Porto. The last places visited.

As promised yesterday night, I will proceed now with the description of the photos I uploaded yesterday.

After visiting Gaia and the Porto wine caves, we literally climbed to the cathedral. From there, the view was superb. A sea of reddish roofs waving as the streets go up and down, and with Torre dos Clerigos in the background as a nice outpost or continuing with the previous analogy, a lighthouse.



Afterwards, we came back downtown and went to visit a famous modernist bookshop called Lello. It was fantastic! so beautiful! It reminded me of Gaudi. This library could well be in Barcelona ;-) And it is still selling books. Maybe, the most eye-catching element is the artistic twisted staircase. Have a look:




The last stop that day was next to our hotel, in the city hall square. There was a huge Xmas tree with nice illumination. This week I found out that Xmas tree has been the largest ever and has been included in the Guiness Records Book. This is the city hall:



Next day, we visited Mercado do Bolhao, a pintoresque open-market. My Portuguese officemate told me to go there because it was special. But actually, it looks like any market in Spain... maybe this kind of markets is typical Iberian...




The morning was foggy, but I did not want to leave Porto without watching the city from the top of Torre dos Clerigos. So, foggy or not, up I went and enjoyed the view. The sun rays heated the city at that time and fog banks vanished... I was quite lucky!



And finally, on our way to the airport, we stopped at Casa da Musica, a nice building designed by a Dutch architect.



After that, flight and back to Valencia. Two nice days in a surprisingly beautiful city. Really enjoyable!

Porto. Visit to Gaia

The next step in our visit was crossing the river using the bridge I showed to you yesterday to go to Gaia, a small town in front of Porto, where all the wine caves are. Besides, the view from the city is really beautiful from this side of the shore.



There were also some ships anchored in front of the wine caves. Some centuries ago, these ships sailed to England carrying many many barrels of wine.



Of course, we visited the caves! We went for Calem cave. It was cheap and there was some drinking at the end. There, we were explained how to prepare Porto wine and the particularities and different kinds which exist. This barrel behind me contains around 10000 liters of wine!



And these are a bit smaller but the picture is nice :P



Finally, we could drink three different kinds of wine: one white porto and two different red tawny wines, with aging time 5 and 10 years. My favourite, the 5-year-old red tawny!!



And back to Porto to go to the cathedral!

Porto. Day 2.

Our second day in Porto started with a huge storm. However, we managed to see most of the city. We started visiting the touristic neighbourhood in the morning. This part of town is quite old and every street has a slope. It is the part of the city going steeply down to river Duero (Douro in Portuguese). However old it is, it has a special charm which makes it really nice to walk in that area.

In our way there, we passed by Sao Bento station again and took some pictures from outside:



Our first stop was in Porto Stock Market building. It was a beutiful building and has a room, the Arab room, which is magnificent. The treaty of Porto, a key stone of the birth of the European Union was signed in this room. This is how the building looks like from outside:



And this is a beautiful room within it:



And this is the view of town from the entrance of the Stock Market building. A the back, you can see the cathedral, on top of the hill.



In Porto, there is a very old system of trams still running. It perfectly matches the ancient spirit of the city!



Closer to the river, we found Luis I Bridge, one of the symbols of the city. This bridge connects Porto with Gaia, a small town on the other shore of the river which houses all Porto wine breweries.



And this is one of the most famous squares, Dom Henrique square.



And these are some houses facing the river on Porto's side. Quite beautiful!



Tomorrow, our visit to the breweries in Gaia!

Porto. First day

As I told you sometimes before, from 2nd to 4th January, I was visiting Porto with my mother. It actually was my Xmas present for her. We arrived there in the afternoon on 2nd Jan. I had never been to Portugal, so it was quite interesting from the beginning. The first thing i noticed was that Portuguese is similar to Spanish when written but a complete different language when spoken ;-)

I didn't have a map of Porto, so we just went downtown and checked a map in a metro station. As the hotel was a bit far, we could see a bit of the city on our way there. We passed by the church of Trindade and Avenida dos Aliados. And then we found our hotel with the help of some local people.

After checking in and leaving our stuff in the room, we went for a walk in the city. This photo was taken next to the university. At the back, you can see a typical Porto church with blue and white tiles all over.



This is a typical pintoresque view in Porto, a row of old houses which look ancient and at the same time cozy.



This is the entrance hall of Sao Bento train station with its typical tiles in blue and white colours. It looks like a traditional beautiful station.



An another typical church in the top of one of the countless slopes in the city.



After a few hours, we were a bit tired and stopped for a coffee at the most famous cafe in Porto, Cafe Majestic. It was opened at the beginning of the 20th centuty and has been running since. This is it from outside:



And this is the interior:



And this is the main shopping street, Via Catarina, with its nice New Year's illumination.



Finally, we came back to the hotel along Avenida Dos Aliados, one of the main avenues in Porto and full with nice buildings and a huge Xmas tree!



More about Porto in the coming days!!