Day 9 in Portugal

February 02, 2026

Day 9 in Portugal

Monday 2 February

After breakfast at the hotel the four of us grabbed our coats and umbrellas and headed off to the Trindade. Our first objective for the day was to visit the Casa Musica, an event facility that Pauline's friend Graça recommended. Located in the Boavista neighborhood just west and a bit north of our hotel, it is apparently one of the more well-known stand-alone music halls in Portugal, perhaps in Europe.

Designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and opened in 2005, we thought the building looked a bit tired outside and inside. We had hoped to go to the top floor for the view but the restaurant wouldn't open for another couple of hours. And we didn't feel like paying to look at the auditorium -- for my money the place was oddly laid out and a bit East German in the overall feel. Of course, I never visited East Germany during the hot days of the cold war but it seemed like something they might have put together.

There was a cafe inside but nothing of note to even photograph. Oh well. C'est la vie.

We left the building and our mixed feelings behind us and walked across to the enormous Rotunda (roundabout) de Boavista. The roundabout was home to a park that was in the serious throes of rehabilitation. What had caught our eye when leaving the Metro and walking to the Casa Musica was the enormous column and statue group around the base. It certainly deserved a closer look.

This memorial commemorates the victory of the Portuguese and the British against the French troops that invaded Portugal during the Peninsular War (1807–1814). The lion at the very top is shown destroying the eagle that represented the French imperial troops.

Around the base are sculptures of soldiers and civilians, the latter representing the 4000 people of Porto who died in the Porto Boat Bridge disaster of 29 March 1809 when the Ponte das Barcas pontoon bridge they were crossing to flee from Napoleon's troops collapsed.

From the roundabout we took an Uber to the Porto Cathedral. Rain continued to haunt us wherever we went and crossing the windswept terrace in front of the cathedral entrance was daunting. But we managed to get inside the ticket office where we queued up behind a half dozen or so other folks seeking shelter as well as a determination to buy tickets. The woman selling them announced in no uncertain terms that if we wanted to see the Bishop's Palace next door (we did), we needed to go there now because her "colleagues" were soon leaving for lunch.

leaving the Uber

Below are a few views from the cathedrals' terrace - a lot of Porto looks like this.

And here's the terrace:

The palace itself was an interesting maze of rooms generally well-signed in both English and Portuguese. I kept wondering to myself what do one or two people need with all this space? What do they actually do there/did there? Sadly, no one was around to answer my questions. But some of the art work was very nice and the views from the windows quite stunning.

camellias in bloom

Looking down to and across the Douro River

Leaving the palace and braving the windy rain we returned to the church and strolled inside. The tile work here, like so many other churches we have visited in Portugal, is truly lovely and often quite striking.

The cloisters

One of the side chapels off the cloisters

three recent bishops are buried here

Below are a number of images from inside and out to help give you a sense of the place - more than one can even begin to describe.

João Gordo (died 1833), a knight has his own tomb in a small room off from the cloisters

From the church we made our way down a serious series of flights of stairs in search of a place for lunch. We ended up eating off the bar menu in the Pestana Vintage Hotel.

checking out a tapas bar

open space facing the waterfront

One of the six bridges crossing the Douro

Richard had grilled sardines and three of us had the root vegetable salad with burrata. The food was outstanding and the green wine (vinho verde) equally so.

the bar

Leaving the hotel we started our crawl back uphill. But we didn't have far to go in search of our next objective the church of San Francisco.

across from the church this caught our eye

If you go to Porto this is one place you must see. The exterior of the building is drab and lifeless and doesn't even look like a church at all. But inside the church is fantastic. The interior is nearly all done in a baroque style with nearly everything covered in gold leaf.

entrance to the church is on the right up the stairs; left is to the church catacombs

The floor of the church is literally covered with what look like wooden doors with numbers on them. When I asked a guide what these were he said they were the empty tombs of the people once buried in the church. The bodies had been removed to the catacombs next door.

Leaving the church by the stairs we walked into the building next door that houses a small, equally stunning sanctuary and a few small rooms with various donated treasures such as two sedan chairs, paintings and the like.

But it's on the lower level that holds something fascinating, at least for me - although my companions were equally taken by the catacombs. Again, one can see the same numbered wooden slabs on the floor but also the walls are covered by niches which hold remains as well. There are several rooms at the end of which is also an ossuary of a large piles of bones beneath a small glass floor.

it was unclear to me who this coffin belonged to

individual ossuaries at the end of one room

Leaving the church we took an Uber back to the hotel where we rested before dinner. The vertical nature of this city does make one a bit weary to be sure.

Ready for dinner we thought we might eat in the hotel since the weather was rather nasty. But we soon learned that the hotel's restaurant was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. I found the nearby restaurant Antunes on Google maps and asked at the desk if they knew anything about the place. The clerk laughed and said that's the one we always recommend to our clients.

So off we went to Antunes, and we couldn't have been happier with our choice. The atmosphere inside was warm and inviting, the place staffed by the most engaging of characters and our waiter was funny and really very skilled at his job. He was fully of witty banter and spoke several languages quite well.

We all had fish - Susan, Richard and Pauline had dorade with roasted potatoes and veggies. I enjoyed codfish with onions and what looked like potato chips ("crisps"). They were in fact homemade potato chips that were more like thinly sliced potato disks. For dessert I had a glass of port, Richard had a raboulada (like French toast), Pauline diced fruit cup, Susie crème brulée. Everything was delicious - so much so that we decided to return the next night -- but meat this time. Stay tuned!.