Welcome to Porto!

On Sunday 26 July, we left Lisboa on the final leg of our travels to our new home in Porto.

I have to step back in time for a minute and talk about luggage. Because it’s going to be so long before we see the stuff from the container, Kristie and I decided to take two large bags each, plus carry-ons. Our thought was that this would give us enough to get by on.

Reality check – that’s actually a heck of a lot of luggage. It looks like even more when you are traveling by train between Lisboa and Porto. No, in case you’re wondering, there are no porters – it’s all down to you dragging your mountains of belongings onto the train.

However, there are smarter ways of doing things, which your nicer hotels can help you with. The people at the Heritage Avenida Liberdade Hotel (plug, plug) gave us a few options, the easiest and cheapest being a service that would transport the bags door-to-door for us for only €15 each. We jumped at this and dropped two of the biggest bags plus one smaller rolling bag on our way out the door Sunday AM.

With half the luggage, getting onto the train and into our seats was a cinch. The trains in Portugal are genuinely nice, although with COVID measures you don’t get any of the normal amenities. Still, we got 1st class seats to Porto for only €25 apiece, and the compartment was less than half full, with plenty of empty seats between people.

Both Kristie and I were hanging by the windows as we approached the station in Gaia and the first views of Porto across the Douro River. There it was – our future home, on a beautiful sunny day. I think we both got a little teary – and, of course, forgot to take pictures.

We were originally planning on staying at the Artist Bistro Hotel in Porto – it’s the training hotel for the culinary and hospitality school, and it has gotten terrific reviews. However, they called me about a month before the trip and said that they weren’t open, and recommended a sister hotel, the Palacio, which was more expensive but looked OK.

Oddly, the last day in Lisboa, I got emails from BOTH hotels telling me they were looking forward to my stay … when I called to clarify, the Palacio reservation took precedence, so that’s where we went.

Note: Don’t stay at the Palacio. It’s overpriced, the rooms are small, the help is snooty. There is a great view on the 19th floor lounge, but the drinks are weak and too expensive. For a supposedly 5-star hotel, there was an awful lot of ripped carpet, spots on the walls, broken air conditioning, et al. We frankly feel like we were the victims of a bait-and-switch scheme.

We decided not to let the hotel bother us too much and persevered with our first-night plan of revisiting one of our favorite restaurants, Artesao. It was as excellent as we remembered (although to be honest, the prices have gone up as they’ve gotten more popular).

After an extremely hot and sleepless Sunday night at the hotel, we geared up for our Monday meeting to finally sign the official paperwork and take possession of the keys. We connected a little early with our realtor Alina – the first time we’ve met in person, and she was as wonderful in real life as she has been in all our exchanges. Honestly, this lady made a lot of the move possible.

We then met in the realtors’ office with the landlords and a company lawyer – signing a lease in Portugal is a serious business! Luckily for us, ReMax made us English versions of all the documents (no extra charge).

Papers signed and bank transfer of the first three months rent initiated, the landlords took us to the flat for a tour, showed us how things worked, and handed us the keys!

Now, although we officially had possession, we still needed a place to sleep – the bed we purchased in Lisboa wasn’t scheduled to show up until Friday, and the place was seriously bare (I’ve posted a full album of pictures that you can check out). But we really didn’t want to stay any longer than necessary at the Palacio.

Luckily, there was a small hotel with good ratings, The Cristal, just a block away. We went over to give it a look-see and decided to move there the next day. The fact that the room was less than half the price of the Palacio didn’t hurt, either!

Some quick Porto notes:

• Although the epidemic was relatively strong in the north in March, Porto at this point has gone one month with no new cases at all. However, people are still maintaining social distance and wearing masks indoors except in restaurants.
• A surprising number of places are open, although none have big crowds. However, there are a few shops and restaurants that didn’t make it and are gone for good.

Next episode: A crazy first week