The train trip from Lisbon to Porto was fairly smooth and uneventful. The Lisbon Oriente train station had a beautiful geometric patterned sun shade The train was on time, we found our seats, and it was comfortable enough for the roughly 3 hour ride.
My first impression of Porto was actually not great. The streets were crowded with honking cars and pedestrians and it was crazy. Everyone was acting pretty stressed. It turns out it was the end of the day before Portugal Day, a big holiday. Although my impression improved somewhat over time, I think I liked Lisbon better – hard to say for sure though. Even though Lisbon has more people, Porto feels more crowded. Porto seems to have more smokers too. Still, Porto’s a very dynamic place
We took a taxi to the apartment and the agent met us to show us around. He gave us a quick tour of the very nice amenities in the 2-room apartment, mostly the hidden areas in the kitchen, microwave and standalone oven behind sliding cabinet doors and slide-out table below with chairs stored beside the water heater, which was in its own hidden cabinet. There were many empty shelves so we could keep our stuff off the floor. The bathroom was spacious. The bedroom, which had a glass wall facing the back was like having a bed on a balcony. You could open the glass doors to get the breeze and hear the birds. We were offered an upgrade with a view, but I liked the garden view better than the view down the street.
We came out of our apartment to find lunch at a square full of restaurants a block down the hill. Then we got ready to wander. Our plan was to get down to the Ribeira section by the river, the oldest part of Porto — now the main tourist area.
Here’s a bit of geography…Our apartment was on Rua do Almada, which is a one-way road downhill from far uphill down to our intersection. It is one way uphill to our intersection too. So all the traffic veered away to the parallel Avenida do Aliados to the east. Aliados is a big double-wide street with a wide plaza down the center. It was blocked off at the bottom of the hill with construction for something to do with the Metro.
A policeman directed us around the construction, but we didn’t turn downhill soon enough and ended up beside the Igreja do Carmo, with its exterior of beautiful blue tiles. We didn’t go in, but the attendant told us we had come too far and the best way down to the river was a smaller street that slanted down the hill to the east.
We wandered downhill taking photos of anything colorful, with interesting shapes, or with cartoon art, or Portuguese tiles or antique sculpture. We passed a McDonald’s in a dark red building looking as if it were a classy place. It’s hard to imagine people wanting to eat McDonald’s here! Someone told us that its food is more expensive than real Portuguese restaurants.
Some of our pictures include:
- Igreja do Carmo and the fountain in the adjacent plaza
- Torre dos Clerigos
- The modern status of recent Bishop Gomes in the park with the olive trees
- Many rooftop photos from the Miradouro da Vitória – the shapes of the roofs on the hillsides was great-looking geometry
We got to the bottom at the river’s edge and wandered there for a while until we settled in to a cafe. We knew it was tourist food, but the view across the river to Vila Nova da Gaia and the classic boats floating past were beautiful. We hadn’t figured out yet where to get a dinner that included good vegetables. Most tourist menus had codfish croquettes and ham and cheese in various presentations, and tuna salad. We would find a good meal the next day.
A musician entertained the customers in the several cafes at out intersection by the river with 70’s cover songs. We could see the Ponte de Dom Luis I off to our left, where the metro trains and pedestrians cross on the same roadway.
Then we headed back up the hill to sleep.