubbish timing. I'll be looking to go back in Spring for a redo, presuming Germany starts letting us in again.
Even staid Bremen has its rebellious side!
(Danai, Lisa, Sushil, me, Emilio, Alberto, Lara, Chiara; Pops up front with the newest addition, Toby.)
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