torre dos clérigos

i am always up to climb a medieval tower to 

overlook a city..especially somewhere like porto!
this gorgeous view was worth every single step. there's
something so exhilarating about standing on top of an old
landmark and looking out over an entire city..it's one of my
favorite feelings. this torre dos clérigos reminded me a lot of
climbing the belfry in bruges, belgium. both are must-do's!





^^ cute climber

 

every few steps we had to stop to take

in the views. those europeans sure knew how to 

make their cities charming! the hills of porto 

spotted with orange roofs leading down to

 the river duoro makes quite a sight. 

 

after all those steps, we obviously needed

chocolate! we stopped at arcadia chocolate to

do a fun feature on portugal's best chocolate.

think of it like the ghirardelli of portugal :)

we heard all about how chocolate is made..
{how had i never considered where white chocolate comes from?} 
and saw their factory where they make all of the
chocolate. then we ate lots + lots of chocolate.





^^ hot chocolate so thick we had to eat it with 
a spoon....AKA, how all hot chocolate should be.

^^ they spin the hot chocolate right on the counter,
and they have so many different flavors. one of my 
pipe dreams is to open a hot chocolate shop with 
all different flavors one day, so obviously 
i was loving this. we tried caramel, dark chocolate, 
and hazelnut hot chocolate. mmmmMMM!

 

^^ presents for loved ones at home! 

these two were so great! i love anyone

who teaches me about chocolate and

also gives me lots of it :) thanks arcadia!

afterwards we stopped at the famous lello

bookstore..one of my favorite places we

visited this trip. fun fact: j.k. rowling actually

lived in porto, and this bookstore inspired

"flourish and blotts" in harry potter. you step

inside and you can see why! it's absolutely 

incredible in there. you have to see it!

quick stop to fix his ponytail {hehe}

he has never had long hair and wanted

to see if he could get it in a pony by this trip...

after all, it is europe so he fit right in!

we were a little bit backwards and had a 

late night dinner after all that chocolate.

we had to visit the famous majestic café,

prettiest place i have ever been to!

we had a midnight meal in this dreamy place

and tried the famous franceshina portugese

sandwich. lots of meat, cheese, and amazing sauce!

it's originally from porto, so we loved trying it there!

 

^^ yummy sandwich, + i spy husband's 

gold wedding ring. i still love seeing that!

 

^^ prettttty tired, but prettttty happy!

^^ on the way home chase looked over and said, 

"it's the leaning tower of porto!" it could have been

that it was almost 1:00 AM or that we were still

jet lagged, but we cried laughing and had to take a

picture. we thought we were hilarious, such NERDS.

we ended the night with a little walk down by the 

duoro river with the best conversation. i never 

wanted this night to end but we were sooo tired that

we finally went in and fell straight on our pillows.

back to our hostel for more steps up to our room!

xo