June 2026 – Porto – Offsite in Portugal

A five-day offsite brought me to Portugal for the first time in my life in June 2026. I must confess that I tend to avoid warmer countries. When I go on holiday, I'm usually drawn north, and my wish list still holds quite a few Nordic destinations. All the more, this was a welcome opportunity to get to know Porto.

After the late landing on Sunday, we first moved into our apartments and took a first evening stroll through the city. The gigantic bridges holding Porto together and the very lively riverbanks already made an impressive first impression as dusk fell. It is in the evening, especially, that the city unfolds a very special atmosphere.

During that first walk, however, it also became clear to me that Portuguese cuisine doesn't exactly match my usual eating habits. But there was no getting past the little Pastéis de Nata with their vanilla filling. And so a small indulgence quickly became a daily ritual.

Since I got up early during the offsite as well, I used the morning hours for small runs through Porto. That way, I could discover the city piece by piece. At the same time, I used the time for shopping. To sort my thoughts for the day ahead, I've made it a habit to cook something small for everyone. So on Monday, there were pancakes first – the way I learned to make them from my mum. Since colleagues from Berlin and the surrounding area were there, the most important question naturally had to be settled first: are these actually "Pfannkuchen" or "Eierkuchen"?

The workdays were well filled, and on Monday we didn't head to dinner until around 10 p.m. Let's be clear: that was not my rhythm at all. So on the following days, I simply ate earlier and preferred to use the evenings to walk around the city a bit more. Porto kept showing itself from its most beautiful side – with narrow alleys, small cafés and a very special flair.

The following days were shaped by work, pasta salad, watermelon salad and, of course, pancakes once more. Add to that plenty of sun, the sea, beautiful people, narrow alleys and – to make this clear once again – of course work as well.

A particular highlight was the visit to the tradition-steeped sardine factory Pinhais in Matosinhos. There we were given a tour of the production and could afterwards sample various sardines. With a few tins of sardines and some typical Portuguese house tiles in our luggage, we finally headed back to Germany.

What pleased me most, though, was that we not only completed our entire work agenda as a team, but I also got to learn quite a bit about vibe coding. It was exciting to see how quickly ideas can be tried out and implemented with the new tools.

And so Porto will stay in my memory above all as a city of impressive bridges, lively waterfronts, plenty of sun, a relaxed atmosphere and surprisingly many Pastéis de Nata. And although Portugal wasn't exactly high on my list before, I'm glad I made this trip. Sometimes it's precisely the places you didn't really have on your radar that stay with you the most.