Porto; Friday, 27 January, 2023

I checked out of the hotel and headed over to Hatton Cross tube station where I caught the next Piccadilly Line train direct to Terminal 3 with a couple of seconds to spare. It was then a quick journey through the airport and over to the gate with a little bit of time to spare.

Unfortunately nobody had bothered to compare the flight to the gate and it turned out that it wasn’t the best sized fit for a fully loaded A320, with all the seats already occupied long before everyone had had their boarding pass scanned. This wouldn’t necessarily have been an issue if the flight had started to board on time, but it was pretty obvious at an early stage from the hand gestures and frantic tapping of mobile phones between the dispatch manager and the gate agents that the flight was going to be delayed – it turned out due to a fault with one of the crew jump seats.

Thankfully the plane wasn’t 100% full, and with a couple of passengers being shuffled around and one member of the cabin crew being upgraded from jump seat to the first row of business we were able to start boarding, even if it was exactly an hour late by the time we pushed back.

With a strong tailwind we managed to make up half the time, so by the time we landed we were only 30 minutes late and with just hand luggage and sharp elbows I was through the airport and heading over to the metro station less than 10 minutes after landing – not that it helped, I missed the metro by a couple of seconds and of course when the trains are at 18 and 12 minutes gaps it’s inevitable that I would hit the 18 minute gap to the next train.

I finally made it into town and headed over to my hotel where I was able to check-in, drop my stuff off and then head out for a wander.

As the hotel overlooked it, I headed over initially to the Sè area, taking in the square around the city’s Cathedral as well as the views that the buildings position, high on the cliffs of the river valley that Porto is built around, offers over the rest of the city the river and across the Douro to the neighbouring town of Vila Nova de Gaia.

From the cathedral I headed downhill stopping off at several different viewpoints on my way down eventually to riverside level just as the last of the days light was starting to fade.

I then headed back up through the maze of narrow streets and stairs back up to the top of the hill and to my hotel to freshen up before heading out to grab a quick dinner.