Day 10 in Portugal

February 03, 2026

Day 10 in Portugal

Tuesday 3 February

Today is Richard's birthday! And one couldn't hope to spend such a day of celebration in a better place than Portugal. But then that's me and I'm here. And frankly the weather notwithstanding we are enjoying ourselves immensely.

After breakfast at the hotel we walked downhill making our way to Santa Catarina street -- the pedestrianized area we experienced our first night here. Our goal this morning was to see the Majestic Cafe -- and so we did. Glorious, old and weathered, not unlike Porto itself I suppose. Still, for a brief moment one felt thrown back to a time where life moved at a different pace, although you wouldn't know it from how fast the wait staff moved delivering coffees and pastries.

Santa Catarina street

Once outside the cafe we ordered an Uber for the next and major objective of the day: one of Porto's acclaimed Port lodges. In our case it was to be Graham's lodge.

views from near Graham's restaurant

We hadn't booked a tour and the next one in English would require us to wait for some three hours so we opted to do just the tasting.

One is faced with a dizzying array of tasting choices of ports as well as prices for flights. We opted for a tasting of Graham's 2018 Late Bottled Vintage Port (a Ruby port), a Graham's 1997 Single Harvest Tawny, and Graham's Quinta des Malvedos Vintage, all paired with chocolate, cheese and pasteis de nata (custard tarts).

Our guide was thorough, knowledgeable and very informative. The wines and the the accoutrements were, needless to say, excellent (but I said it anyway).

The tasting room runs along the backside of the lodge and connects with both the shop and the lodge restaurant, all with views of the city.

Vinum is the lodge restaurant and following our tasting we opted to stay here for lunch. Which, as things turned out, proved to be a very smart move. The food was superb and reasonably priced; the staff helpful and very professional. In the summer it must be wonderful to sit out on their terrace and sip port while watching the city in the distance. For us today we, like everyone else, opted to remain inside where it was warm and dry.

Below are a few views from the restuarant.

They brought a scrumptious little amuse bouche of codfish salad with a pequita pepper on top.

the bread was their own sourdough with olive oil from the company's groves

I had a fish and seafood soup that was absolutely incredible with tiny shrimps, pieces of grilled monkfish and mussels all in a luscious fish stock. Richard, the birthday boy, had roast beef with mustard, Susan had wild mushrooms with rice (also very rich), and Pauline had a variety of croquettes (very popular in Portugal) of mushroom, meat, and cheese.