Porto Day 2

November 23, 2024

Another full day of exploring Porto! We were very happy with our decision to spend 3 nights here.

After granola and yogurt and juice in our apartment, we went off in search of coffee. I don't know if I'd mentioned it, but we are coffee snobs in our individual ways. It's unlikely that any coffeemaker provided in a tourist apartment will ever make the grade, and Al has started pining already for our fancy machine at home. So I let him decide where we should go and which way. He took a scenic route, I suspect, but I didn't track it...

The Clérigos tower is the star attraction here. This is the same plaza where I took yesterday's trolley photo; we had coffee yesterday in one of the little places on the right. We have walked maybe 100 metres from our apartment door.

After passing through a few blocks that had been updated, we continued through an area that was in progress. Beautiful buildings worthy of restoration.

"I think we turn right, here," says Al, but I said I needed to get a better look at that yellow building.

Not far from the yellow building, after we'd turned right, we saw this little gothic church across the street. Had it not looked locked up behind its iron fence, I would have tried the door.

Stalled progress. The round yellow sign says "Almada: Bistro, Concept Store, Co-Working" but not even this collection of buzzwords could save somebody's business. We saw many "concept store" signs walking around Porto, always in English, and never what we thought a "concept store" might be.

A bike shop in central Porto! But no, despite the wheels and bike in the window, it appears this is currently a pizza place.

We finally arrived at Al's chosen café: Guarany. It's one of the famous old cafés in Porto; the others include the Imperial (sadly, now a McDonald's outlet) and the Majestic, all on or near Avenida dos Aliados. Another, A Brasileira, we had walked by yesterday on our way to São Bento, but we'd already had our coffee and didn't crave another.

When the café was restored in 2003, artist Graça Morais was commissioned to create “The Lords of Amazonia”, the diptych on the left. It highlights the South American theme of this coffeehouse.

MIrror selfie taken to catch the server in her classic uniform.

Now caffeinated, we were off to check out Al's second idea.

I mentioned the gauze-protected azulejos on Igreja do Carmo yesterday, but that's only one side of the church. Here's the front façade--which would look better without the cheap dangling holiday lights, imo.

Eventually our route took us out of the usual tourist area, though we passed more than one fancy hotel on our way advertising itself as five-star along Rua da Restauração.

Watch our for trolleys on Rua da Restauração! They go both ways on these tracks.

The other side of Rua da Restauração has a gallery/retaining wall and street art.

We soon reached the walkway along the Douro River and saw our destination. Al had seen some write-ups about the Porto Bridge Climb. I hadn't heard about it but there it is on Google Maps: Ponte da Arrábida, Arch bridge with climbing tours.

From the tour operator's website:

In 1963, the Arrábida Bridge was the largest concrete arch in the world.
[In] 2016, the arch became the only one in Europe that is open to visitors. It is a unique opportunity to have access to a building that has been closed to the public for 53 years (despite some clandestine visits...).

Together with a guide and all the safety equipment, even those with who are afraid of heights can climb one of the most iconic buildings in Porto.
At the top, 65 meters above the river, a quiet and relaxing place to enjoy unique views... and a delicious surprise.

Al had read some stuff about doing it independently but apparently it's actually required to go with a guide. Okay, we could do that. He also thought we could cross the river here and walk back on the south bank. He hadn't read the FAQs--tours start and finish on the north side. We could accept that too. The problem was that the first tour was at 2:30 in the afternoon and we were there around 11 in the morning. There is no information at the site other than the name and no mention of the actual schedule on the website; I only found out a day later in response to my question. On the day, we thought maybe it was closed for the season because it certainly looked it.

So we turned around and walked back.

Some cormorants in the Douro. I don't think I've ever seen one with pale breast before but maybe I just never noticed?

Vila Nova de Gaia and various kinds of tour boats. I didn't get a photo of the tour helicopter but we walked past the heliport on our way to the Ponte de Arrábida.

We did walk on a bridge, the Viaduto do Cais das Pedras. The No. 1 trolley route stays on shore.

I don't think this vintage crane is used anymore. The warehouse it once served now houses exhibitions and is attached to a transportation history museum (different than the trolley/tram museum which we had passed about a kilometre back).

Porto streetscape. The street seems to have been levelled after the buildings were constructed, probably when the tram line was built.

Perhaps fittingly, we had lunch at the Tram Restaurante. I had wanted to go to the Tram/Trolley museum but Al didn't and I knew I'd be dragging him through another museum this afternoon.

As an aside: I was confused about Rick Steves' distinctions between trolleys and trams in his Portugal guidebook but apparently the words are essentially interchangeable and Rick is showing his Seattle roots.

I'd say tram but people from the US West Coast will say trolley. Whatever, they are iconic in Porto and Lisbon, though there are only 3 routes remaining in Porto. I think the locals just take the bus.

After lunch we headed off to Vila Nove de Gaia, famous for its many port lodges.

It's not real port unless it's made with grapes from specified areas upstream in the Douro valley, but there are many makers of real port.

Yesterday, when we bought our tickets for the tour and tasting at Taylor's Port, we were offered and accepted a two-for deal. It was 20€ each for the Taylor's tour but we could get admission to any one of the six other attractions at WOW Porto for an additional 10€ each. Each one individually is 20€ so we decided we'd visit The Wine Experience today.

From the WOW website: WOW was born from renovated old Port wine warehouses, that have given rise to a district containing seven museums, twelve restaurants and bars, shops, and a wine school. It's very well done.

WOW started as World of Wine, which you can see on each flight of steps if you look closely, though I missed the W and O on the closest one. Two of the museums are about chocolate and cork, one is art, one is history, so I guess the acronym became the name.

View of Porto from one of the terraces at WOW.

The Wine Experience is great but I was suffering information overload by the time I got to the Portugal-specific section. I'd go again if I get back to Porto.

This is the women's washroom, which I visited before starting the Experience proper. Al didn't take a photo in the men's.

Audioguides were available but we saw nobody using them. All the information about cultivation of wine grapes, making wine, etc. was posted in English and Portuguese and, in an unusual exception from most European museums we've visited, was written in easy-to-read yet informative language, rather than the usual academic jargon.

I didn't take many photos until I got to the room with information about each of the wine grape varieties. An artist had been commissioned to provide comic illustrations about each one, with information about its different names, what the grapes looked like, where it was grown, and what styles of wine it was used for. Here are a few of my favourites:

Touriga Francesa, one of the grapes used for Port

Then there were a series of small rooms devoted to the wine regions of Portugal, presented as shopfronts along a street. Even the finishes of the streetscapes were recognizable.

The tour included a tasting, of course! This time, though, it was with a host who collected all the English-speaking visitors to taste together. We were each given three wines from the Douro region and led through how to taste them (the same info as at any such tasting for the general public). We had a white, a red, and a LBVP, the same one as yesterday.

We browsed through the shop and then exited into an unexpected crowd.

Yesterday, we had noticed that things were being set up for a Christmas event. WOW, É Natal had just opened or would open imminently and the outdoor terraces were jam-packed with local families. They had been empty when we had arrived a couple of hours earlier. Although it was Saturday, the event didn't get underway until after dark (which of course comes early at this time of year). We squeezed our way out and walked back to our apartment hoping we'd be back in Porto someday.

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Suzanne GibsonStellar photos, Jacquie!
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2 weeks ago

Jacquie GaudetTo Suzanne GibsonThanks, Suzanne! You and Scott and others set a pretty high bar.
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2 weeks ago