10/7 -- Last Exploration of Porto

We met a couple of university students at the hotel and took the funicular to the top of the hill and walked over to a favorite student coffee shop and spent an hour talking to them about their lives. They have both just finished their master's degrees in architecture but have little hope of finding good jobs in Portugal. The slowdown that  hit worldwide in 2008 continues here. We had a lively political discussion, but also learned about their outfits.

Funicular track

Getting ready to pass the down car

At the top, older students (in black, capes) hazing the freshmen
who are seated.

Ruined building that can't be torn down because the are 'art
 works' so the facades must be saved when they are rebuilt.

Inside of the train station that celebrated its centennial a few
days ago.

This street was originally intended to be a major
long boulevard like the Champs-Elysees, but a
church in the path refused to move, so they
put the city hall at the end to block the view
of the church.

This is the church that refused to move and was blocked
from easy view.

Joe and John, our student hosts.

Traditional student dress is a black vested suit, white shirt, black tie, and black cape. According to Yolanda (a couple days ago), this was to prevent discrimination between rich and poor students. During the dark days of the dictatorship, people were not allowed to gather in more than threes and the students took to wrapping their cloaks closely to conceal their white shirts and become more invisible. This is also the city where J.K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter novel, and they said their capes were her  inspiration for Harry's invisibility cape. This formal dress is not usually worn to class these days and professors tend to think that someone who does wear the suit to class must be spending too much time on non-studious activities.

Both men were also involved in a group called a 'tuna', which is a musical club. The clubs are unisex in part because when they were co-ed, they tended to split up as relationships developed and ended. John sings and plays the classical guitar, while Joe described himself as a cheerleader, though not the kind with pom poms. Tuna membership can be for life and there are reunions of the groups. We saw a couple of tunas getting ready to perform outside our hotel over the last few days, but never got to listen.

From the coffee shop, we walked to the famous bookstore that J.K. Rowling used for  more inspiration. You have to buy a ticket to get in and wait in line to enter. The place was crawling with people looking around and taking pictures everywhere. We are not that into Harry Potter, so we escaped within 15 minutes. Then we started ambling to lunch, stopping in a few shops along the way. Iwona was born in Poland and was very excited to see a shop specializing it all kinds of slavic countries' foods.

It was a mob scene in front of the book store.

Picture is blurry but it is the best one to show
the layout of the place.

Second floor. When is the last time you have seen so many
folks in a bookstore??

Where's Lynn? I almost match the paint on the stairs!

As we walked to lunch, we passed a pair of conjoined churches with very different personalities. One was Carmelite and I think the other was Franciscan, but I no longer am sure which is which.

The two different churches are physically connected.

Inside of church one

Inside of church two

After lunch, we walked with Steve across the top level of the bridge near our hotel and came back on the lower level to pack for the trip home.

These are the houses that line the hills next to the funicular.
Not exactly a high rent district.

The Douro river, looking east with lots of tourist boats along
the waterfront.

Our hotel

Our room is on the corner, a floor above
the balcony.

Houses along the Douro that you might call "fixers".

This looked like military barracks, stacked up on the hill.

Looking back at the bridge after we crossed.

Curious spiral ladder rose up in the middle
of the bridge leg for maintenance access.

Jim on the bridge lower level.

The funicular we were on from the bridge.

On the way to our farewell dinner by bus, the sunset was
too pretty to ignore, even shooting thru the window as
we drove. I had to airbrush out a couple of lights from the
bus that  looked like UFOs. Can you find them?