Portugal 2021: Day 6

We took a high-speed train to Porto for the day, which was a three-hour ride each way, as the cities are about 180 miles apart. We had only one main reason for visiting Porto, but it turned out to be a really nice place overall! The train ride there left Lisbon at 9:00 am and arrived in Porto at noon, and our return ride left Porto at 6:30 pm and got us back into Lisbon at 9:30 pm. Fun fact: I love train rides, so I already knew it was going to be an awesome day!

The reason we went to Porto was to visit a very specific bookstore, The Livraria Lello & Irmao, which is one of the oldest bookstores in Portugal. Apparently J.K.Rowling lived in Porto while writing Harry Potter and visited this bookstore for inspiration. Obviously, I was very excited about seeing this place with my own eyes! It's so popular that you have to purchase tickets to enter (the value of which can be applied toward any purchase) and there is always a very long line to enter - in summer, it can wrap around the block, and even though it's low season right now, we still had to wait about 20 minutes just to get in.

In our six-ish hours in Porto, we also explored the city a little, and as is the theme of the week, the architecture and design were amazing everywhere we looked! The only other noteworthy stop was at a McDonald's, which was super fancy with chandeliers and stained glass decor!

Pictures around Porto:

McDonald's:

Bookstore:

As you can see, the bookstore was so incredibly beautiful and absolutely worth the six hours we spent on the train today!

Happy Tails to you!