Portugal – Porto

Today was the day for us to explore Porto and boy did we get alot in.   We began our morning walking to the Livraria Lello book store that was inaugurated in 1906, it has a magical central wood staircase and was said to have inspired Hogwarts design in the Harry Potter books.   They had all of the classic books in multiple languages and while it was crowded I would have enjoyed having time in the quiet to just puruse all they had.   We then walked over to the Church of Sao Francisco which was for use by the Franciscan order in 1223, but was renovated in the 17th and 18th century that added gold inlay to wood carvings.   We went down to the catacombes and were thouroughly freaked out between names/dates of bodies buried in the wall but also numbered wooden planks in the floors….so we left.   The weather was amazing so we stoped along the Duoro river Cais de Riberia where old building painted in pastel colors line the river and cafe’s are all over.   It was great people watching but we could not imagine being there in full summer at it was very crowded.   We sat, had a drink, people watched for a while and listened to singers singing for tips.   Right down the road was the Dom Luis bridge that has 3 levels to cross, lower is walking, middle is for cars and the top you can walk or catch a metro train.   We walked the lower section over to Gaia and once again stopped, had a drink and a pizza – enjoyed the sun and awesome weather in fact we both got quite a bit of sun.   We took the Gaia Cable Car which is a gondola that takes you to the top of the mountain above where we stood at the Monastery of Serra do Pilar and over looked back onto the Duoro and Porto.   A quick metro ride back to the hotel and a nap – and then we were back over the Gaia for a  boat tour of the six bridges that span the Duoro between Porto and Gaia, it was a little windy but overall great to be on the water to see a new vatage point.   We then took tour of the famous Calem Port Caves along with a tasting and a Fado show….which all were wonderful, I am not crazy about Port but learned I like white port more than the red – it is not as sweet.   Dinner in our last night in Porto was a Brasao steak house where Phil and I shared a steak with Portugese sauce and what they call a Francesinha which is basically a big white bread sandwhich with steak and ham, covered in cheese and sitting in a tomato sauce – it was like a grilled cheese sitting in tomato soup – we were very glad we only ordered a half order.   Bedtime as tomorrow we are driving the middle of Portugal back down past Lisbon to Setabul so we can hit the Algarve the following day.  More to come!