Bolhao Market and the Majestic Cafe

Today, after our breakfast of yogurt and fruit, we headed out to visit the Bolhoa market in its temporary location. It was raining on-and-off as we made our way over there on the Metro. The market was in the basement of a shopping mall, and held all manner of produce, meat, cheese, fish and baked goods. Souvenirs and handcrafted items. Clothing and household goods. 

This merchant had a sample of some of his tinned sardines and other fish displayed for us to taste.
So many options!

After looking around we stopped at the Starbucks in the mall upstairs, then walked outside and were greeted by heavy rain. We went down the nearby stairs to the underground Metro station and walked through the tunnel for a block, to another exit, to avoid the rain on the street above us, and when we came out it had subsided. It’s funny that we don’t really know where the Metro tunnels and corridors go. We probably avoided a few blocks of walking in the rain, just staying in the tunnel and going out a different exit, and we probably could have gotten even closer to our destination if we knew where we were!
We had decided to try the famous Majestic Cafe, a few blocks from the market, and had to wait in a short line before being invited in and seated by the maitre d’, who was very charming and pleasant, in spite of dealing with tourists all day. The cafe is a very elegant, old cafe, and we wanted to have some lunch there. We knew the prices would be high, and they were! An espresso I could have had elsewhere for 1 euro cost 5 euros here. My seafood soup, with one prawn, a small piece of fish and a few clams and mussels was 15 euros. Gail and I both had the soup, and it was served with great flair, the broth poured over the fish, by the waiter, at our table.

Gail with her fancy fish soup. It was delicious, and served with a flair, but not very filling.

Out on the street once again, the rain had stopped, and it looked like the weather was improving. We decided to take the Metro back over to the Gaia side of the river, but stopped on the way for a gelato, lunch not having been quite filling enough.

On the Metro, going over the Duoro River bridge

Looking back at Porto from the Gaia side of the river

Once across the river, we walked down the hill to the Sandeman tasting room. Janet bought some of her favorite port to take home as a gift. There was an ornate church on the Gaia side too, which we had to visit, of course.

Heading down the hill to the tasting rooms, and overlooking the wine storage buildings

A beautifully painted tower at one of the wineries

A statue of Christ laying in a glass-enclosed coffin.
We saw this same thing at several churches.

We must have walked back up the stairs to catch the Metro back into town, and back to our Casa da Musica stop. On the way home we stopped at the Nespresso store, and Gail bought some coffee pods to take home. We've been having good coffee at our apartment, using an espresso machine, and found the appropriate pods to use with it at Pingo Doce for pennies each, instead of the 50 cents charged at our apartment. The Nespresso store charged more for their special brand, but was still cheaper than what we'd pay in the U.S. The display of different colored coffee pods behind the counter was very dramatic.





We ate dinner at Rosa's, a very authentic Portuguese restaurant a few blocks from our apartment. I know we had a cooked cabbage mixture as one of the side dishes with our dinner. After the waiter discovered that they were out of whatever Pam had ordered, she settled on soup, which turned out to be the same cooked cabbage we had as a side dish, just added to some broth. Not great.
On the way back to the apartment, we stopped for dessert at our little chocolate cafe around the corner.