Jul 25, 2022 5 min read europe

Porto, Portugal

On June 6, 2022, we set off for a 3.5 week trip back to Europe. The destinations this time were Portugal and Spain. Follow along!

Monday, June 6: Cincinnati to Boston to Amsterdam

Flight schedules being what they are, we had a 6am flight to Boston. I booked a van to pick us up at 4:15am and drop us off at the airport. Way too early!

We had a super long layover (nine hours!) in Boston so we hopped in a Lyft and went Downtown. Katharine and I got engaged here so we dragged the kids to see a little family history.

We grabbed some lunch in the North End and headed back to the airport. We zipped through security and spent a couple hours in the Air France lounge before the flight to Amsterdam.

Somewhere over the Atlantic in the middle of the night.

Tuesday, June 7: Amsterdam to Porto

We had another layover in Amsterdam so we killed some time at a closed Burger King. We had some chocolate and waited.

The flight from Amsterdam to Porto was only a couple hours but we were all pretty exhausted. We rented a van from a place offsite from the airport, so I hopped in the shuttle first to get things moving with the paperwork. The fam caught the next bus and we loaded the van. Our Airbnb was only about 15 minutes away in a small town called Árvore north of the airport.

We were met by the host, Maria. She was super nice and showed us the whole place. She also left us some Pastel de Nata and port wine. I enjoyed both of them.

We hopped in the super cold pool and made a quick beach trip to try to keep everyone awake until 9pm or so. We barely made it!

Wednesday, June 8: Duoro Valley

We hopped in the car and set off to explore the Duoro Valley. This is the region where the grapes for the port wine are grown. It's beautiful. I highly recommend the drive.

When we got back home, I took a walk along the beach at night. Our place was on the Camino de Santiago hiking trail. Now I want to walk the whole thing!

Thursday, June 9: Porto

We drove in to the center of Porto and parked the car on the street. From there, we took a little walking tour and explored a bit of the city center. The kids were most excited to visit the "most beautiful McDonalds in the world". We checked out the Livraria Lello bookstore which was apparently the inspiration for Hogwarts.

Friday, June 10: Chilling out in Àrvore

No outings planned today. We just relaxed at the house, did some work, and went back to the beach. I got some great pictures of the Portugal sunset from the walking trail.