My first evening in town I had an early dinner at a place with a few outdoor tables on Rua Flores. A glass of white wine with a dish of octopus legs and puree of pumpkin and celery with toasted bread crumbs. Delicious! I always feel bad about eating octopus now though after seeing My Octopus Teacher.
Thursday morning I took myself on a tour of Art Nouveau buildings around town, roughly following a map I found online, https://www.e-travelmag.com/portugal/art-nouveau-in-porto/. First stop though was a quick breakfast of a coffee and the Portuguese version of a croissant (eggier and more dense than French croissants, but tasty). The tour served the dual purpose of learning my way around town and gathering some inspiration for my Furniture Design midterm paper. I decided to write about Emile Galle, a French Art Nouveau era designer. There are quite a few Art Nouveau designs left on building facades, but fewer interiors left.
I got a ticket to see the famous Lello bookstore at 1:15pm, so I continued on my tour and stopped for brunch at The Terrace on Rua Miguel Bombarda. They have a nice shady, quiet outdoor patio with good brunch options. I opted for the smoked salmon eggs Benedict with avocado and sprouts.
The bookstore interior is truly a fabulous display of Art Nouveau designs and wood carvings. They also have beautiful imprints of famous literary books in a few languages. It is always crowded with timed tickets every 15 minutes for maybe 80 people/time slot.
After a rest back at the apartment, I decided I really had to get to Porto University’s botanical garden. I opted to take the bus as it is about 3 miles away. The bus took a long time to arrive and was therefore very crowded. I balanced in the aisle for the 25 minute trip. It took a long time to return on the bus too, but I was fortunate to snag a seat when someone got up. Bus trips are 2.50 euros. I used the Andante card I had purchased for the metro ride into town hoping it was valid for 24 hours. I’m really not sure if it was or not but no one seemed to care.
The botanical gardens have an historic building near the entrance that is now the Hall of Biodiversity (5 euro entrance fee). The displays about evolution and natural selection were quite cleverly done and often referenced art. I particularly liked one that compared different natural and manmade objects describing their function and mathematical properties. For example “Waves move things” with a snake, a mandolin (sound waves), a light (light waves) and an agate with wavy figure (not sure how that fit in as much, maybe alignment of crystals).
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| Rabbit diversity with those on the right from an island population. |
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| Mandolin, snake, agate and light waves |
The gardens were suffering from the summer drought and some lack of care, but had a splendid cactus and succulent display and a large diversity of trees from temperate and subtropical areas.
The tree of life in bronze 
Rooster at the garden 
The rose garden 
Cactus and Succulent garden
I finished off the day walking down towards the river and finding a little “gastropub” for dinner. I got the Menu del Dia for 12.50 euros. A glass of wine, a bowl of vegetable soup, and salt cod cooked with potatoes and a cream sauce with rice. I asked for some hot sauce to perk up the cod dish which would have been rather bland otherwise. Tables were perched on a stair step platform on a steep street in an alley with a view of the other side of the river. The couple uphill from me had driven over from Galicia, Spain. She lives in Amsterdam and was visiting her boyfriend who lives in Galicia. They spoke English together. I think the restaurant proprietor and server may have been from Spain as they spoke Spanish together rather than Portuguese.
View from dinner, an empty chair awaits Jake!
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