Our last full day in Portugal before we were to get up at 3:30am for our early flight out and our 27 hour trip home. We had booked a tour of the Palácio da Bolsa, the stock exchange building. In Portugal, this is more like the local Chamber of Commerce.
It was formerly a convent that burned during the siege of Porto in 1832. Attached and adjacent is the Igreja de São Francisco, which was not destroyed. I’ll leave the jokes about separation of church and state to your imagination. But it made for some interesting thoughts.
The interior is extremely detailed in the neo-classic style, generally, with an eclectic mix of other styles as well. The Arab Room is called “the jewel of the palace” and is definitely the highlight of the tour.
We also toured the adjacent Igreja, which did not burn.
Since we were in the neighborhood, we walked across the Dom Luís I bridge, designed by the Eiffel Tower engineer. We walked across the top, enjoyed the scenery, had lunch in Gaia, then walked back across the lower level.
That evening was our last dinner in Portugal and we found a little cocktail bar just a block from our hotel. The host was Lucas and the bar was Cais Nobre, Bar Et Cocktails. We thought it was amazing. We later found out it has 96 reviews on TripAdvisor. And 96 five star reviews. Nothing lower. Unheard of.
Wanting to eat light, since we were getting up very early, we just had a chicken wrap and some mushrooms. And I FINALLY found a good hazy IPA.
On our last night here. Go figure.
We walked back to our hotel and set our alarm for 3:00 am.