From Lisbon to Porto

After two days in Lisbon and a train ride up to Porto, I have been nothing but impressed with Portugal. I have to admit that we planned our trip to Portugal at the last minute and only added it to our itinerary after we found cheap airfare on Vueling (Barcelona to Lisbon) and on Ryanair (Porto to London-Stanted). Not knowing anything about the country, we flew in pretty much blind and relied on our skills as world travelers to get by. What we discovered was a country rich in history, culture and art. A place in Western Europe with friendly people and not priced so it would break our bank account. Throw in delicious food and great wine and you have my favorite destination of our European leg of the trip!

Gav and I booked our train ride from Lisbon to Porto online. We were pleasantly surprised as how easy it was to navigate through the Portuguese rail website (they had an english version). After paying via our credit card, we printed out tickets and we were good to go!

On board the train, we were treated to assigned seats. We had stopped at a bakery before hand and picked up lunch for the three hour train ride, so it was nothing but smooth sailing all the way up the coast.

Upon arrival in Porto, we made our way from the train station to the Metro (subway) stop and discovered a brand-spanking-new rail system that was quite user friendly. We checked into our four star hotel and we were ready to explore Porto!



Boarding the train in Lisbon.


Porto at night.


Porto's city center.


Scenic Porto on the Douro River.

Porto Pictures