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Luckily that first afternoon/evening in Porto (which I wrote about 7 months ago, oops!) wasn’t the end of our time in this lovely Portuguese city. Good morning, Porto!

I was glad the São Bento train station was on the way to our destination, because I needed another look at this beauty in the daylight. The blue tiles are called azulejo and, per my Lonely Planet guide, depict some historic battles as well as the history of transport in Portugal.

The typical Porto rain we kept hearing about was about to show up, but I kept my camera out as long as possible during our overcast walk…

…and we made it! Truth be told, Livraria Lello was what I had been most looking forward to about Portugal. There’s not much I love more than BOOKS, so the world’s most beautiful bookstore was super exciting for me, and it lived up to the hype!

We had gotten our ticket online ahead of time, which was great since the rain would’ve made standing in line pretty unpleasant. (Don’t worry, the price of the ticket is redeemable for books!) It was hard to decide where to look—the staircase, the stained glass, the beautiful books… wow!!!

I was kind of glad it was raining so hard because I could have stayed here all day long soaking up the inspiration.

Rumor has it that this staircase was the inspiration for the moving ones at Hogwarts, and while it appears that rumor may not be true, it IS true that the first three chapters of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone were written in Porto.

My only complaint about Livraria Lello is that I wish it weren’t so crowded… it was quite a challenge to get any photos not full of people. (Obviously not blaming said people… I was one of ‘em. ;))

There was a new exhibit upstairs that I didn’t know about ahead of time, and it nearly took my breath away. This is a first edition of The Little Prince! It’s hard to tell, but it’s encased in mirrors facing each other all around, reflecting (literally and figuratively) the ways this multifaceted work has infinite influence. Not pictured is a (CROWDED) room of other art and artifacts celebrating the history of this book and its author, who (I learned) had mysteriously disappeared before the French version was even published. Something else I didn’t know: The Little Prince is the third most translated literary work in the world, behind only the Bible and the Koran!!!

Reflecting on this book really made the rest of my time at Livraria Lello that much more magical. My bibliophile heart was so happy here!

I almost used my book voucher to buy a special copy of The Little Prince (even though I already have English and French ones at home), but instead I chose this children’s book published by Livraria Lello (and only available here as far as I can tell.) The description sounds right up my alley, but Afton and I have agreed that the writing has some flaws and isn’t our favorite.

It was still POURING the rain outside, but Alex eventually tore me away from books so that we could move on to another indoor excursion of his choosing: Taylor’s Port. We did an audio tour about the history of port wine…

…which took us right through the caverns full of barrels where all varieties of Taylor’s port are currently being aged. Frankly, to my non-aficionado self, it was about the same as visiting bourbon distilleries in Kentucky. ;)

The museum part was more expansive than I expected, and I think I may have quit on the audio tour in favor of focusing on photos instead.

Time for port tasting! I actually wasn’t feeling like drinking alcohol this day (too much sangria last night?) but the staff kindly brought me some fancy nonalcoholic grape juice while Alex enjoyed his port samples.

Finally it stopped raining! The grounds between the tasting room and the restaurant were so lovely!

Baro Fladgate, part of the Taylor’s Port property, was super elegant and enjoyable, but it was slower than I would have liked given that we were running out of time to see anything else in Porto! The main thing I remember about the food is that we thought they’d forgotten our side of mashed potatoes, and when those finally arrived they became the obvious highlight of the meal.