In the Netherlands it is very common to go on “annual leave.” This is the big vacation of the year typically 2-3 weeks and normally in the summer months of July or August (especially for those with kids). People write in their work out of office “out on annual leave and I will reply when I return”. It is a time to relax and reset- what a concept to Americans to take so much time off!
We will aren’t quite Dutch so instead of taking 2-3 weeks we took 12 days and try to fit in as much as we possibly could 😉 This year, we decided to go on a road trip through Portugal. Flying into Porto in the North and then driving South to the coast where we would fly home from Faro.
We packed our packs, set our out of offices and off we went with our first stop in Porto!
Welp, the first day didn’t quite out how we wanted- it poured rain literally all day. Don’t worry though, coming from the Netherlands we are used to the rain. We woke up early to get to the famous Livraria Lello. It is suppose to be the book store that inspired J.K. Rowling for the moving bookcases in Harry Potter. It has gotten very famous recently and you buy a ticket to visit and then get that amount off a book. I suggest getting the “skip the line” ticket for 16 euros as all of the books are at least 16 euros and then you can buy a book and not wait in line. For me, I decided to take this opportunity to buy the Harry Potter Europe edition which was pretty cool to buy at a bookstore famous in Harry Potter. Enjoy how pretty it is in the pictures!
After the bookstore we grabbed brunch at Floresta café by Hungry Biker. No matter the country, it seems like brunch is a Australian, British, and American thing. I don’t think there was a single person speaking Portuguese at the restaurant. Whoops, but what can I say that I love a good brunch.
We then wandered around, saw a lot of the beautiful and famous buildings for their tiles. For example, the train station and famous church. We got pastel’s de nata and did a bit of shopping. For those that don’t know, cough cough Mom, Pastel de Natas are very famous as a Portuguese pastry. They are a crispy pastry filled with and egg type filling and then you put cinnamon on top. Highly recommend!
Not going to lie, mid day we were tired of the rain and what better way to start off the first day of vacay then a little massage! We got a massage and then went back to our hotel before going out to an Italian restaurant for dinner and riding the old street cars. Positively, with the rainy weather the vacation can only go up from here!! Also, we saw the nicest looking McDonalds pictured below.
The following day in Porto, we also got up early so that we could make the most of the nice weather. The bridge in Porto is very famous and we didn’t even make it over there on our first day with all of the rain. We started the day with coffee and breakfast at My Coffee Porto which had beautiful views. We walked down to the water and then made our way up and over the bridge to fully take in the views. It was a lot of steps early in the morning, but well worth it and can you even say you went to Porto if you didn’t go on the bridge?
It was an action-packed morning before heading back to the apartment and going to the airport so that we could pick up our rental car and off to he Douro Valley we go! I am posting these blogs later than our trip so of course there are some spoilers here. Mostly that the Douro Valley was a huge highlight of the trip so stay tuned till my next post to hear more!
❤ Melanie
Smiles from Miles Away 