Dia 11: Savoring Proud Porto
Porto Walking TourAna is our guide this morning to show us Porto through her eyes. There is a gray mistiness in the sky so many of us have donned light jackets. We start down Rua de Santa Catarina, the street our hotel is situated on. This is the shopping mecca for the city. We are directly across from the Café Majestic, an art nouveu building with white-jacketed staff. We pass the Teatro Nacional S. Joao, a theater and concert venue. We approach a trolley stop near the Batalha metro station. We wind our way to an area near the city wall that yields to an impressive view of the city. We are near the upper level of the Ponte Dom Luis I bridge and stand on the sidewalk as the metro shoots past.
Playful, cartoon-like graffiti decorates a dilapidated building we pass on our way to Sé do Porto or Porto Cathedral. Our guidebook tells us this is a 12th center Romanesque cathedral where Henry the Navigator was baptized. The interior of the cathedral is Baroque with ornate golden columns. Outside in the church square, we walk through old town. Mercado de S. Sebastião is across from the church where we see a group of women gathered around a stall selling fish.
Did you know ... Porto is pronounced POR-too, with a rolling of the "r". |
Tour GuidanceCristina met with everyone on the tour to learn their departure plans. She provided directions and instructions to help us catch planes, trains and automobiles.
Back Door DiscoveriesToday we met Ana, our final local guide, who took us on a walking tour of the city. We visited the important landmarks and listened to her tell us about this city's history.
What doesn't kill you fattens you up
Our final group dinner together offers us if not the best food on the tour the best meal. Where we were once strangers - quiet and tentative - we are now friends - boisterous and unreserved. We are saying our last adeus to each other, making sure to speak to everyone, snapping pictures, sharing memories and conviviality.
Fale em portugues, por favorToday's word is Boa-viagem! = Have a good trip! It is pronounced boh-ah-vee-AH-zhayn
Lessons LearnedBring an umbrella if the sky is gray. You won't regret carrying it for the comfort of staying dry. We fly higher than the weatherMulti-tasking, sharing one umbrella while taking photos and listening to the narrative.
Lunch with a ViewWe cross the river to Espaço Porto Cruz, a restaurant with a 360° view. The menu offers dishes that highlight port. We share Stilton blue cheese and pear salad, smoked mackerel with onion marinade and port, puff pastry filled with spinach and cheese, and a bread basket with olive oil. And to open, we have a bottle of dry white port. When in Porto ...
Tiles ReturnedDuring the champagne toast, our tiles are laid out and we get to see everyone's glazed masterpieces. Some are very creative and well done. We are excited to bring ours home knowing we will pull them out when we want to remember our time in this beautiful country.
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We visit the São Bento Railway Station next and are warned of pickpockets. They are very quick and sneaky here and will likely target us because we are in a group. The azulejos in the station are among the best we have seen, in vibrant blue, depicting historical life of the Duoro people.
Porto walking Tour in Pictures
Stock Exchange Palace
The Palácio da Bolsa - stock exchange palace - is our final stop. We have an assigned time to enter - tours here are guided only. Porto's commerce shaped the city and this building was designed to impress. There are glass ceilings, inlaid wood floors, plaster intricately designed to resemble rich mahogany, a grand staircase and a magnificent Arabian Hall with stunning detail.
Stock Exchange Palace in Pictures
Free Time
We end our tour in the riverfront Ribeira, pronounced ree-BAY-rah. Cristina gives suggestions for how to spend the rest of the day. She gives us tickets to ride the Elevador dos Guindais - the funicular - to go back to upper Porto, the city center. The sun pushes through the clouds and shines down as we as decide how to spend our last few daylight hours in Portugal.
Scenic Porto
Champagne and Tears
We change our clothes, get dressed up one last time, and meet the gang in the lobby for a toast. Cristina passes around flutes of champagne and we take pictures. Someone in our group offered to pick up a parting gift for Cristina and we all chipped in. We gave her a box of chocolates as a small way of thanking her for this extraordinary experience. John, the Aussie and funniest tour member who entertained us with great one-liners throughout the trip, gives a toast to Cristina that is straight from the heart, capturing the thoughts of everyone in the room. It brings her to tears ... and many others too.
Final Group Dinner
And so we we are at the end of our journey, following Cristina one last time to the restaurant she has selected for dinner, Restaurante Escondidinho. We sit in a room with dark wood and white tablecloths, nibbling on bread and olives set as Cristina tells us what we will be eating. Salad with cucumber, shaved carrots, corn, tomatoes and cabbage followed by tripe stewed with sausage and beans. Our entree choices were fish and steak. We eat slowly, savoring every bite, knowing this is our last meal together. And we say adeus.