We took so many photos today! Just deciding which ones to post is exhausting so I waited until I'd been home almost a week. I don't think I even bothered asking Al for any of his pics.
What a day! We had granola, yogurt, and juice in our apartment and then went out for coffee and a pastry (we're fussy about coffee and prefer espresso drinks with hot milk in the morning). Then we thought we’d follow Rick Steves’ walking tour but kept getting distracted. This city is full of interesting things to look at!
Mayor's Apartments, where we are staying in Porto, is very close to the Clérigos church and its iconic tower--and one of the stops for Tram 18. We didn't take a tram ride in Porto.
Livreria Lello, one of the most beautiful bookstores in the world, but apparently not the inspiration for the Hogwarts Library or Flourish & Blotts in the Harry Potter books. Though I'd love to see the interior (I've seen photos), I didn't want to stand in the queue. And there's always a queue, a crowd inside, and buskers outside.
Praça da Liberdade is all dug up for construction of a new Metro line. At home, it's trees that are protected during construction; here, it's the statue of Dom Pedro IV. Behind is the Palacio Das Cardosas, once a convent, now a 5-star hotel. Room rates are still over 200€ per night during construction, though.
Walking along the grand boulevard of Avenida dos Aliados, my eye was caught by this statue. I love her expression and that of the demons(?) she's sitting on. I think this is a fountain when the lower end of the street is not a giant construction site.
Over-the-top architecture on the Banco de Porto building, Avenida dos Aliados. The statues under the triangular roof are protected (from birds?) by netting.
At the other end of the Avenida dos Aliados is the Câmara Municipal do Porto (city hall). It's a relatively modern building, with construction starting in 1920 and fully completed in 1955.
We finally worked our way past the construction hoardings to the São Bento railway station, another of Porto's most famous buildings.
At this point, waiting to cross the street, we weren't sure this was the São Bento station behind the waiting pedestrians. It was. No entry this side, though. In fact, getting in and out was challenging due to the construction and we were glad we hadn't arrived here with our bikes.
Once you find your way inside, though, it's not a disappointment. All the walls of the entrance hall are covered in tile murals and I could have stayed in there for quite a while looking at them. Lots of tour groups!
Azulejos, São Bento railway station. Some were covered in a sort of muslin (you can see it torn at the lower left corner) so the designs can't be seen as clearly as I'd like. We noticed this on the exterior of the Carmo church too.
Instead, we walked up Rua das Flores, a tourist street we found ourselves returning to multiple times. Not on purpose, but it's a pedestrianized street that connects areas of interest.
Before we got to the river, we came to the "Church and Museum of São Francisco, the Gold Church" as it's called on the brochure Al bought when he bought our tickets. I don't think he realized it wasn't free and that it was optional, but what's one more Euro when admission was 10€ each?
There were actually two churches. The Church of the Convent of São Francisco of Porto was originally built by Franciscan friars around 1250 but remodelled in the "Mendicant Gothic" style in 1383, with "clean bare lines and a very particular luminosity" according to the brochure. There are certainly no clean bare lines left now--everything inside is covered in gilded carvings. So much for the Franciscan ideals of poverty and charity! No photos because photography was forbidden inside.
After the dissolution of male religious orders in Portugal in 1834, the convent church was handed over to the Venerable Third Order of Saint Francis of Porto and opened to the public a year later. I've been seeing references to the "Third Order" in Portuguese churches and now I know what it means. From Wikipedia: Francis founded the Third Order, originally called the Brothers and Sisters of Penance, in 1221, to accommodate men and women who, either from already being in consecrated life as hermits, or from being married, were ineligible to join the Franciscan First or Second Orders, respectively.
The other church is that of the Third Order, built in 1795 in a neoclassicaal design. It looked almost boring after the Gold Church. The catacombs were interesting, however. No photography permitted there either.
Rua do Reboleira ends at Larga do Terreiro and this view. The closest bridge, with upper and lower decks, is Ponte de Dom Luís I. The equally famous Ponte de Dona Maria Pia can just be seen further upstream, beyond the concrete arch bridge.
The street shown above is closed to cars and lined with restaurants on one side and kiosks on the other. Each restaurant had its touts out front and many buskers were set up between the kiosks. This would have been okay (though not my cup of tea) but all the buskers were amplified, seemingly in competition with their neighbours and everything else. Too noisy for me! We carried on to the Dom Luís I Bridge and found a bar/restaurant hiding behind the Pilares da Ponte Pênsil. You can see the concrete pillars on the left side of the photo--they are not part of the steel bridge! Fantastic location and our lunch was good too. We were looking for something light so Al had a salad (with tuna) and I had a wrap.
We ended up having lunch almost below the Dom Luís I bridge, at a bar/restaurant. Someday I'll get better at selfies but I'll include this to give you an idea of the location.
After lunch, we walked across the Ponte Luís I to Vila Nova de Gaia, home of a large concentration of port lodges with the intention of doing a tour and tasting.
The views from the bridge are fantastic, even though we were only on the lower level. There's very little traffic on the bridge, just the occasional car, bike, or scooter.
Looking back at Porto from Vila Nova de Gaia. The riverside street isn't quite as crazy on this side, but it is lined with kiosks. It's not closed to cars but there are very few. There was also this fellow selling roasted chestnuts. We saw carts like this (and their clouds of smoke) in all the urban centres.
Another look back to Porto and the Dom Luís I Bridge. The boats in the foreground are tour boats, modelled on the river boats formerly used to bring casks of port to the port lodges of Vila Nova de Gaia for aging.
We opted to visit Taylor’s Port, which offered a self-directed visit with audio guide followed by tastings of two styles of port (their choice, not yours). It was very well done and I enjoyed it a lot. Al, well, I always get more out of these things than he does but I know for sure he liked the tasting part.
The size of container (cask or vat) affects the speed of aging by exposure to air and wood and different containers are used for different styles of port. White ports and fruity red ports, including late-bottled vintage ports, age for a short time in big vats, while tawny ports are aged in casks. Vintage ports age for a couple of years in vats and complete their aging in bottles, but those are too expensive for the likes of us!
Our tour included a taste of Chip Dry white port (which didn't excite me) and LVBP (late-bottled vintage port) which I quite liked.
A woman from Colorado, touring Taylor's with her family, offered to take a photo for me after watching me struggle with a selfie. All four of them were wearing puffies; Al would have fit right in.
After a brief break in our room, we headed out to an Italian restaurant for dinner. We shared a roasted vegetable salad, bread and olives, then each had a pasta dish. The pasta sauces were very rich, much more so than I can remember having before. We waddled back (again). We will be eating much lighter starting Tuesday with airplane food (but after the hotel buffet breakfast).
Something bicycle-related! Seen on our way back to our apartment.
Theresa DaviesEnjoyed your journal and photos, thanks. Glad you’re back safe and that your trip was a great success! Reply to this comment 2 weeks ago
Jacquie GaudetTo Rachael AndersonIt was actually the least stressful trip that wasn't a direct flight! Allowing lots of time always helps. Reply to this comment 2 weeks ago
