Who knew!? I’m realizing I’m not an obsessive HP fan because I didn’t know that JK Rowling was married to a Portuguese man and lived in Porto. Apparently this is something her real fans know. I was already surprised about her history with Edinburgh.

Before I get ahead of myself, I’ll just say that yesterday was a day of perfect serendipity. It was forecasted rain so I spent the morning arranging for my next adventure to southern Portugal in the Algarve region. Just a little Airbnb, train, bus, and touring research/booking took about 3 hours. But now I’m pretty set.

I’m staying in a cute place on the first floor that’s on a narrow street and can’t see the sky unless I thrust my head out the window and crane it up. Suffice it to say, I walked out at 11 and it was blue skies and sunny??!!! Whoops. It was dark outside my window and I just assumed it was dreary out. I’m right by the river front where yet another characteristic tram leaves 3x/hour and drives 30 minutes along the river to a town called Foz. I hadn’t intended to go to Foz but I’d been told it’s a nice tram ride in decent weather and I could see the line wasn’t long, so I thought I’d try. I managed to get onto the first tram that came by in a few minutes though had to stand. But I chatted with a guy whose wife found a seat and he told me how I could grab a bus back easily and where I could find a good lunch in an open market. Useful information.

Foz is at the junction of the River Douro and the Atlantic, west of Porto. Since it was windy and threatening rain, the waves were pretty impressive. Mesmerizing. It reminded me of Montauk but there was more going on…I stayed awhile watching the waves and eventual storm clouds come in. I took this panoramic to show how it was sunny on one side but raining on the other?! Anyway given that the storm clouds were moving in, I walked into town to find the Mercado and lunch. Turns out, just as I found the market and a restaurant, the skies opened up and it was pouring. I barely got wet. Lunch was cheap and basic and when I’d finished, it had stopped raining. So I walked to the bus stop to go back and had a few more minutes to gaze at the lovely sea. It was calmer but clearly rain was still in the forecast. On the bus ride back, I decided to overshoot my bus stop by the river and take it to the end of the line, up a few hills of Porto. I had no idea where I’d end up but thought it’d be a way to see a bit more of the city. The last stop is in Liberty Square which unbeknownst to me, is the meeting point of many of the 200-odd “free” walking tours of Porto. I’d wanted to do such a tour in Coimbra but because it’s off season, they weren’t running them the days I was available. In any case as I stepped off the bus and was walking around the placa, I saw a few guides with umbrellas and asked them about upcoming tours. Turns out there was one in English starting in 5 minutes. So I had just enough time to quickly use a bathroom and I’d be ready for a 2.5 hour tour. Of course I’d had no idea when I’d left that AM that I’d be out all day — and had left the apartment without my water bottle, recharger, or sunglasses.

It was great! We got background on Porto, some on Portugal, and on local architecture, government, religion, artists, and famous streets, restaurants and cafes (and of course churches). Porto’s history was it was given by a Queen to a Bishop (sounds like chess moves) — it’s never been the capital though Portugal is named after Porto. We also went to many viewpoints (miradours). And the tour ended on the other side of a major bridge (Luis l) in Vila Nova de Gaia, across the River Douro. I had seen this famous bridge from the Porto side and was going to walk to the other side on the lower pathway but not the upper!! I was not thrilled with walking the upper level — it’s pretty darn high and metro trains run across which makes it vibrate. It’s also much longer at the upper level. But the views from the other side are great back to Porto. There were also good views on the Gaia side of the river.

After the tour, I went with one of the other group members for dinner in the Ribeira area, which is close to where I’m staying; I’d visited and taken these photos my first night. It’s the earliest-occupied area of Porto since the city started out as a harbor and it’s right in the water. Anyway, we had a great seafood dinner and hit it off well. She’s from Houston currently though originally from India and she’s also a solo traveler. (She’s going to Madrid for work but took time to visit Lisbon and Porto as she’d gone to southern Spain last year — she’s given me great ideas on things to do when I go there in December!)

Today, we met up again to do part II of the Porto tour with the same tour group. And then walked around together afterward. I didn’t take a ton of photos though there was a lot to see. We also hit the Sao Francisco monastery and church after the tour ended. It’s totally baroque/rococo inside (they said over 700kg of gold was used to do gold leaf over the wood in the church). It’s no longer used as a church and has a museum, catacomb and treasury open to the public. And now to Harry Potter. Livraria Lello is an old established bookstore — previously cited as the most beautiful book shop in the world. It’s always hosted artists, poets and intellectuals even though it’s a small space but it has a downstairs for meetings, a rare books room, and publishes many of its own books. Sadly — or maybe fortunately for the store — it’s known that when JK lived in Porto, she frequented the place and I guess said that the staircase in here, admittedly different and lovely, influenced her idea of the moving staircases in HP. It’s one darn staircase. And now you pay 5 euros just to go into the store, have lines around the block to get in during high tourist season (and you have to go to a different space/line to buy the ticket!) and have to contend with a zillion tourists congregating to take photos around the staircase.

Lines weren’t terrible today but it was crowded considering what it was. Our tour guide said she used to go there a lot when younger and it was lovely and easy. Not anymore!! L. Lello is a beautiful store — I guess this is good for business for them — but it seems to be for the wrong reason. Oh well. Porto has a few other HP references but I won’t even go into it! It’s insane.

Radhika and I also grabbed some “typical” Porto sandwiches (francesinha — their answer to the bifana of Lisbon) and chocolates with port, so despite off and on rain downpours and obnoxious HP fans, it was a good day!