10/5 -- Arrive in Porto and Explore

We had a pleasant drive west though Portugal and arrived in Porto before noon. We wandered around a bit and took a boat ride up and down this section of the Douro River, including approaching the entrance to the Atlantic Ocean. There were a number of really interesting bridges along with old buildings along our route.

A row of buildings across the street from our hotel

Buildings along the quay around the corner from our hotel

Cool tunnel. No idea where it goes

Cable cars along the waterfront of the city on the other
side of the river, Vila Nova de Gaia

Another replica of a wine barrel-hauling boat.

The white building was a monastery, but now houses soldiers.
The round section is still a church.

The bright yellow building is our hotel. We are in the room on
the  highest level with 4 windows, on the right.

Several bridges are visible from here. The closest one has
two crossings: cars on the lower level and trams above. It was
going to be named for the king, but when he didn't show up
for the christening, they dropped the 'Dom' from its name and
it is called Ponte Luis I. It was designed by a disciple of Eiffel,
the man who built the tower in Paris.

The river walls are pretty steep here.

This metal bridge looks a lot like the first one and WAS built
by Mr. Eiffel before he got famous for his tower.

A modern bridge across the Douro.

Looks like a old fort. The little grey object behind
the lower buildings is a funicular.

Another moderns bridge with the widest concrete arch span
when it was completed in 1963.

You can barely see the breakwater behind the boats. Beyond
that is the Atlantic Ocean.

I spied this sculpture from the left end as we went down the
river and thought it looked like a very flexible person doing
a back bend, touching a hand to an extended leg. From the
side, the thing that looked  like a head now looks like an eye
and it seems more like a pudgy bird.

Next was lunch, a relatively restrained offering with just rolls, salad, baked turkey wrapped around an apparent hot dog and fresh fruit with dipping chocolate for desert. Then it was time for a walking tour in the vicinity of our hotel, which is right on the waterfront.

On our way to a San Franciscan cathedral, we passed a statue of Henry the Navigator, who is given credit for the early successes Portugal had in world exploration. The cathedral is old and kind of boring on the outside but gold covered and totally baroque and detailed on the inside. At the time, Portugal was very rich and wanted to show off. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed inside. If you love a ton of detailed carvings, this is the place for you. One interesting aspect was a side chapel to Mary that had an arched gate guarding it. Apparently, the gate was originally a decoration at the top of the arch to the chapel, but after it fell down twice, they gave up and made it into a gate.

Statue of Henry the Navigator

Palacio da Bolsa from a distance

Back side of the Cathedral of St. Francis

Entrance to the cathedral.

One narrow wall was almost totally bare -- it had led to a convent, but the convent was destroyed in a war and the property was donated to the city. That bare wall now connects to the Palacio da Bolsa, which was built on the foundation of the ruined convent. It was briefly a stock exchange, but has spent most of its existence as meeting rooms. After the war, Portugal fell on hard times and decided that they could re-establish their former position if they had a really impressive place to hold meetings with dignitaries from other places. That led to the construction of the Palacio and specifically one room there.

The main open area of the  Palacio, where the
cloister used to be.

Much of the floor is tile made to look like mosaics, but this
central piece really is a mosaic.

Each of the corners has a mosaic representing the elements
of fire, water, air, and earth. The dragon is fire.

Granite is a primary building material here but
it is challenging to carve. The amount of detail
was impressive.

The second floor hallways  had ornate ceilings.

Carving detail in a room for council meetings

Many of the floors had elaborate parquetry.

This was the main meeting room, designed to
knock the socks off of visitors. The artists
traveled all over looking for inspiration and
found it in Granada, where they copied one
design element and used it with variations
over and over in this room

Detail in meeting room

Floor detail in meeting room

Ceiling detail

We hopped on the bus for a city tour and drove west toward the Atlantic. Traffic was horrible because today is a holiday marking the start of Portuguese democracy and everybody in the city apparently decided the ocean front was the place to be even though it was chilly and has no beach. The problem with bus tours is that it is tough to take good photos to remind you of what you saw.

Lighthouse along the Atlantic

Back at the hotel, we settled into our room, which is on a corner on the 5th floor, overlooking the river. It is unique in that it has a entry foyer with a closet and then 4 steps up to the bedroom/sitting area. According to the room map on the wall, each room on the floor is irregularly shaped.

The view from our room.