After a busy day yesterday, we decided to start off our morning with a visit to Livraria Lello, definitely the most beautiful bookstore I have ever been in. I expected to see magical characters sitting on shelves and peering down the staircase. Magical characters were there in the 100’s of marvelous books they had, from current day stories to classical. Every language imaginable, they also had reprinted first editions. I found a whole section of my childhood favourites – Peter Pan and the Wizard of Oz. Harry Potter had a place of honour, which isn’t surprising as JK Rowlings used parts of the library as inspiration in her books. I kept expecting to see Dobby dusting the shelves.

Today is March 4, low season in Porto, and the queue to enter the 120 year old book store was long and a little frantic as people realized you had to buy tickets, The tickets are for time slots, every 15 minutes. Thankfully we had ours. Inside we go and lol, there are people posing on every part of the staircase, hoping for a break in the line. A man and I were hanging over the edge laughing, “quick, snap your picture” everyone is gone. Oops, try again. LOL Yes I did buy a book and what a treat to find out that the cost of your ticket is removed from the book price. Well worth the visit, I would go back again, very magical.

Still feeling a little jet lagged and tired from being on the go since we arrived in Portugal, we thought today would be a quieter day lol. We just started wandering around the city heading down to the tram, it is a long way down, at one point we ended up on this stairway, hoping it was taking us down and that we would survive how steep it was. Lots of picture spots on the way.

The vintage tramcars are delightful, a little old, creaky and squeaky (just like me). We took the one out to the mouth of the Douro. On the way we had to pick up some mechanics as it was making a few more squeaky noises than normal, a quick tightening of something with a 3 foot long wrench and we were good to go lol. The cost was 6 Euro return, took about 30 minutes and you were given a beautiful view of both sides of the river.

Feeling rejuvenated after our tram ride, we decided to walk back up the hill. Day 4 in Portugal and I have walked about 35 km up and down hills, it is a nice change from sitting with our fire on watching the snow through our family room window :). On our walk we discovered this beautiful street of cafes and stores, including Joalharia do Carmo. A museum and jewelry store with a beautiful staircase. I seem to be into staircases in this city.

Back at the hotel, we popped down for a quick swim and sauna in the beautiful Wine and Book Spa area, a great way to rejuvenate ourselves before we set off for dinner at Bellano Cucina. A lovely restaurant, staff and dinner wonderful and the best part just around the corner from where we were staying. Tomorrow we are off to the Algarve.