Fun Exploring Porto

We flew directly from Terceira to Porto and jumped right into sightseeing. It is a compact but hilly historic center, so we earned our steps! We really enjoyed the town and found that four solid days gave us enough time to really explore.

Wandering

We had fun walking through lots of little back alleys. We also found many tiny/narrow houses, but the pink one on the lower left was one of the smallest. We wonder how the rooms can even fit furniture.

Imperial McDonald’s

Although we did not eat there, Porto has one one of the fanciest McDonald’s in the world (previously the Imperial Cafe) complete with stained glass and crystal chandeliers. We had to check it out.

Palácio da Bolsa

We toured the Palácio da Bolsa (Stock Exchange Palace) that was built in the 19th century by the city’s Commercial Association. There was one room that impressed us the most in the building. It was like standing inside a jeweled box, built in an Islamic style to impress visitors, and was quite stunning to see.

Porto São Bento

The main train station, Porto São Bento, has a series of intricate tiles celebrating the history of Portugal. The tiles in the bottom picture show the arranged political marriage of Portugal’s King Joao I and English Princess Philippa. Just behind the king slightly to the left is his mistress dressed in what looks like a long white gown. Apparently the new Queen Philippa was not happy about the situation and moved back to England. Joao realized he loved her and begged for her to come back after he left his mistress. She did, the result was nine children to carry on on the monarchy.

Igreja e Torre dos Clérigos

The 75 meter bell tower, Torre dos Clérigos, is a symbol of Porto and can be seen from all over town. It is popular to climb to the top for an amazing view. Every few hours the 49 bells put on a short “concert” with a variety of pieces of music. We booked our time slot for 11:30 so we could be in the tower for the chimes at noon. It was ear splitting and fascinating to watch the mechanism.

Jardim do Morro

Across the river from Porto is the town of Gaia, and the Jardim do Marro is a gathering spot to enjoy sunset over Porto. There are musicians and plenty of people watching for entertainment. We brought a picnic and bought a bottle of wine from a hawker. He even left us his cooler to keep the wine chilled! Everyone applauded and cheered right as the sun went down.

Port Tasting

To create port, wine is shipped from from the Duoro Valley to Gaia, and Gaia is where it is blended and aged. We went to two tastings (Calem and Burmester) and discovered no matter how they make/blend it, it is way too sweet for us. In the picture in the upper right there is a tiny door at the bottom of an aging vat. This is where they send in a person every few years to clean it out. That would have to be one of the worst jobs ever…

Porto Summary

We really enjoyed Porto. There was a really good variety of interesting activities, it was a great place to start our mainland journey. From Porto we went to explore the wine region of the Duoro valley.