Friday, July 18th - Exploring Porto



 

On our first full day in Porto, we decided to explore the city.  Using the Visit a City app, which I cannot recommend enough, we set out to visit the sights we picked.  

    

We started at the Monastery of Serra do Pilar. Unfortunately, it was closed so we only got to see the outside, but it did have a beautiful view from the terrace.




We walked across Dom Luis  bridge and visited the Sao Bento Train Station. This is a functioning station that has beautiful azulejos. Azulejos are decorative ceramic tiles, typically painted with intricate designs.  Sometimes the designs are repeated, others make a scene.  

Then we walked up the Avenida dos Aliados and saw their town hall. From their we headed to the Bolhão Market. This place was amazing. It had all sorts of vendors from flowers to pastries to cheese to meat and fruit. We shared a parmesan sandwich kabob, a ham sandwich on amazing bread and enjoyed a fresh fruit drink. Then we splurged on a crepè. They ran out of strawberries, so we got a cup of them to eat with our Nutella crepè. 

             
    



Next, we headed to the Porto Cathedral to visit our 8 bazillionth church. After some self exploration, we found the self guided tour and were off. We had some fun as we walked through and maybe realized we have been to too many churches at this point, but I’m sure there will be more. 


   
                                                                                                            Very interesting navinty scence



Then we headed to Livraria Lello Bookshop. We went in not know what to expect and it was an experience. It is a small book store that you need a ticket to get into. You can then use that ticket money towards a book, if you decide to buy one(which I did). The inside of the building is a site to see. It is two levels with a stained glass ceiling and is floor to ceiling books. The staircase that connects them is the focal point. The problem is, it is tiny and they are timed tickets so everyone rushes in at the same time and they want their picture on a staircase that everyone is trying to use. Funny little story...a family of six starts to set up for a picture as we are going to walk up. The woman thrusts her phone into my hand to take a picture, no asking, nothing, then proceeds to take 5 minutes to arragne everyone. She then tries to give me a second phone to take two pictures. I drew the line there! Kate caught the progression of my face in pictures.







       
              

We explored a little more of the city and then had dinner under Jesus' Dad.  Which we later found out was John the Baptist.  

                   





 


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