Beautiful Porto

We were not in Porto for long before we fell in love with it. Not only did we score a cheap room in a nice hotel - a huge step up from camping in army rows - but there were hills! Not something we get to see much of in London or Europe, but very much apart of our daily live back in NZ.

We headed down to the Ribeira district on the edge of the River Douro. The area was so beautiful, full of old colourful building with bright paint and tiles along both sides of the river.

We grabbed an ice-cream and walked along the river edge to cross one of the many steel bridges to ‘Villa Nova de Gaia’ on the other side, which is known for its many wine lodges.
We got offered some free wine tasting at one of the fancy lodges. It was so nice I ended up buying some to lug around for the rest of the trip!

We went searching for the Sé Cathedral and found ourselves walking up narrow, steep walkways right past people’s front door, there really isn’t much privacy in the old towns.
The low sun was pouring in through the large circular stained glassed window over the ornate alter of gold and bronze which was covered with sculptures and carvings, and gave the place quite a magical feeling.

The next day we went to the ‘Torre dos Clērigos’ church and climbed the tower, which is the tallest in Portugal, to get sweeping views across the countless orange roofs and down to the River Douro.

We walked down to the Palacio de Cristal to see the formal gardens, and then up the street to ‘Monumento A Guerra Peninsular’ at the large garden round-a-bout: Praca Mousinho de Albuquerque, before catching a bus to the contemporary art museum that Leah had been waiting to go to since we arrived in Porto.
However, it became obvious quite quickly that this was not what we had in mind!
i.e. room after room full of things that Leah thinks her primary school kids could do. But, they did have a room where the entire floor revolved - that was pretty cool.
We had a look through the park with high expectations, given the lack of interesting stuff in the museum itself. However, the sculptures were just as stupid as the rest and found ourselves leaving early.

But bright skies are ahead and we went the beach! We were quite happy walking along with the sand between our toes until Leah found an empty syringe container in the sand - shoes went back on immediately! Ekk!

We had a look at the ‘Forte de Sāo Franciso Xavier castelo do Queio’ an old fort on the edge of the coastline, before headed back to the city to find a great Chinese restaurant for dinner! Yum!

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