Porto Waterfront (South side of river)

On two mornings we walked across the Dom Luis Bridge over the Douro River. Both times we walked by the stately Porto Cathedral, though we never actually went in.

Porto Cathedral

On those bueatiful mornings, the city of Porto was in wonderful light. North of the Douro, the waterfront is the busiest part of Porto and is the top tourist attraction (or trap, depending on your perspective).

Porto Waterfront


Porto Waterfront


Porto Waterfront


Porto Waterfront


Porto Waterfront

South of the Douro are the wine cellars and warehouses -- the working part of Porto. But it has charm of its own.

Porto, south of Douro


Porto, south of Douro


Porto, south of Douro


Porto, south of Douro

There were many boats in the Douro -- not just cruise boats, but also working vessels, some of which carry barrels of the famed port wine.

Boat

There are several bridges across the Douro River. The oldest of these is the Maria Pia Bridge. As most visitors to Porto, we took a short river cruise. From the boat, we had a different perspective admiring this dominant yet elegant structure.

Maria Pia Bridge


Maria Pia Bridge

The river cruise also let use see the Porto waterfront from the river level -- the first two pictures below were of the north side, while the last one was of the south side.

Porto Waterfront


Porto Waterfront


Porto Waterfront

After the cruise and some walking, we decided to sit at the waterfront and enjoy a glass (or two) of its famous port wine. This is what it is all about, after all!

Port Wine

We walked across the Douro on the lower level of the Dom Luis Bridge, to the water front on the north side. A very popular musician, apparently Brazilian (notice the Brazilian flag under his feet), was holding court and attracted a large crowd.

Musician


Musician

I think most visitors to Porto would agree that the most dominant building in town is the Torre dos Clérigos, the bell tower of the Igreja dos Clérigos (Church of the Clergymen). It happened to be near our lodge, and for a few days we would walk by it everyday.

Torre dos Clérigos


Torre dos Clérigos

The torre, or tower, also offers panoramic view of the city and this is not to be missed.

Porto, seen from the top of Torre dos Clérigos


Porto, seen from the top of Torre dos Clérigos

In late afternoon one day, we again walked across the Dom Luis Bridge to watch sunset over the Douro. Approaching the south side, the monastary of Mosteiro da Serra do Pilar shone magnificently in the setting sun. I am pretty sure the view would be wonderful up there, but alas, there were so many things to do in Porto that we actually did not find time to do that!

Mosteiro da Serra do Pilar


Dom Luis Bridge

The sunset wasn't as spectacular as I had hoped, and the city wasn't lit up as brightly either -- perhaps during the holidays would be a better time.

Porto Sunset


Porto Night


Porto Night

The next day we walked to Mercado do Bolhão, the marketplace. It wasn't as crowded or well-stocked (there were quite a few empty stalls) as other marketplaces we had seen, notably in Spain. Nevertheless, it was an interesting place to visit and check out the local goodies, such as locally grown produce, port wines and cork purses and bags (another specialty of Portugal, cork being one of its major exports).

Fruits


Port wines at Mercado do Bolhão, there is a wooden penis in the middle of them, don't ask me why.


Cork purses and bags at Mercado do Bolhão

There was a man playing a music instrument at the entrance to the mercado. The instrument is like an accordion, played by a "book" of punched cards -- I think it works like this: the positioning of the holes on each line determines what keys will be played in the instrument. Thus, as the card is fed into the instrument, a series of notes will be played, forming a melody -- a kind of programmed music player, I suppose. We would later see the same guy on Antony Bouldain's "Parts Unknown".

Player

Outside the mercado, we saw the cute little store A Pérola Do Bolhão.

A Pérola Do Bolhão

We also walked by Igreja de Santo Ildefonso (Church of Saint Ildefonso), yet another attraction that we never entered.

Igreja de Santo Ildefonso

We also stopped at Loja das Conservas, the famous store that sells canned sardines and other local goods. We found out that things were more expensive in Porto than in Lisbon, but this was our last chance, so we bought some to bring home.

Loja das Conservas

Porto does not only have the historical. Some graffitis also "adorn" the city. To the credit of the artists, 1) they seem to never defact historical buildings, but only paint them on ruins and residential buildings; 2) some of these are actually pretty tasteful and artistic, such as this one below.

Graffiti

During our stay in Porto we walked by Igreja do Carmo & Igreja dos Carmelitas (they are actualy two churches side by side) many times, but we never went in there. We were quite content just admiring them from the outside. The side of Igreja do Carmo is adorned with a huge mural made of azulejo tiles.

Igreja do Carmo & Igreja dos Carmelitas


Side of Igreja do Carmo


Details of the mural on the side of Igreja do Carmo

Then it was time for our last meal (lunch) before leaving Portugal. We went to our favorite restaurant in Porto - Caldeireiros (see my TripAdvisor review here again. We had grilled peppers, mushrooms (with eggs and ham), veggie rice and fried small sardines and a Sangria (of course). It was sad that we had to leave Porto and Portugal, but this put a wonderful finishing touch to our travel in this beautiful and friendly country.

Last meal in Porto

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