One day in Porto advice, please!

[OrangeBlossomsinthesun]

Hi,

Going to Porto at the end of March to visit son on Erasmus (he´s staying an hour outside the city and will be busy the day we arrive.)

DD (15) and I land at Porto airport at 7am and will catch a metro into the centre and sightsee until DS is free in the evening (will be staying in the town he´s in, not Porto itself, so catching a tram out there late afternoon).

What should we see and do during the day?

No interest in wine tours at all and trying to do things on the cheap.
Where is good for breakfast pretty early too as we´ll be hungry?

All suggestions gratefully received!

Just wander around. It’s so pretty. The indoor market is a nice place to
potter with lovely cheeses,
and tinned sardines .https://mercadobolhao.pt/

I have actually been, but about 25 years ago and only for a few hours. I remember seeing the train station with the tiles and down by the river, I think we even did a boat trip? But it´s all a blur.

DD would like to see the famous bookshop, although it seems to be €12 to get in

There are boat trips out to the sea mouth. Don’t bother with the hop on hop off bus, there are so many roadworks and building that the routes are all diverted.

We did a free walking tour with a fantastic guide that was brilliant.Tip at the end.
A trip on the river maybe?
For food the Time Out market is a must.

The bookshop is worth the entrance fee and you can use the ticket against buying a book.

Get the cable car down over the river, go to the indoor market and then pick up a boat ride at the bottom and do a boat ride under the bridges.

The McDonald’s is also beautiful!

Have a white port and a nata ! Delicious

Opposite the train station there are several coffee shops that do a lovely breakfast. Fresh orange juice, pasties, coffee etc as well as a de nata. Not expensive. We ate in one most mornings but I can’t recall the name sadly. Usually had a queue outside at breakfast but it went down very quickly.

Thanks! We land at 7am so we'll be in the city centre pretty early. Plan is to drop our small case in a luggage locker and find some breakfast. I think there are lockers at one of the metro stations so we could do that and see Sao Bento. It's one of the few places I remember visiting from the time I went many many years ago.

There are lockers at the train station. We used them but they are cash/coins only or were when we were there.

Make sure you suss out the metro system. You have to scan your card on the way out or can end up with a fine I think...and it's easy to walk past the scanning machines without realising..

Was going to get the andante card at the airport. Will have some euros as travelling from Spain (although Portugal seems less card friendly, you can literally pay any amount with a card, absolutely everywhere in my bit of Spain, so I will make sure to bring some cash)