porto

Porto was the next stop after Bilbao. Our flight to Porto was via Madrid where we had to change planes. Getting around Madrid airport is an experience. Not one I would wish on anyone. Thanks to help from Iberia Airlines, we were transported from our Bilbao plane to the Porto departure gate.

Porto is a city of hills and we were right in the middle of them. Our first afternoon, we ventured out but didn't even make it around the block. We wound up sitting at a little sidewalk cafe and had something to drink. The next morning we met Carolina, our guide for our morning tour. Again we were somewhat limited by the hills and the difficulty of pushing the transport chair. In spite of this, Carolina gave us a very nice tour and we were able to see a bit of Porto.

The two churches above - Igreja do Carmo and Igreja dos Carmelitas - are separated by a VERY narrow house - approximately 1 meter wide. The house was built so that the two churches wouldn't share a common wall and to prevent any relations between the nuns of Igreja dos Carmelitas and the monks of Igreja do Carmo.

Looking at the picture on the left you probably wouldn't notice anything unusual. However when you look at the picture on the right, you see part of the mob of people lined up to get into the bookshop that was frequented by J.K.Rawling author of Harry Potter. It is rumored that some of the architecture of the book store inspired the designs in the Harry Potter books.

Because of all the hills in Porto, our touring was quite limited. In spite of being restricted to a relatively small area, we still saw quite a lot. Carolinea, our guide, gave us a good introduction to the city. Above left, granny and Carolina are enjoying a cup of coffee across the street from the bookstore. Center left is a picture of the Clerigos Church with the large tower behind it. In Liberdade Square we saw the stature of Pedro IV of Portugal. I qualified with "Portugal" because he was also Pedro I of Brazil - Portugals largest colony.

Next stop was the railroad station where we saw a lobby of murals painted on tiles. Below are a few exaples.

After visiting the ;railway station we proceeded to the Palacio del Bolsa - the Stock Exchange Palace. Although the building was finished in the mid 1800s, the interior decoration wasn't completed until early 20th century. A nuber of the areas were interesting including the Nations' Courtyard which displays the coats-of-arms of Portugal and the countries with which it had commercial relations, the Court Room and the Arabian Room.

While wandering through the Palacio da Bolsa, I was able to get some pitures of a cople of other Porto sights. The center two pictures are of a statue of Henry the Navigator. He was a very interesting man and worth exploring via Wikipedia or other sources.

The pictiure on the left is a general landscape picture. However, look very closely at the building on the hill in the right center of the picture. This is the Porto Cathedral pictured on the right.

Following our tour of the Palacio, we went for lunch at a very nice little restaurant. It was very good but sorry, no pictures. Among other things, we had a wonderful charcuterie platter that was enough to feed an army, All this was to prepare us for our visit thot he Graham winery.

The Graham organization one of the largest port producers in the Duoro Valley. Our day trip to the Duoro was scheduled for the next day but this was an introduction and primer for that excursion. After a short tour of the facility, we were escorted to the "tasting" room.

The picture below left is Granny ready to do some tasting. The standard tasting program is three of the many Graham vintages. The three samples are placed on a paper that explains each of the vintages, For our tasting, the wine on the left was Graham's Six Grapes, the center glass was Graham's 30 year old tawny and the third glass was Graham's 2000 vintiage port. I thought it was a very interesting experience especially for a novice like me.

Next on the itinerary was a day in the Douro Valley. Because it was such a full day, it is on a separate page. Click HERE to see the Douro Valley trip.

The day after our Douro Valley we were on our way to Lisbon via Coimbra. Coimbra was a short stay with only a few pictures so I decided to add them here.

Apparently the main attraction in Coimbra is the university. Our guide, Fabiana, showed us around the area of the university. Most of the buildings were non-descript. However, there was one place that was quite amazing. That was the library. With Fabiana's assistance, we were lucky to get in when noone else was there. Also, I was able to get a few pictures.

The entrance to the library is at the extreme left of the building pictured top left.