Porto – The Highlights

Porto and Gaia at dusk from the top of the Dom Luis I bridge

There is lots to love about Porto. The Port wine, the Francesinhas, the steep cobbled streets – it wasn’t hard to find cool things to do in the three weeks I was there. I actually found that, for the most part, I stayed away from the more obvious things to, which was refreshing. A lot of the more heavily promoted places I avoided, and just went where the wind took me. It was nice. Here are a few of the highlights.

Matosinhos / Foz de Douro

View of Foz de Douro from the jetty

I went to the Atlantic coast of Porto twice while I was there (three times if you count the bus tour, and not counting all the time on the beach at madalena), and each gave me an interesting perspective on the place. The first was on the day I took the above photo (and the panorama shot from the previous post) which was particularly blustery and a bit rainy.

Matosinhos from the Castelo de Queijo (literally: the Cheese Castle)

The Foz is now an upscale, lively part of Porto, and has its roots as a fishing village, as do most of the now-suburbs of the city. Just north of the Foz is Matosinhos, which is a separate city from Porto but there is practically no visible difference between the two. Both Matosinhos and Foz are great to visit, mainly because of the beaches that stretch the length of the two places along the Atlantic.

Me in front of “She Changes”

On my last day in Porto, I took the opportiunity to take the Metro out the Matosinhos and to walk all the way south to the mouth of the Douro – around 5km. As you can see, it was a great day for it.

Tragedia do Mar – Tragedy of the Sea

The beaches are stunning – I really regret not bringing my bathing suit – and the eye candy ain’t so bad either. It was a beautiful day (a bit too beautiful – sunburn # god knows what), and it’s a great walk. Along the way, you see the Cheese Castle – Castelo do Queijo, a medieval castle that sits on a rock that apparently looks like cheese, hence the name.

Castelo de Queijo

There is also the statue of Dom Joao I, and further along, the Sea Life Center.

After this you’re into Foz de Douro, and the shops along the oceanside road – which changes its name a few times along the way – get more expensive the further south you go. I stopped along the way at a cafe and had my last francesinha and beer, and kept going.

Foz de Douro

If you like beaches, shopping, and walking, then this area is for you.

Tours

I did a few touristy tours while in Porto.

The Yellow Bus Tour package was pretty good – they have three different lines, and they’re pretty comprehensive. The great thing is that you can buy your ticket for three days, and you get full access to the Bus and Metro system.

Me in front of the Tram

I also did the Tram tours of the city, which use the historical tram cars to go around the city. Again, it’s a great network and cool way to see the city, and for 8E, you get a 24hour ticket that also gets you into the Tram Museum, which has some nice old examples of streetcars from the past.

Me on the Boat

Finally, I did a boat tour of the Douro with Douro Azul, which was part of the Yellow Bus Tour paackage. Porto is the City of Six Bridges, of which they are really proud (Lisbon only has two…), and seing them from the boat is a great way to do it. Even if you just paid out of pocket, most tours are 45 minutes and 10E, so it’s not excessive. The cool thing about Porto’s Bridges is that they are each very different, and each has its own character. The most famous bridge is one designed by Eiffel himself, and although it is thought that the Dom Luis I bridge is done by Eiffel, it is not.

Ponte Dona Maria – designed by Eiffel (with the Ponte Sao Joao in the background)

I did try to do my usual walking tour of the city, but it seemed impossible to make the booking. I tried 3 times. I guess it wasn’t meant to be.

Museums, Galleries and Attractions

Centro Portugues de Fotografia

I didn’t know anything about this place, and stumbled on it by accident, but this Photography Museum was one of the highlights of the whole trip.

The Photography Centre. It’s an old jail!

So yes, it’s in an old jail, which is kinda awesome. On the main floor is where the exhibition space is, and there were some interesting exhibitions on when i visited. The upper floors are dedicated to the museum space, which was very cool – they have cameras of all shapes and sizes, and even though I didn’t understand any of the descriptions (everything is in Portuguese) it was still cool to follow the history of photography.

Camera

The cells are used as exhibit spaces.

Calem Cellars

Barrels of Port in the Calem Cellars

The Douro, on the Gaia side, is lined with the cellars of the Port producers from up the river. It has become a major center for tourism, as every producer has some sort of Cellar tour and Port wine tasting, and the prices range from (I’m told) free to 10E. My tour came as part of the package with the bus tour, but I believe it would have only cost 10E. The tour itself is your run-of-the-mill winery tour, without the vinyards – for those, you have to go up the Douro. But it’s not the tour, but the tasting, that you go for. On my tour, I got to taste one White and one Red port, both of which were yummy, but I saw that you could arrange for a more elaborate tasting, with different ports and cheeses to go along with. I think if I’d been with someone, I might have done more of these, if for nothing else than the snakc and the mid-afternoon buzz.

Museu do Carro Electrico

I think streetcars are neat, and in Porto, there’s a whole museum, owned and run by the city’s transportation authority, celebrating these wonderful machines.

inside the Tram Museum

The Museum is inside the old tram workshop, and they have examples of trams fromt he first horse-drawn carriages to the last example of trams made in Porto. The ticket for entry is part of the Tram tours ticket. It’s a short visit, but still kinda fun.

Torre de Clerigos / Igreja Clerigos

At the top of the Rua de Clerigos, which is the southern border of the Praca Liberdade, stands the Igreja de Clerigos, a Baroque church. Behind that, but towering over the city, is the Torre de Clerigos, one of the most iconic buildings in the city.

Igreja de Clerigos

The view from the tower is, of course, fantastic. You get views of the entire surrounding city, and on a clear day, you can easily see out to the ocean.

View of the Ribeira, Se and Gaia from the Tower

What I found far more impressive was the church. I’ve never been exposed to Baroque architecture or decor that much – what “classica architecture” there is in Canada seems to tend to either be neo-Roman or neo-Gothic – so seeing a Baroque church on the outside is somewhat of a rarity.

Seeing the inside was breathtaking.

A panorama of the inside of Igreja de Clerigos

Firstly, it’s round on the inside. Well, more oval, but you get the point. I’ve never seen that in a church, well, ever. Also, the decor of the barque church is far more over-the-top than I’ve ever seen. Crazy-beautiful sculptures, gold-covered everything, a sanctuary to beat the band… it was a lot to take in. And sadly (or happily, I guess) very few people came into the church, all heading up to the tower. there were, as you can see, a few people in the church, but It was nice not having a huge pile of people around you, like everywhere else.

The Sanctuary

Being a very Catholic country, Porto has other major churches.

Santo Antonio

Santo Antonio’s Facade, in traditional Portuguese tilework

Inside Santo Antonio

The Se

The Se, Porto’s main cathedral

Sao Francisco

Sao Francisco

Sao Francisco is the big attraction as far as churches go, and yes, it was beautiful – a former Franciscan church, now deconsecrated. But what I found more interesting was next door, in what is now the museum. When you go downstairs, you see…

The catacombs under the church

There are rooms and rooms of graves under the church. It was cool. And creepy.

Igreja de Carmelitas / Igreja de Carmos

Further down from the Clerigos is Rua de Carmo, and there you will find these twin churches.

Carmelitas on the left, Carmo on the right.

Why there are two practically identical churches side-by-side, I don’t know – I didn’t get the story. What I find interestingis that, you will notice, a very narrow building separates the two churches. There is (or was) a law stating that churches couldn’t share walls, so that bulding in the middle is apparently a house, and it is, apparently, occupied. Cool.

I did, of course, also visit the National Museum Soares dos Reis, which is dedicated to Reis, a famous sculptor, and was quite nice. My favourite thing there was this:

A Duct-tape horse. Awesome.

I also went to Serralves, probably the most famous Museum / Gallery in Porto. The gallery was cool, but I found the grounds far more interesting.

I was here =)

I’m not going to bore you with descriptions of either, though, because there’s nothing I can add to what I’ve already read, and that’s a lot. Sufficed to say, they’re both worth visiting, and I enjoyed them tremendously.

Final Thoughts

Porto was, for me, a lot like Rouen – I loved the city itself, but at the end of the day, met very few people. I would, however, come back to Porto in a second – I feel like, while I got to know the city a little bit, I didn’t really get to enjoy the outlying area, which seems to be to be just as promising as the city.

Photo Album

As always, click here to see my Picasa Web Album from Porto

Porto: The Experience

Luis I Bridge

Like Rouen, people’s reaction to my choice of staying in Porto instead of the larger, more metropolitan capital of Lisbon tended to be “Why there?”

Well, as beautiful as Lisbon was (and as deserving it is of its own 3-week stay), You don’t get this in Lisbon:

Lisbon’s river skyline is UNESCO World-Heritage Listed

How many city skylines are UNESCO World-Heritage Listed?

Seriously though, my stay in Porto, while a bit slow on the social side, was lovely, and I truly recommend visiting there. maybe not for three weeks, but for a while. One or two days would not let you truly enjoy this beautiful city on the Atlantic.

Porto is located in northern Portugal, on the river Douro. It is the center for the production of Port wine, and has one of the most beautiful old quarters I’ve ever seen – not to mention hilly (the Funicular that brings you from the Ribeiro, on the riverfront, to Batalha, on the hill, is part of the transit system).

The first thing that impressed me about Porto was its Metro system. Just 10 years old, the Metro is made up of 6 lines that run centrally through the downtown, but then stretch into the various suburbs. The nice thing is that the metro goes directly to the airport, and it doesn’t cost any extra. Awesome.

When I booked my holiday rental, I had no sense of the geography of Porto, and so was a bit surprised / upset to find out that my apartment was 40 minuts by bus south of downtown Porto, in Madalena, part of Vila Nova de Gaia. Gaia, as it is called, is on the south shore of the Douro (Porto is on the north side) and is actually where all the Port cellars and warehouses are. I was upset, until I was let into my holiday rental.

The view from my apartment. No, the pool was not ours.

So my apartment in Madalena was a 10-minute walk from the beach, where I got to enjoy vistas like this:

View from Vibracoes Bar, where coffee was 90c, beer was 1E50, and wifi was stable and free

This is where I had coffee.

Praia de Madalena Sul, where I took my walks and read

So while my apartment was a bit more expensive than I had hoped (180 British Pounds a week) it ended up being well worth it.

I did end up spending quite a bit of time during the first week just being lazy in the apartment, going for walks and whatnot, which while relaxing, did get old fairly quickly.

My bus stop into the city, looking back towards my apartment, on a rainy day

Still, Madalena turned out to be a lovely little enclave, mostly residential, and a few small shops nearby, whereas the main grocery store was a half-hour walk away (not unmanageable at all). It’s an older neighbourhood with holiday apartments and townhouses starting to creep in, cobblestone roads and rock walls. Out my kitchen window was a community garden where, each afternoon, people went in to pull out produce. Kinda awesome.

Porto itself is quite easy to get around – the Metro and Bus system link up regularly and well, and everything is pretty accessible. Transit prices are fairly cheap, with a single ride being 1E80, but there are Andante cards which allow volume purchases for tourists, or there is the Andante Tour card.

The big stumbling block for me was language. I don’t speak Portuguese. At all. Now, in the centre, most people can speak enough English to make sure we understand each other, but out in Madalena, not so much. I also seemed to turn into a neaderthal, grunting in agreement when I was spoken to instead of using the few words of Portuguese I did know.

Besides the beach and the Vibracoes bar, my favourite place I think was Praca Liberdade, aka Aliados.

The view from my favourite Cafe in Aliados

I went often to Cafe Alidos, right beside the entrance to Alidos Metro station, to have coffee, peoplewatch and read. Plus, there was free wifi in the square.

A better view of Praca de Liberdade, Aveindas dos Aliados, or just known as Aliados

I don’t want to get too much into what I did in Porto – that’s the next blog post – but what I really appreciated about Port was that, as touristy as it was in some places, there was still a sense that the cool places were frequented as much by locals as by tourists, if not more so. When I went to Serralves on my last Sunday in Porto, there were so many families just enjoying the grounds, it was so nice to see. Whenever I was in Aliados, it was obvious that what I was told was true – Aliados is the meeting place of Porto.

Me at Serralves

I also got the sense that, while the locals in the service industry are very aware of the tourists around, they don’t seem to have a sense of being put upon. Most of the people I encountered in a professional context were friendly and courteous, and often tried to small talk with me, where was I from and how did I like Porto? (More than Lisbon, right?) It was quite refreshing.

I fully expect to return to Portugal in the future – Lisbon deserves more than a cursory glance, and there seems to be plenty of smaller palces I missed entirely worth visiting – and when I do, Porto will still be on the visit list, for at least a few days.

Panorama taken from the mouth of the Douro

Next Blog post: Porto: The Highlights

Québec

Quebec was a whirlwind. I realized just now that I barely had time to see everything I wanted to see, let alone get to do my usual “reflection” on the city.

I can, however, say that Québec is a thoroughly charming city. Well, the Old City is. I discovered that when I went on an adventure, quite by accident, on the Saturday morning. I have been on the hunt for a large map of Europe (I know, Google Maps, but I’m still a paper kinda guy in some regards) so I could wrap my head around the upcoming European leg of the Big Trip. In Vieux Québec, there is a lovely little independent book store, called the Librairie Pantoute. I went in there, thinking that they were likely to have a map of Europe. Alas, they did not. My only other option was to find a Renaud-Bray, a larger bookstore chain in Quebec. So, I fired up the trusty iPhone, and launched the YellowPages app. I looked up the Renaud-Bray, and set out looking for the store.

It was a beautiful sunny morning, and I walked along commercial streets and into a great little neighbourhood, which I later discovered was called Saint-Roch. Turns out the store wasn’t where YellowPages said it was (damn you, YP), but it was a great walk – I got to see the actual city, and not the touristy part that is Vieux-Quebec.

Not that Vieux-Québec isn’t awesome. I love that the old city is still a center for activity, and I enjoyed just wandering around and people watching as much as I loved the tours.

The Old City is quite stunning. Québec is the oldest city in North America, and it’s really quite remarkable that the old walled city has managed to be maintained. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage site, because of the Walls of the city – they are original.

Arriving in the city by train or bus from Montreal is sort of uninspiring… until you get to the Gare Centrale, or known as La Gare di Palais.

Le Gare du Palais

Yup, that’s the train station. Out front, you see this:

Fountain outside Le Gare du Palais

Then, you walk up a hellacious hill to get into the old city. I forget the numbers exactly, but the rise of the mountain and the length of the rise makes it very, very steep. It sucks to have to walk up, especially dragging luggage.

I stayed at the Auberge Internationale du Québec, which was very nice, and right in the old city. I spent the first evening wandering around the old city, enjoying the ambience and the people. The one big thing, which really wasn’t a surprise, was that the food in the old city is very expensive, even when I was there in the shoulder season.

It’s very easy to walk your own way around the old city: you can go to the Maison de la Tourisme and get a map that will show you all the points of interest, and have at it. This is how I usually do it, and since the whole old city is a World Heritage site, there are a lot of interpretive signs around the place. I took some time to wander the old fortress walls from end to end, and then went into the Citadel for a tour.

The Quebec Citadel

Not only is the Quebec Citadel a fantastic example of a British fort, it’s also the only operating heritage fort left in Canada. When you visit, you are on an operating military base, home to the Royal 22nd Regiment, also known as the Vandoos, one of Canada’s most renowned military corps.

La Citadelle de Québec

The Citadel is made up of historic and modern buildings, and the tour, while short, gives one a good appreciation of the role the Citadel has played in modern Canadian history. We got to visit two museums, but again, it was a very quick visit. My disappointment was that, in my estimation, you needed to have a good working knowledge of the history of Québec its role in the development of Canada to truly appreciate the place. I’d have liked a bit more history, but of course, I’m a huge history nerd.

From there, one can walk on the Plains of Abraham, where the French under Montcalm lost to Wolfe and the British, which led to La Nouvelle France’s capitulation to the British. It’s now, of course, just a big field where there are major concerts, but it’s a beautiful place overlooking the river.

On the side of the Plains of Abraham you will find a beautiful building that houses the Assemblée Nationale. I did the tour, and it’s truly a beautiful building.

l'Assemblée Nationale

La Chute Montmorency

Around 15km outside of Québec is the Parc de la Chute-Montmorency. You can rent bicycles to get there, or there is a public transit bus that will take you their – either way will take around an hour. Here’s why you want to go:

La Chute Montmorency

It’s a stunning waterfall. There is a gondola that goes from the base to the top, but if you want to walk, you can do so both ways – you can see the staircase built into the rock face. It was nice to visit in the shoulder season, when there were very few people around. It’s pretty high up, but you get some beautiful views of Quebec from the suspension bridge and the top of the staircase.

The bike paths in Quebec are also great. From the Old Port, we didn’t once have to bike on a public road – we were on dedicated bike lanes almost the whole way. Plus, it’s a nice, mostly flat bike ride out to the Falls, with lots of great views of the river, the south shore and Quebec.

I'm on a bike!

The last thing I want to mention was one great little pub that we visited called Le Pape George. It’s a little wine bar on a small back street in the old port, and I had some of the best cider I’ve ever had. It was so good, we went back twice.

Installation outside of Le Pape Georges

While I loved my trip to Québec, I don’t know if I would want to spend more time there – three days was enough, for me at any rate. It was a beautiful weekend, and the best part was that I got to actually speak French the whole time. In fact, my favourite moment came when I was entering the National Assembly. We wanted the first available tour, and the attendant told me, in French, that the tour was in English. I said, in French, that that was okay, and she told me to make sure that I wasn’t having my friend translate for me. She thought I was Franco.

Ça m’a fait du bien =)

Photo Album

Check out more of my photos from Québec by clicking the link above