England and Iberia Day 6

A gray day in Matosinhos

Posted by Brian Hart on August 03, 2026 · 11 mins read
  • Start of day: Leixões, Portugal
  • End of day: At sea

The cruise terminal building is pretty nice! A long covered walkway at the Leixoes cruise terminal, its underside clad in thousands of small cream hexagonal tiles that ripple across the curved ceiling. Slender white columns line the right side beside a full-height glass wall reflecting the terminal's white curved facade and the water beyond. Passengers walk away from the camera down the pale concrete deck -- a woman in a black tank top and denim shorts with long dark hair and tattooed legs in the foreground, others further on in sun hats and backpacks. To the left, the white hull and orange Celebrity lifeboats of the ship are visible over a wooden railing. Bright blue sky with scattered cloud.

My data service wasn’t working today. This meant Google Maps wasn’t working1 so I couldn’t get directions to any of the places on my cheat sheet (the mercado, probably a cathedral or some sort of scenic overlook, I don’t remember). We found a printed tourist map that helped a little. (After a few hours I eventually discovered my phone’s VPN was glitching – connected but showing not connected, but by that point a lot of wind had gone out of my sails.)

We didn’t have a plan for today anyway. Porto was further away using transit than we wanted to deal with, we were still lethargic from the jet lag, and the weather was gray with occasional misting rain. We explored the town at the port, Matosinhos, walking up and back down a main street.

A lime-green and yellow Metro do Porto light rail tram stopped on cobbled tram tracks running down a narrow Matosinhos street, with the nose of a second yellow tram at the left edge of the frame. The carriages carry idealista branding along their flanks. Older two- and three-story buildings line both sides -- weathered stucco and tile facades with roller shutters, one bearing a hand-lettered sign reading Atelier do BeBe. Overhead catenary wires cross the frame against a heavily overcast grey and white sky. A white VW estate car with the Portuguese plate 31PU89 is parked on the granite-paved sidewalk at right.

Looking down a long residential Matosinhos street paved in granite cobbles, tightly lined on both sides with parked cars carrying Portuguese plates. Mature plane trees arch overhead from both curbs, meeting in a dense green canopy that shades the roadway into the distance. Mid-rise apartment blocks in cream, brown, and grey render rise on either side with recessed balconies and shopfronts at street level -- a green awning at left reads Old Place em Escapes, and a white delivery van marked Casa Frut is parked further down. Patches of blue sky and white cloud show through the branches.

We did see this cursed Simpsons-KFC product. There was a KFC around the corner but when I tried to find it on the self-service kiosk it wasn’t there. Probably for the best. A glossy backlit street advertising panel on a Matosinhos sidewalk showing a KFC promotion tied to The Simpsons. The Colonel Sanders logo and KFC wordmark sit at the top; below, against a cartoon blue sky with white clouds, a photographed burger is topped with a pink sprinkled donut in place of the bun, stacked with fried chicken, bacon, and melted cheese. A yellow badge reads ROSQUI BURGER, and Homer Simpson's head appears in silhouette at the bottom. Portuguese fine print reads Sugestao de apresentacao publicitaria. A man in a green t-shirt, white shorts, dark cap, and crossbody bag walks past at the left, with parked cars and a modern concrete building behind.

Rowan and Sherri returned to the ship, as I wanted a local lunch and they weren’t keen. Siena, usually up for an adventure, tagged along with me. We found a restaurant near the cruise terminal entrance. Unfortunately, my glitching cell service meant I couldn’t check reviews first, and this one was not a winner. The service wasn’t especially friendly, and they’d somehow run out of the cured ham listed on their starter menu2. I’m not exaggerating when I say prices for anything beyond the starters were either €16 or €112, without much in between. We had bread and olives and made our way back toward the ship.

Siena and I took some photos from the top of the cruise terminal. Shot from inside the Leixoes terminal, looking out through an open doorway framed by walls tiled edge to edge in matte olive-grey hexagons. Siena stands centered in the bright doorway on the pale stone terrace outside, smiling at the camera, wearing a light blue ribbed tank top, grey athletic shorts, white sneakers, and sunglasses pushed up on her head, arms held slightly out from her sides. The open door leaf on the right is faced in white faceted panels. Beyond her, a white railing runs along the terrace edge, with the beach, the low white and tan apartment blocks of the waterfront, and a flat grey overcast sky in the distance.

Brian stands on the curved white terrace of the Leixoes cruise terminal, leaning back against its low white railing, smiling at the camera. He wears a horizontally striped polo shirt in navy, white, and pale blue, light grey shorts, a dark watch, navy sneakers with white socks, and sunglasses hooked on his collar. Behind him at left, the tiled sweep of the terminal's curved wall leads the eye to the Celebrity Apex moored alongside, its tiered glass-fronted balcony cabins stacked above the waterline and a red flag flying from the upper deck. To the right, small fishing boats sit moored in the harbor with port cranes, container stacks, and the town skyline beyond under a flat grey sky.

Overall, as you might be able to tell, we just weren’t feeling it. In hindsight we should’ve done Porto, of course. This port felt like a lackluster start to the cruise. So it goes.

In the evening, the entertainment was violinist Doug Cameron and his sons Alex and Sean.

Two violinists performing on a dark shipboard theater stage lit in deep red, with a band of vertical red light strips across the backdrop above them. At left, an older man in a flat cap, black waistcoat, white shirt, tie, and grey trousers holds a violin and bow at his sides, a moustache and slight smile on his face. At right, a much younger performer in a dark three-piece suit and patterned tie sings into a microphone, curly dark hair, holding his violin down by his hip. Behind them a keyboardist in a black shirt plays a red keyboard beside a grand piano, with sheet music stands, cables, and water bottles scattered across the stage floor.
Doug Cameron on the left, his son Alex on the right.

We established an early positive relationship with our stateroom attendant and were rewarded thusly:

A cruise ship stateroom bed after turndown service, shot in warm low light. Two plump white pillows are stacked against a padded grey headboard with four small dark foil-wrapped chocolates lined up neatly on top, and the white duvet is smoothed flat across the bed. A cylindrical shaded lamp glows on the light wood nightstand at left beside a white cabin telephone, a dark green insulated water bottle, and a small tablet propped in a stand; a folded towel sits on the shelf below. A second matching lamp stands at right, with a black TV remote on the far nightstand. The cabin walls are finished in vertical pale wood veneer panels.

The evening was nice. These were the evenings before we hit the hot and humid nights of southern Spain.

Dusk from an open-air bar at the stern of the ship, looking out over a calm Atlantic. The sky graduates from deep blue-violet overhead to a broad band of gold and amber at the horizon, with a low line of small dark clouds catching the last light and a faint glint of sun reflected on the water. In the foreground at right, a grey bar counter beaded with water is lit from beneath in electric blue, with a square black-framed lantern holding a glowing white pillar candle standing on it. Glass windbreak panels and a curved red-lit wall frame the left side, and dark wicker chairs sit at the right edge of the deck.

Footnotes:

  1. Yes, I know about offline maps in Google Maps. I always make a point to download maps for the areas we’ll be traveling. Actual use of them is always a bit hit-or-miss in my experience, often not having the level of detail needed. ↩

  2. A restaurant, in Portugal, running out of ham… that’s impressive. ↩

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