Cheers from Porto....

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Well, I did have to consume some of the local product. As they same, when in Rome.....

Anyway, Porto rocks! Again, the architecture was beautiful and Porto had the extra advantage of being on the river Douro and therefore was even more picturesque than either Lisbon or Sintra. I had a short cruise along the river, called the 5 bridges tour for obvious reasons, and later tasted some good and not so good ports at 3 cellar doors. For some reason they seem to be big fans of chilled white port. Sweet or dry, neither is to my liking. The tawny and ruby ports, however, were worth the wait. I also did a tour at Taylor’s cellar door which was interesting. The vineyards are well up the river, Porto is simply the storage facility so it was all about the barrels and the end product.

Also visited the odd church just for something different.

I found the most magnificent bookshop, Lello, celebrating 100 years in 2006. It had an amazing staircase in the centre of the store that wound up and around. It was like something out of a fairytale. Just one of the great finds when wandering the streets!

I stayed in an interesting hotel. It had the old fashioned elevator, the kind with the 2 doors (a la the movie 'Charade'), and was basically art deco throughout. Not what I expected in Porto.

Had a day trip to Braga to see their cathedral and the Bom Jesus. The cathedral was lovely, the tour was even better. Nothing like a quiet day in May where only one English speaker wants a tour. As a result, I believe the tour went for much longer than it should have. I saw some interesting artefacts including a 10th century container made of ivory (with very intricate carving) that was used to store diamonds and rubies. Also an iron cross used for the first mass in Brazil following its discovery 506 years ago. Finally, one chapel contained the tombs of the ‘parents’ of Portugal, being the parents of Portugal’s first king, Alfonso Henrique. The tour guide was naturally very proud of this.

The Bom Jesus was all about many sets of stairs and the church at the top was not actually worth the effort. However, the stairs were really interesting and the views over Braga were great.

Form here, I am going back to Madrid and then onto a few Spanish cities before I start the Morocco trip. Stay tuned.

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Photos

Porto - the central square
Porto is on the move. Lots of construction going on in the city. This is one of the few shots that I was able to get without the interference of fencing and construction workers.

The River Douro
View of the more famous of the 5 bridges with the old style boats used to transport the port in the foreground.

The River Douro 2
Another vista, this time across the river Douro from Gaia to Porto.

Se Cathedral
Never quite as special from the outside but I have the memories of the interior.

Bom Jesus
The final set of stairs on the way to the Bom Jesus. I walked the stairs. That is, I did not follow the pilgrim way of making my way on my knees.

View over Braga
From the top of the stairs at the Bom Jesus.

Comments

[meg]

mmmm porto
drank many a bottle of port in porto! scene of a number of quality hangovers :) still sounds like you are having a terrrrrrrrible time - not! keep the updates coming

[Mary]

Aussies in Paris
I sent you an email and forgot to mention that my friend and I got talking to an Aussie couple on the sidewalk on the Champs Elysees in Paris and discovered they grew up in Torquay! Now how small is this world?