Porto - Day 2

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The gulls are very vocal here in Porto and the soundtrack is making us feel like we are in an episode of Wycliffe. Visually, though, the sights are nothing at all like Cornwell, ha, ha.

This morning we ventured out heading in the general direction of the Igreja and Torre dos Clerigos. It is easy to be distracted though. First by the city’s magnificent Câmara Municipal do Porto (town hall) and then by São Bento Station. The station was on our list, but not on our list for today because our spreadsheet said it was closed on Sunday. It wasn’t, so we went in to take photos of its beautifully tiled front hall. Designed by Jorge Colaço in 1930, around 20,000 blue and white tiles depict historic battles and the history of transport.

Next we were distracted, confused and misdirected by major construction works. A vast area is barricaded off (Bernie thinks he read somewhere that they are extending the Metro?) and we had to try to find our way around it. Not to worry there were beautiful buildings everywhere so we just kept admiring the architecture as we continued meandering towards the church and tower.

Eventually, after not too many wrong turns, we arrived at the Igreja & Torre dos Clerigos and joined the queue to climb the tower. The church and the tower were designed by Italian-born master Nicolau Nasoni in the mid-1700s with the baroque tower rising 76-metres to provide outstanding views over all of Porto. The tour also took us right around the upper levels of the church and we were very lucky to have the pipe organ being played as we explored.

Next we happened upon the Igreja do Carmo where we could see people on the roof so we headed in to explore yet another church. The Igreja do Carmo was built right beside the Igreja das Carmelitas and in between the two there is a hidden house. This very narrow hidden house was all that separated the monks of Carmo from the Carmelite nuns.

Yesterday on our cruise we spied a tower overlooking the river from a huge garden. As we were in the queue for the Torre dos Clerigos Bernie was trying to find it on Google Maps eventually deciding that it was probably in the gardens of the Jardins do Palácio Cristal. After the twin churches Bernie asked Google Maps to navigate to the tower in gardens … or something like that? So, good old Google had us head off along the tram route that goes down the hill on the Rua da Restauração.

We spotted the Miradouro Ignez which seemed as good a place as any to have some lunch although when we walked in there was no menu displayed so we had to ask to check if they actually served food. Yes, of course, we were told, take a seat. We sat at a table with a beautiful view of the river and the girl came over and dropped a QR code on our table and left without a word of explanation. OK, thank goodness we’re savvy enough to know about accessing the menu from a QR code on the table.

And, yes, we could have done that BUT our bloody phones had lost their ability to connect to the internet AGAIN. We are getting a bit sick of going on and offline all the time and especially the fact that we seem to be offline when we most need to be on??! We mucked around trying to connect with Bernie giving up and going to ask if we could have an actual menu just as my phone brought up the stupid menu. I have absolutely no idea how I connected, but all of a sudden there was the menu on my phone.

We ordered ham, Brie and arugula (rocket) sandwiches and waited and waited and waited for them to arrive. Seriously, how long does it take to make a ham and cheese sandwich? Finally our sandwiches arrived and they were pretty average. Obviously the restaurant operates on the basis that the view will bring the customers and they don’t have to try too hard to do good food!!

While we were eating Bernie mentioned that Google Maps was saying only 200 metres to go to the tower. I HATE FN GOOGLE MAPS!! We left the restaurant and walked down the hill for another 200 metres and there we were looking up at the tower about 50 metres above us!!!!! To say I was unimpressed would be a massive understatement.

I pulled out the actual map in the guide book in my bag. Well, there’s the problem we should have entered the gardens at the main entrance up on Rua Dom Manuel II and then walked down through the gardens to the tower. Why, why, why would Google Maps take us to the arse end of nowhere looking at the bottom of the tower from outside the gardens instead of into the gardens??

So there’s this lane that goes up the other side of the gardens and Bernie says am I happy to try to get to the main gate going that way? At this point it’s like the same difference whether we go back around the way we’ve already come or try going up said lane. We started up the lane which was heading in the right direction BUT it smelled like a toilet! Yuck!

Finally, finally! we found our way to the main entrance to the Jardins do Palácio Cristal. The Crystal Palace is long gone having been replaced in 1956 with the Pavilhão Rosa Mota a domed, multi-purpose event space. The gardens are made up of a collection of small, themed gardens that spill down towards the river. This weekend the gardens were hosting a book fair so it was really very busy. We wandered around the gardens, gradually making our way down the hill to the tower. Thank goodness it was worth the effort with beautiful views of the Rio Douro and especially good views along to the Ponte da Arrábida. The other thing that made it all worthwhile was seeing some peahens with their chicks. We’ve never seen peachicks before so that was interesting!

After some debate about whether to visit the Palacio da Bolsa this afternoon or return to the apartment we decided to head to the palace having decided that it was sort of on the way back to the apartment anyway. We arrived at the palace and even coming up five in the afternoon there was a queue.The queue didn’t seem too bad although it was arranged a bit Disneyland-style to keep you from being able to see just how long it really was.

The queue was moving along reasonably well BUT then we reached the point where we could actually see the cashiers AND the screen saying that a guided tour is mandatory and the next English-speaking tour is at 5.15pm. Hmmn, are we going to make it to the cashier by 5.15pm? It is going to be touch and go and if we miss the 5.15pm tour the next English-speaking tour is not until 6.15pm. What we can’t understand is the English-speaking tour is only 66% full, why aren’t they fast-tracking tourists who want the tour in English to fill the next tour??

Of course we make it to the ticketing point at 5.18pm and it’s no, you’ve missed the tour. Fine, we’ll come back another day. Seriously, we could see the 5.15pm tour still in the courtyard getting the introduction surely they could have snuck us on to the tour? Oh well, they have their rules I suppose and Porto’s most inefficient ticketing system selling tickets for tours in half an hour or three quarters of an hour BEFORE they sell tickets for the next tour. Weird.

After that time wasting exercise we had to slog our way back up the hill to our apartment and I was exhausted! I had been going OK, but I think it was a case of having to climb one hill too many by the time we reached the apartment. I flaked out on the bed, Bernie took some washing to the laundromat.

Most of the nearby restaurants are closed on Sunday nights, but we managed to get a table at the The Grill Place Restaurant down near the corner. Thank goodness! I don’t think I could have managed to venture much further than the corner.



Steps: 20,260 (13.37 kms)

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