On the trail of Harry Potter, Rowling's Porto inspiration

Best-selling author wrote some of the books while teaching English in Portugal's second city

It feels as if time has stood still at Lello, a Gothic Revival style bookstore in the historic centre of Porto, whose heady "olde worlde" ambiance inspired some of the scenes for Harry Potter.

It was in Portugal's second city that author J. K. Rowling let her imagination off the leash during two years spent teaching English in the northern town, spending her free time writing early drafts of the Harry Potter books, the seven-volume global blockbuster that made her a literary household name.