On our last day in Porto we decided to take the accessible Metro to Matosinhos Sul and spend the day soaking up the sun at the beach!
When we arrived at the station we saw lots of students wearing different coloured top hats and carrying canes. Apparently it was graduation day and the different colours represent the different subjects they have studied. We were to see more of graduation day later on!
Matosinhos is the closest beach to Porto and really easy to get to on the accessible Metro. It's quite an 'urban' beach so wasn't as nice as Cascais which we visited earlier on in our trip. From Matosinhos we walked along the sea front to Praia do Molhe. When we went it was pretty quiet and there were plenty of benches where we could stop and enjoy the views of the sea.
It was a nice and relaxing way to spend our final day and to not have to negotiate any hills! We decided to get an Uber to take us back to Porto. As it was sunny we wanted to go up to Mosteiro da Serra do Pilar which is a great viewpoint of Porto. The Uber driver took us right up to the monastery which was great.
We then decided we had time to go back to our hotel, get some dinner and then come back to the same place to watch the sunset! We didn't know that as part of the graduation day there are a number of floats which parade through the city. It was absolute chaos! There were roads closed and students everywhere! I'm really glad we spent most of that day out of the city!
Most of the bars and restaurants were closed, we think to stop any student carnage but we managed to find a small cafe who put us a random dinner together! It was surprisingly nice pork! We then got back onto the Metro to Jardim do Morro and made our way up to the monastery to view Porto for one last time with the sun setting. The viewpoint is really big and flat, a bit uneven but not too bad. You can also view the sunset from Jardim do Morro where they also have a bar so you can buy a drink too but this is on a grassy hill so not as accessible.
You can view all of our posts about our trip to Portugal here. Let us know in the comments the places in Portugal you would recommend visiting!
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