To the Heat of Portugal

Monday morning, I checked out of my hotel in London and took the Gatwick Express to the airport. 

The Mercure Hyde Park on Talbot Square - very convenient to Paddington and quiet!

The flight to Porto from there took just over 2 hours and then I was in the 33 degree heat of Porto.  What a change from London!  Nawal and I met as planned and were taken by the driver we had arranged to the hotel where we would be staying for the next 3 nights.  The drive into the town took us along the sea coast at times and it looked fabulous with beautiful beaches and boardwalks.  Porto is a bit inland from the sea but is situated on the Douro River.  Our plan to explore the Douro valley in a few days; however, the next two days our focus will be the city.
Our hotel, Predicados do Douro, is a former palace which has been modernized and is very comfortable.  Nawal's room is a little garden house.  We were greeted with a glass of Madeira and piece of cake after we had settled in.  Nice touch!

Next we set off to explore a little - we didn't want to overdo it because of the heat.  We wandered toward the old town through a lovely park.  Thankfully, Nawal had already spent a day here earlier on this trip so she had some ideas where to go.  We saw the book store which was the inspiration for the Harry Potter books (I think J.K. Rowling started writing them there) and a lovely city square.  Then, it was off to find a bar for a glass of wine (which ended up being a Portuguese rose) and then a place for dinner.

Dinner was in a highly-rated tapas bar called Tapas na Boca where we had a selection of, you guessed it, tapas!  The cheese plate was tasty and served with a delicious pumpkin jam which the owner told us how to make (must try that when I get home!), and the Portobello mushrooms and garlic prawns were to die for - sorry I didn't think about taking the photos until we were more than halfway through the dishes!  If this is how food is in Portugal (it is my first time in the country), we have lots to look forward to!