retiredmartin

March 2024. Porto. Portugal.

More beer and sandwiches as we cross the Ponte Luis I bridge now, in search of a famous rabbit.

The south side seems to be the home of the wineries who sponsor the little boats along the Douro,

their gift shops and port tastings packed on this Saturday.

We admired the porcelain,

and the street art,

on the way to Bordalo II’s Half Rabbit, made entirely from recycled materials.

That detained us for at least 30 seconds, the food court (the Mackie Mayor of Porto) next door rather longer.

I have nothing to say about Portugal’s beer scene, but Super Bock were ubiquitous, which is easy for you to say,

and their rather lacklustre tasting tray revealed that the IPA and Weiss was rather more interesting than the standard pilsner, which is Portugal’s Carling (where Sagres is its Moretti).

The unlabelled one on the right was Somersby cider, rightly eyed with suspicion by the pigeon (I think) next to Sandeman’s winery.

Realising that our lunch was at risk from that fella’s attention, we popped inside to do the mandatory tasting of Porto’s Francesinha.

“a Portuguese sandwich, originally from Porto, made with layers of toasted bread and assorted hot meats such as roast, steak, wet-cured ham, linguiça, or chipolata over which sliced cheese is melted by the ladling of a near-boiling tomato-and-beer sauce called molho de francesinha [pt].^[1] It is typically served with french fries.”

Never mind that, Wiki, what my readers need to know is that it’s 1,758 calories, the equivalent of the Wetherspoons Curry Club with free pint of Doom Bar. And you know what, the Spoons curry is better.

After that, I wasn’t moving very fast, and acquiesced to Mrs RM’s request to take the cable car (7 euros !) to the top of the bridge.

Great views across the rooftop, but the best way to see the craft beer places is to walk over the top of that bridge,

which is what we did next.