Obligada a Porto!

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Saturday September 20:
Arrived in Porto at 8am, only to find out that Portugal is in a different time zone an hour ahead of Spain! At 7am on Saturday, nothing was open, so we found a nice park to sit in and eat the sandwiches that our host families had prepared for us. In Portugal we realized that we didn’t know the name or address of the hostal we had booked (oops! Live and learn, I guess). We found our way to the historic Ribeira District on the river and explored a bit before finding our way to an internet café to look-up the info that we needed to find the hostal. While exploring we walked along the Ponte de Dom Luis I (bridge) that was inspired by the Eiffel Tower; it gave us a great view of the city on both sides of the River. Similar to San Francisco, walking in Porto is an uphill/downhill workout, luckily they have an electric trolley. Many of the apartments and buildings are decorated with painted tiles, red tiled roofs, and tons of flowers. On one side of the river, there are restaurants, shops, churches and monuments; on the other, the port wineries that they call “caves” (I thought we were actually going to wine caves, but they are just normal buildings with huge cellars). The Rio Douro still has the traditional boats that the port companies used to export their goods. Once we had found our hostal and met the other group of API girls, we walked down to the Rio again for lunch and a boat cruise that took us to see each of the 6 bridges. We also got a very distant glimpse of the beach, but we never went to see it. The boat dropped us off on the Vila Nova de Gaia side of the river and gave us tickets to visit the Port Wine Lodge “Croft” were took a tour of the “cave” and sampled a (small!) tasting. We had dinner near the Rio that night (veggie soup, bread, fried fish, salad, fries, and cheesecake - it was called the “tourist dinner.”) and a group of Portuguese women serenaded us, though I have no idea what they sang.

Sunday, September 21:
Free breakfast had the hostal was delicious - fresh rolls, cheese, jam and coffee. I went out to look for a church with a morning mass and happened upon an open air market bustling with people. When I went to check it out I found that all the vendors were selling … birds - everything from tiny canaries to partridges and all the acoutrements necessary for bird ownership. I even found some for as little as 6euro - I hope everyone likes their souvenirs from Portugal!
I found a 10 o’clock mass and I was just on time. Unfortunately I didn’t get much out of the Portuguese mass, but I think I get points with God for going! The church was very pretty with lots of gold decoration, statues, paintings - but there wasn’t any music and hardly any people - I found that a little strange. After mass, I met up with the girls again and we climbed the 225 steps of the tower Torre dos Clerigos, the highest point in Porto, to get a view of the city. Then we hiked up to The Garden of the Cristal Palace where there was once a World Expo. Now the “Cristal Palace” has been converted into an indoor sports arena, but the extensive gardens were beautiful. Every time we thought we’d reached the end, a new pathway brought us to another garden. Since the garden brought us downhill, we caught the trolley back uphill but missed our stop - so we rode it twice!
I have pictures of everything - I think you all would have enjoyed Porto!

*Obligada is the Portuguese word that I learned for “thank-you” since I had to ask so many locals for directions to different places. While Spanish is somewhat similar to Portuguese, I didn’t encounter anyone who spoke Spanish. A lot of the Portuguese spoke English and many of the tourist signs were in English - thank goodness!

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Photos

On Ponte Dom Luis
Though you can't see it behind me, the view from this bridge was spectacular. The bridge connects Porto (the city) to Gaia (the wine side).

Seagulls
They were everywhere since we were so close to the ocean.

Lots of steps
Allison and Sarah climbing down towards the riverwalk through the neighborhoods.

Pirates and Aliens
We saw this play performed in the park. It was about Pirates and Aliens - I don't know much else since it was in Portuguese. Luckily, a lot of people in Porto spoke English.

River boats
Each Port company used to have their boats lined up on the Rio Douro to export their barrels of port - the boats are still there, but I don't think their used anymore.

Tour Boat
We took a tour of the Rio Douro to see each of the six bridges of Porto.

Waiting...
For the boat to arrive

Croft Wine Lodge
Our tour boat gave us coupons for a free tour and tasting at Croft, then dropped us off on that side of the river - so we had to go!

Tram over the Ponte
The bridge has two levels, the lower for cars and pedestrians, the top for the tram.

Distant view of the Ocean
From our boat we could just see the Atlantic - but we never got any closer.

Tiles
Many of the buildings in Porto were decorated with painted tiles, like this church. You can also see all the wires used for the old-fashioned trolley.

Retirement home, anybody?
Here's a cute fixer-upper, tiled, and in the countryside. I'm sold!

On the way to Croft
We had to walk uphill quite a way so it was good that they had signs to guide us.

Sampling at Croft
It was only a few sips - no need to worry! After the educational tour, we had a taste of the vintage reserve port.

Education
Since there aren't any vineyards in Porto (just wine cellars), the guide had to show us pictures of how they make the port - with their feet!

Our Guide
In front of the huge barrel.

Lights of Porto
The Festival of Porto had just ended when we arrived so they still had their lights up.

At dinner
In the background is the group of Portuguese singers that entertained the restaurants guests that night.

Hostel
Kind of sparse, but all I needed was a bed. Mine was the top bunk, the girl beneath me was staying there for weeks.