“If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium.” Remember that movie from our youth? Well, that’s about how we were feeling. This was Sunday, therefore we must be in Porto.
It was both more and less than we were expecting.
The less part: Now here’s an admission. A while back, we saw an episode of House Hunters International on HGTV involving Porto. It looked colorful and romantically rustic and charming. We had to see it someday. Well, while we liked Porto, we saw some pretty uncharming rustic. Our rose-colored glasses weren’t quite up to the trick of making this our escapist idea of a romantic getaway spot.
The more part: We definitely weren’t expecting the faded glamour of the old downtown. It must have been something in its late 18th and early 19th century (pre-48-year dictatorship) heyday. It is quite lovely in a rather low-key, rough-around-the-edges way.
We took a bus into the upper city, the main section of this very hilly town. We only had a couple hours to spend and planned to follow the Rick Steves upper Porto walk, with a couple elements of his lower Porto walk added in.
We started at Clerigos Church and Tower.
From there, we walked down the Rua das Flores a ways.
We admired this rather elegant tearoom. But we also saw an organ grinder who had a 5- or 6-year old “assistant “ who took over at times, plus an unexplained, tethered chicken on a stool.
3D tiles, which we saw on a number of buildings.
Then we went back uphill to the Sao Bento Train Station, renowned for its interior tilework.
We walked back up into the upper town, to the Praca da Liberdade, which is surrounded by lovely old buildings.
We took an espresso break (well, Jerry at least had an espresso) at a sidewalk cafe and did some serious people watching.
Then we went further uphill on the Rua da Fabrica, visiting a very nice Portuguese craft store and admiring the tiles on the buildings. We also got to see a number of the old-fashioned trams that beetle through the city.
We eventually landed in the Praca de Gomes Teixeira, with its pretty, tiled Carmo Church and its centerpiece Fountain of Lions. (Many of you who are familiar with my photography may have noted that I will almost never pass up an opportunity to capture a lion “on film.” Being an August Leo, I have long had a soft spot in my heart for lions, small scale to large—in pictures that is. I don’t collect them; I just photograph them. One of my favorites hangs in my office.)
Once again, so little time, so much to see. At least we managed to dip our toes into the essence of Porto.
We returned to our ship for a 4:30pm sail out. Our captain warned us we would have a very bumpy exit from the port. Waves were breaking over the breakwater, and the surf was running high. (The port, Leixoes, is actually a surfing center.)
We were instructed to sit for the first 15 minutes of our departure (or be somewhere where there was something to hold onto) and told we would be given a 2-minute warning when it was time to prepare. Yikes, that’s a new one on me! The captain went on to explain we’d be having heavy seas AGAIN most of the way to our next port, Guernsey, which was 655 miles and 36 hours away. Some of you are aware I am actually a very nervous sailor and am very prone to seasickness. After days of turbulence, this was an announcement meant to make my blood run cold, as they say. However, the matter-of-factness of it kept me pretty calm—not happy, mind you, but resigned to my fate.
That was yesterday. It was indeed a rock-and-roll night, until about 3:00am. It has been a sea day today, one in which we have had to hang on to someone or something, but quite mild in comparison to what we’ve experienced the past few days.
Just as I was about to publish this post, the captain announced we are slowing our pace toward Guernsey. The forecasted 25-knot winds and 40-knot gusts would make our tendering into port unsafe. Since the winds are expected to abate by 10:00am, our whole schedule is being shifted ahead 2 hours. My, there’s just no end to the excitement on board. Good news: This means we can have a lazier start to our day, and we can still see Guernsey (something we are looking forward to).
We once had a trip when it rained 20 out of 24 days, forever known as the Rain Trip. I think there’s a good likelihood this trip will go down in the annals as the Rough Seas Trip.
how did i not know about your lion fetish? you are missing torrential rains but when you hit guernsey we hopefully will have sun and hopefully so will you. miss you!
I hope the seas calm down for you soon. We have never heard that announcement about sitting down before either. The worst one we were on was returning from Iceland to Scotland. They closed the outside decks because the sea was so rough and it was windy. Here’s to smooth sailing soon!
Take care!