Our time in Portugal was drawing to a close and Porto was where we would end things before returning to Canada. We were having mixed feelings about our decision. We already missed the beach lifestyle but Porto definitely had areas to explore and a lively vibe. The kids were excited about Harry Potter tourism. I was excited about checking out the Camino Portugese. And once again, we stumbled across a city during a big festival. Not a bad way to end things.

Read more: Porto – Last Stop – Days 355 – 360

At first, Porto felt unpolished and gritty compared to the other Iberian cities we had stayed in. There was construction everywhere with cranes in the background of most of our pictures. We assumed most of the construction was attributed to its recent emergence as a tourist hot spot. The walkway along the waterfront was swarming with people for the duration of our stay. Fortunately, it felt like locals still lived in the downtown (i.e. not everything was rented out to tourists as an Airbnb) so it had a more authentic feel. The buildings were beautifully tiled and the cobblestones were aplenty. The roads were curvy and hilly. Throw in the streetcar tracks and it was easy to foresee some trip-and-fall incidents on the horizon.

We continued our recent trend of accumulating walking-related injuries. My knee was still swollen from Cinfaes and I tweaked it again with the cobbles. Paigey went running, got her foot stuck in the streetcar tracks and rolled her ankle badly. She would limp for the duration of the trip. And to top it off, Isabella tripped on the sidewalk and scraped up her shoulder and face pretty badly. We almost had to sling it again. It felt like a sign we should be more careful as the trip drew to a close.

We knew that J.K. Rowling had lived in Porto and some locations were tied to Harry Potter lore. We tracked down the bookstore that was an inspiration for the moving staircases in Hogwarts. We bought timed tickets online and then queued with the masses. Credit to the staff as they kept the queue flowing. But in the end, we really just ended up buying tickets to a bookstore. We didn’t try to take a picture on the famous staircase. Instead, we opted to photo-bomb everyone’s pictures (sounds harsh but there was nowhere to move). I figure the success rate of any pictures taken there was less than ten percent.

On our last day, Paigey let me do a 30km leg of the pilgrim route on the Camino Portugese. I would wake up early and hike to the nearby town of Mautosinhos by myself. At 6 am, I took off from Porto Cathedral following the coastal route for the next 8 hours. I was giddy the entire time. I counted pilgrims, took pictures of route markers and forgot about my throbbing knee pain. I downloaded the Buen Camino app, read about every point of interest I passed and arrived at my “destination” (a hostel for pilgrims) right on time. But since I wasn’t actually continuing the Camino the next day, I had to find my way home instead of booking a room. I hiked to the closest train station and rode back to the town centre. It was the first time my watch had passed the 40k steps threshold. Upon arrival at the empty Airbnb, I promptly iced my feet and went to bed for three hours. Paigey and the kids were out playing mini-golf and when they arrived, shook their heads at my sorry state.

Coming clean, on the second night in Porto, we made the decision to switch the ending. After seeing the Harry Potter Store, we had this crazy idea to do a last-minute detour to the Harry Potter Experience in the UK. We killed a couple of hours planning this deviation to London but despite our best efforts we couldn’t secure tickets to the event. Not dismayed, we pivoted and figured out a way to accommodate a 2-day detour to Paris. We hacked an EasyJet flight and some hotel bookings and clicked buy. Our final destination would be Disneyland.

The evening before our morning flight to Paris, we came clean and told the kids about the surprise. They were ecstatic and went to bed early. While they slept, Porto partied hard as it was São João Festival . There were fireworks (which we could fortunately see from our Airbnb), plastic hammers (that you smash on people’s heads) and thousands of paper lanterns. I hadn’t ever seen a paper lantern festival (outside the one in the Disney movie Tangled). I was like a kid watching them burn out and crash in the neighbour’s tree, the street, and all over the town.

Where we stayed:

• Airbnb: Standard Ikea setup

By the numbers:

• Souvenir Fabric Fish Purchased: 0 – decided we would sew one at home ourselves
• Decorative Fish Hangers Purchased: 3 – they were never hung at home
• Time Mike spent on the Buen Camino App: 16 hours
• Time Mike spent hiking on the actual Camino: 8 hours
• Hours of sleep the kids got before the morning flight: 8 hours
• Hours of sleep Mike got before the morning flight: 3 hours (who was the more anxious kid)

Ciao for now

Mike