We started the day with a delicious breakfast at our hotel, both of us so grateful to have been able to sleep in comfy beds! Then we headed out for a guided tour of Porto, meeting in the old part of Porto at the photography museum that used to be a prison. The first stop on our tour was the Lello Bookstore, touted as the most beautiful bookstore in the world and we believe it! It was the inspiration for the staircases in the Harry Potter books. We each picked up a book printed by the bookstore. It was crowded, so not exactly a relaxing place to sit and read!
Our tour next took us to a very green fountain and a beautiful church that was split in two because the Vatican did not like the fact that there were separate entrances for the rich and the poor. The separation point became the skinniest apartment in Porto where the church caretaker, his wife and their 13 (!!!!) children lived. Whew!
We went into the ‘poor’ church. It didn’t feel very poor to us!
We saw students going around town singing very loudly. They were dressed in red sweatshirts instead of their usual suits with black capes (another thing used in the Harry Potter books).
Checked out the main square with City Hall at one end, the Intercontinental hotel at the other, and the world’s most beautiful McDonalds! It used to be a fancy cafe back during WW II and they decided to keep the architecture. An interesting juxtaposition.
Our guide (an art history major) told us the history of Porto through the buildings and architecture, including Porto City Hall in this pic. Next was the beautiful train station, then to the old part of the city where we saw part of the original wall that surrounded it back in the 1300s. We headed across one of the many bridges to take the gondola down to the Douro River. Porto is the city on the right, Vila Nova de Gaia on the left.
We ended our tour with a Six Bridges boat trip to see the beautiful waterfront up close. We were more than ready for lunch – seafood and rice, yummy! On the way back to our hotel we checked out a sardine shop- who knew there were so many types of sardines??
The observation deck by the Dom Luis I bridge had lots of locks and hair ties on it, though many people were watching a couple of boys preparing to jump off the bridge. We skipped the show as they seemed to be stalling until their friends had collected enough donations.
We headed back to the hotel via skinny alleys stopping at an old school hardware store. It felt delicious to relax on the bed again!
We got our Camino guide, passport and shell- it’s all happening starting tomorrow! Dinner tonight was more delicious seafood- Michelle had grilled sea bream and Theresa had roasted cod with peppers. We each got enough food for two meals, if only we could take it with us for tomorrow!
