Porto - bus tour 1

Wednesday 11 September

Porto - bus tour 1

City centre, Ribeira, Gaia Quay, Casa de Musica, and Serraives

Wikipedia : "Porto , is the second-largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon, and one of the major urban areas in Southern Europe and the capital of the second major great urban area in Portugal. 

The history of Porto dates back to the 4th century, to the Roman occupation of the Iberian Peninsula. Celtic and Proto-Celtic ruins have been discovered in several areas, and their occupation has been dated to about 275 BC. During the Roman occupation, the city developed as an important commercial port, primarily in the trade between Olissipona (the modern Lisbon) and Bracara Augusta".

We had a good night's sleep and were down to breakfast by 9.00am.  What a great spread, I love the cold meats and slices of cheese, the little interesting containers of cream cheese, or is it butter, or marge or honey, the pictures on the top don't always tell the story, so take one of each the first day!  Croissants, Swiss roll,  little custard tarts (a speciality of Portugal), fresh selection of bread rolls. Yoghurt, fresh fruit, selection of cereals, then the hot stuff, frankfurter sausages cut up in pieces, bacon, baked beans, big tomato slices with cheese on them and scrambled egg.  Fresh eggs in a basket (not sure what to do with those), and thick slices of lovely white bread which you can toast if you want to.  Good strong coffee and hot milk if you want it, hot water for your camomile tea, your green tea or your magic herb tea - but NO English breakfast, what's with the flavoured tea, I can't start my day without my English breakfast tea.  However I managed.  So I tasted everything over the three days we were there, and I bought a small packet of English breakfast tea to have in my room.  

We bought our tickets for the "Yellow Bus" for two days and wandered out into the lovely hot sun.  Like Wellington, the streets are either uphill or downhill and there seems to be a constant wind.  Unlike Wellington, this wind is warm, in fact cooling to make the temperature very pleasant.  It was downhill to Av. dos Aliados where we got on the bus.  

This is the city centre and is surrounded by huge ornate buildings built in a time of affluence, the City Hall is very impressive and has been well maintained.  

Wikipedia : "In recent years, UNESCO recognised its historic centre as a World Heritage Site. Among the architectural highlights of the city, Porto Cathedral is the oldest surviving structure,

together with the small romanesque Church of Cedofeita, the gothic Igreja de São Francisco (Church of Saint Francis),

the remnants of the city walls and a few 15th-century houses. The baroque style is well represented in the city in the elaborate gilt work interior decoration of the churches of St. Francis and St. Claire (Santa Clara), the churches of Mercy (Misericórida) and of the Clerics (Igreja dos Clérigos),

the Episcopal Palace of Porto, and others. The neoclassicism and romanticism of the 19th and 20th centuries also added interesting monuments to the landscape of the city, like the magnificent Stock Exchange Palace (Palácio da Bolsa), the Hospital of Saint Anthony,

the Municipality, the buildings in the Liberdade Square and the Avenida dos Aliados...."

We caught the Yellow Bus at the bottom of the square and here was this statue/busker doing his 'thing' so David dropped a few coins in his toga and he bowed, took out his pipe and blew bubbles for us!  

The bus was on time, we had great seats at the top, plugged ourselves into the English commentary and we were away.  I took so many photos which were meaningful at the time, however I cannot remember the significance of everyone, but they bring back the flavour that for me was 

Porto.  

There are many beliefs regarding horse statue memorials and the meaning of raised legs. It is thought that a rearing horse that has both legs elevated indicates the rider died in battle. If only one leg is raised, the rider supposedly died later as a result of some type of wound. I love the class photo being taken with a homeless man asleep on the steps.  There are so many statues and fountains dotted around Porto.

This was the busiest shopping street in Porto, a mix of street stalls selling trinkets, leather goods, scarves, etc and fashion shops like Zara

This shop caught my eye and later we visited this street and bought a lovely tile there as a souvenir.

Surprises on street corners

This column celebrates the might of the English lion over the eagle.

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Porto is such a mixture, road works are everywhere, and, as in this picture, a concrete building has been built in the middle of some typical Portugese houses.  What were the city fathers thinking?

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So mixed in with the old is the new, the following photo is the Casa da Musica, (Concert Hall) which holds concerts and has a busy agenda of events.

Avenida da Boavista,  along this avenue were some lovely Art Deco houses which were built by people wanting to be near the beaches and still within easy reach of the city centre.

There are popular beaches along both sides of the River Douro

Then we went over the Pont St Luis to Gaia Quay

We got off the bus at Cockburn Cellars to take advantage of our free 'tastings' of Port, 

Wikipedia : "Wine, produced in the Douro valley, was already in the 13th century transported to Porto in barcos rabelos (flat sailing vessels). In 1703 the Methuen Treaty established the trade relations between Portugal and England. In 1717, a first English trading post was established in Porto. The production of port wine then gradually passed into the hands of a few English firms. To counter this English dominance, Prime Minister Marquis of Pombal established a Portuguese firm receiving the monopoly of the wines from the Douro valley. He demarcated the region for production of port, to ensure the wine's quality; this was the first attempt to control wine quality and production in Europe. The small winegrowers revolted against his strict policies on Shrove Tuesday, burning down the buildings of this firm. The revolt was called Revolta dos Borrachos (revolt of the drunks)."

We sampled a 10yr old tawny port and a 2yr old ruby wine.  There was a vast difference between the two, we had also sampled a white port in the hotel the night before, so we were pretty expert at spotting good ports!!  Of course we bought a couple of bottles to have in our room as aperitifs before having dinner!  There is not a lot of room for tour buses to pass each other outside these cellars, the tiny roads are steep and windy.

We then wandered down to the restaurant area to have lunch.  There was a small market by the beach and I stopped to look at some scarves, the seller came and had a chat, her English was pretty good, so between trying everything and having her show me how to twist and turn the scarves in the most fashionable way, I bought some for myself and Penelope, Hannah and Rachel.  They included a pendant 'tie' which suited the one for me, but she took me over to her 'friend' in the next stall who rummaged through all his pendants to find suitable ones for the girls and they created something smaller and prettier for them.  It was such fun, and David was very patient, in fact he bought some spinning tops for the boys!

I took this picture outside the restaurant it's looking over to the north bank, the cathedral tower is top right.

These gondolas run from the top of the bridge to the centre of the south bank where the cellars and restaurants are.

We then hopped back on the bus to finish the tour and the view above is of the city of the north bank , and the Clerigos Tower can be seen standing in the middle.  

Wikipedia: "Between 1732 and 1763, Italian architect Nicolau Nasoni designed a baroque church with a tower that would become its architectural and visual icon: the Torre dos Clérigos (English: Clerics Tower). During the 18th and 19th centuries the city became an important industrial centre and saw its size and population increase."

The industrialisation of the south bank saw an increase in factories and employees and so the need for new apartments grew, this is the look of the more modern Porto.

This a huge department store El Corte Ingles that was built relatively recently and has become a Mecca for the tourist, they offer 'duty free' shopping, and considering that shopping is cheaper in Porto even with 23% VAT, it's an offer worth considering.  This store is one of the projects which has encouraged population growth in the wider conurbation of Porto.

Wikipedia : "Many of the city's oldest houses are at risk of collapsing. The population in Porto municipality dropped by nearly 100,000 since the 1980s, but the number of permanent residents in the outskirts and satellite towns has grown strongly."

On the way back we saw this huge fire on the other side of Porto.  We didn't find out what happened, but the smoke was over the city, and was still affecting the city the next day.

So we had a drop of port when we got back to our hotel room, put our feet up for a while, and then went down to the bar and ordered a light snack for our dinner.  Big breakfast, large lunch, not much exercise............  Looks like the same tomorrow.....