O Porto

A fun fact about Portuguese is that any city or town whose name has a specific meaning always uses an article in the name. Porto (pronounced PORT-oo) means “port” – thus it is always referred to as O Porto (THE Port). Another example is the town of A Figueira da Foz (the fig tree at the river mouth). I mention this because with our fledgling knowledge of Portuguese we don’t know which town names translate to actual words and are constantly being gently, and politely, reminded that we need to put the article in front of certain names. Which brings us to O Porto…

With our business concluded in Nazaré we set out north toward O Porto, a trip of about two hours on very nice roads. Because we are now professionals, we made a very efficient stop along the way at a Repsol station to top off the trusty Renault Clio and get Jill a bottle of sparkling water. Since we were flying home from O Porto, we drove straight to the airport (and now you airport nerds know why it’s OPO) and dropped our car with the nice SIXT people and took a taxi into town.

Having decided that SMP is our target destination in Portugal allowed us to have a fun perspective during our time in O Porto. We viewed O Porto through purely the lens of how we might enjoy trips to the big city when living in SMP – either solo or with visitors in tow.

Jill booked us into the A.S. 1829 Hotel in the heart of O Porto for three nights. Another shout out to Rick Steves and company – the A.S. 1829 was the latest in an unbroken string of successes we’ve had when following their recommendations.

There was also a nice plaza with restaurants and tasteful live music right outside of the hotel.

Not surprisingly, O Porto-proper is fantastic. The heart of the old city is hilly but very walkable with lots of neat stuff to see.

We walked almost 10 miles each day seeing all of the sights in O Porto. And in doing so we worked up a big appetite. We found a great Italian restaurant called La Salumeria a couple of blocks from the A.S. 1829 where we ate two of the three nights we were in Porto. If you are ever in O Porto, run do not walk to La Salumeria.

For our last day of the trip Jill booked us a full day with Bruno, a guide from Tours by Locals, to go explore the Douro Valley. We are big fans of Tours by Locals and we LOVE Bruno. Bruno picked us up at the A.S. 1829 after breakfast and we set off on the 2 hour drive to the Douro Valley. The scenic drive gave us plenty of time to get acquainted with Bruno and we became fast friends. The conversation ultimately came around to our desire to move to Portugal and Bruno gave us lots of useful information on that front.

For example, when I asked Bruno about acquiring a car in Portugal he gave very practical guidance. Here are the three most important things we learned from Bruno on that front:

1. New cars come with a 33% tax (23% VAT and 10% ISV) and there is no tax on used cars
2. Every village with more than 100 people has a Renault mechanic and Renault parts are very easy to get in Portugal
3. Abandon the American ideal of keeping your car in pristine shape – narrow, cobbled roads, and tight parking spaces will breed dents and scratches. That’s just part of the deal for car owners in Portugal

Lest you think Bruno was shilling for Renault, he was driving a Peugeot wagon. And he shared that he’d personally had problems getting parts for his Peugeot.

Bottom-line Portugal car advice from that conversation with Bruno: Take a look at the full Renault product line and pick a model that meets your needs. Then engage a car broker to find a two-year-old version of that model in Portugal that still has some warranty left. Get it serviced at the dealership until the warranty runs out and then shift to your local mechanic. And don’t worry about cosmetic flaws because you’re going to accumulate more.

And, this bears repeating, Bruno is yet another example of the phenomenon where everyone we’ve met in Portugal, upon hearing that we are considering making the move, is welcoming, supportive, and gives us additional reasons that it’s a good idea.

When we weren’t talking the practicalities of moving to Portugal, Bruno was showing us around his backyard…

We had a fantastic day with Bruno and we look forward to him showing friends and family around the Douro Valley when they come visit.

The next morning we got up, had one last delicious breakfast at the A.S. 1829 and took the hotel-arranged cab to the airport for our flight home.

And, just like that, our second scouting trip to Portugal drew to a successful close.