On Friday October 13, we got up early and headed to our meeting place for a Porto Free Walking Tour. Our guide was Eugenia, a very nice Portuguese woman who lead our tour of 22 people from around the world. There were people from South Africa, New Zealand, Spain, Brazil, New Jersey, England and Germany on the tour. We were the only Canadians. We have taken many free tours on our travels. This one lasted from 9:30 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. The tour guides rely on tips at the end of the tour. It was perfect walking weather- sunny, and a bit cooler than our first day. The high was going to 19C.
Our first stop was the statute of António Ferreira Gomes (1906-1989), a Portuguese Roman Catholic bishop. He was forced into a 10 year exile from Portugal due to his opposition to the dictator António de Oliveira Salazar's (1889-1970) regime. Gomes was appointed bishop of Porto in 1952, a position that he held until 1982. He wrote a letter to Salazar in 1958 that was meant to be private, criticizing his social policies. Salazar was outraged by the letter and when the bishop was returning to Portugal after a trip to Italy in 1959, he was denied entrance into Portugal. Salazar tried to force Gomes to resign, but he refused to do so. Gomes was also not allowed to return to Portugal to attend the service when his mother died. His exile ended in 1969.
The statute was located in front of an olive grove on a green roof on top of a small shopping centre.
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| António Ferreira Gomes 1906-1989 |
A very famous book store in Porto is located across the road. Livraria Lello is one of the oldest bookstores in Portugal and frequently rated among the top bookstores in the world. It was built in 1906 in a net-Gothic style. Beginning in July 2015, the bookstore began requesting entrance fees for visitors. It costs 4 euros to enter and there was a lineup extending at least three blocks at 10:00 a.m. in the morning. The bookstore was also frequented by JK Rowling when she taught English in Porto from 1991-93 and the twisting staircase may have been inspiration for the one in the Harry Potter series which she partly wrote while in Porto.
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| Line up at the bookstore |
There was a lovely view of the Torre dos Clérigos. This 76m-high tower was built in the mid 1700s by the Italian-born baroque master Nicolau Nasoni. It has a 225 step spiral staircase.
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| View from the other side of the olive grove on the green roof over the shopping centre and Clérigos Tower |
Our guide also pointed out a number of art nouveau buildings. Many of the buildings in Porto where designed by the architect José Marques da Silva (1869-1947). He was a major force in shaping the look of Porto. His work also includes the beautiful Sao Bento Railway Station (1896 -1916).
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| A da Silva designed building |
Our guide told us that his daughter, Marie José Marques da Silva (1914-1996), in homage to her father, his his name engraved on all the buildings he designed. In 1943, Marie da Silva was the first woman to graduate as an architect from the Porto School of Fine Arts.
We then walked to Liberdade (Liberty) Square which had a number of exceptional buildings with beaux-arts facades.
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1866 monument dedicated to King Peter IV, a monarch closely linked to Porto.
He is riding a horse and holding the Constitution |
Several of the other buildings are now banks. Its central plaza was restored a few years ago.
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| Beautiful beaux-arts facades |
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| Detail of top of building |
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| Busy street in Porto |
We passed a number of beautiful tiled churches and buildings along the way.
We stopped at the Sao Bento Train Station. From the outside it has an imposing stone facade and mansard roof. But the dramatic azulejo panels historic scenes in the front hall are the real attraction. Designed by Jorge Colaco in 1930, the 20,000 tiles depict historic battles and Portuguese life, as well as the history of transport.
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| One wall at the station |
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| One of the best train stations in Europe |
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| Detail of the train on the wall |
We then stopped at the Sé Cathedral which was founded in the 12th century, rebuilt a century later and given a baroque makeover in the 18th century. We went inside where a wedding was taking place. It was very ornate inside.
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| Outside the Cathedral |
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| Approaching the Cathedral- very imposing |
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| Inside the Sé Cathedral |
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| More graffitti |
We stopped in a guitar store with beautiful hand-made guitars. Our guide talked about fado music and played us a beautiful lament.
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| Eugenia, our guide, in guitar store |
We headed to the Ponte de Dom Louis I, which was completed by a student of Gustave Eiffel. The bridge's top deck is now reserved for pedestrians and one of the city's metro lines. the lower deck has regular traffic. The views of the river and Old Town are wonderful. The other side of the river is where the port wine establishments, such as Taylors and Sandeman are located. It is a separate city, with its own mayor, called Gaia. Our tour walked to the other side to get pictures of the old part of Porto. We did not go into Gaia.
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| View of Gaia and bridge |
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| Closer view |
We had a coffee break on the tour-just before the bridge.
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| Coffee break during the tour |
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| Tiled building near where we had coffee |
View from the bridge.
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| Part of the old defensive wall of Porto and the funicular near the river |
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| View of Douro River and old town Porto |
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| Graffiti on building near river |
The views were beautiful.
We passed a tile in the pavement with an arrow and sun. Our guide pointed out that this was part of the Camino trail which leads to Santiago, Spain. One can start at the Sé Cathedral.
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| Camino trail |
Our guide took us into the old part of town, winding our way down to the river, through narrow streets. The Rebiera area is full of small restaurants and cafes and tourists.
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| Plants in a building in a narrow street |
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| Near the river looking up at the bridge we had been on |
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| The café scene |
For the last stop Eugenia took us under part of the old 14th century defensive wall near the river. She also pointed out a red door that had noted the height of the high water mark during various floods of the Duoro River over the years.
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| Eugenia finishing the tour |
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| High water marks |
After the tour, we had lunch near the water at a tapas place called Taberna Está-se Bem (T.E.B.). We shared a lovely octopus salad, another salad with chick peas and cod and a red pepper savoury bread.
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| Octopus salad-- portions are quite large |
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| Chick peas and cod |
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| Savoury red-pepper bread |
We headed back to the train station to buy our tickets for our Sunday trip to Lisbon. We stopped at a wonderful store that only carried canned fishes (sardines, tuna, mackerel). Loja das Conservas organized the fish by region and had stories in both Portuguese and English. The salesperson was very helpful and friendly.
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| We bought a tin of sardines in a tomato sauce from Lucas |
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| Back wall of store |
We then headed to Mercado do Bolhao in Porto to shop for some food for dinner. It is not a large market and there were not as many food stalls as we expected, but we were able to put together our dinner.
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| Fruit stand |
We decided on our usual dorado (sea bream). The fish looked very fresh.
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| Fish store in market |
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| Our two fishes being filleted |
We also brought a beautiful piece of sheep cheese.
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| The cheese store we bought our sheep cheese |
Across the street was the Confeitaria do Bolhao. A french couple standing outside the store said: tres bon as we were entering. We bought some bread and dessert for dinner.
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| Across from the market- great bread and treats |
We started our walk back to the apartment to drop the food. We passed by Porto City Hall, which apparently took about 50 years to complete. It was started in the 1920s.
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| Porto City Hall |
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| A beautiful blue-tiled building on our street |
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| Grace entering our building, which has recently been painted inside and is in excellent condition |
We dropped the groceries and headed out at about 4:30 p.m. in the other direction to see the Rem Koolhaus designed building- Casa da Música, the beautiful Porto concert hall. It was built on a former staging area for trams and was completed in 2005.
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| Outside of Casa de Musica |
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| From the side with slanted plaza-- great for skateboarding |
We wandered a bit more on the Avenida da Boavista.
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| Outside a building with a literary club |
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| Many old buildings with interesting gates |
We stopped to get some Rocha pears which are a Portuguese delicacy that are in season. We shared one after dinner. Delicious!
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| Rocha Pears |
We passed a large cemetery shrouded in the fog that had descended on the city at around 5:00 p.m. It had been a very nice sunny day until the late afternoon. When the fog rolled in, the temperature dropped. Porto gets a lot of fog-- reminded us of San Francisco.
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| Large cemetery |
The Casa da Música is just past a very large roundabout that houses the Jardim da Boavista. It's centrepiece is the Monumento aos Heróis da Guerra Peninsular (Monument to the Heroes of the Peninsular War) that commemorates the Portuguese and British victory over Napoleon's troops in the Peninsular War (1808-14).
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| Monument--quite spectacular |
We walked back to the apartment for our sardine appetizers, with some sheep cheese, followed by a Grace cooked dorado and vegetable main course with a Rocha pear and Portuguese egg tarts for dessert.
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| Old fashioned wrapper on our sardines in tomato sauce |
It was an over 20,000 step day on the hills of Porto. It is a very interesting and dynamic city, with an extremely busy downtown. We are happy we are in a neighbourhood just a bit away from the fray. The tour was a great introduction to the city and we covered a lot of ground.
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