Portugal, Spain and Dubai Day 2 Porto Portugal. 22 Sept 25

We met our guide in the hotel lobby for a walking tour of Porto. His name is Goncalo.
We started our tour at the Porto Train Station , it was formerly a monastery but was resumed by the Portuguese government at the end of the Portugal civil war in 1834. In 1896 it was converted to train station when last nun died. The main entrance to the station has vast mosaics covering its walls. The mosaics tell the history of Portugal. It was a really interesting way to learn their history, by story and graphics. It covers the times since the fall of the Roman Empire, the Visigoths period, Moors, Christians, trading, wine, exploration and a few local legends. Without Goncalo, it would have just been a meaningless four walls of blue tiles pictures.
A few interesting facts to come out of our visit. A School of Navigation was set up in Porto by Prince Henry the Navigator (the Head of the big statue of that name in Lisbon). He set the school up after his first return voyage to the new world so other Portuguese explorers learnt the knowledge he developed on his voyage. The inhabitants of Porto are known as “Tripe Eaters” , this is because that was primarily all that was all that was left eat after their explorers ships were provisioned with the better cuts of meat. We hadn’t heard the term Visigoth until we arrived in Portugal. It’s a term used to describe the Nordic tribes that came down to Portugal and dominated the region from the 5th to 8th century. (Think Vikings types). Green wine vines were originally grown up the trunks of trees to protect them from grazing livestock. Today one of the most prized Green Wines comes from Alvarinho grapes from the Melgaco region. The Portuguese drink an average of 60 litres of wine each per year.
In 1179 Portugal declared itself an independent country.
We walked all over the old part of Porto, looking at the buildings, learning more of its history and quirky behind the scenes things. Porto has one of the most famous bookstores in the world, we walked passed it. There was a very long queue of people outside patiently waiting to go in. The main plaza in the new part of town was designed by a British architect in the late 19th / early 20th century, I thought the building style(s) looked familiar.
A curiosity in Porto is the iconic twin churches, a pair of churches built side by side: the Igreja dos Carmelitas Descalços (the church on the left built in 17th century) and the Igreja do Carmo (the church on the right built in the 18th century). Under Portuguese law it was illegal to build churches side by side. So to get around this, a narrow three-foot-wide house, often called the “Casa Escondida” or Hidden House, was built between them. The house was inhabited until the 1980’s, it is now a museum.
The area around the twin churches is a place where to pilgrimage paths intersect. To assist the Pilgrim each path has a different coloured arrow to define the correct direction the pilgrims should take. Those on the Caminos de Fatima Pilgrimage follow blue arrows and those on the Portuguese Way of St. James (Caminho Português) follow the yellow arrows.
When we were in Lisbon we were told that Porto was a dark city and Lisbon was a light city, this comes back to Lisbon’s building favouring limestone and Porto’s favouring granite. The granite craftsmanship in Porto is amazing, the detailed masonry is a testament to their craftsmanship and patience
We had a look through the Museum of Commerce, another converted Monastery. The main courtyard surrounded by the old cloisters has many symbolic mosaics crafted into the floor and walls. The museum is a time capsule of Portugal’s golden era of trade, and the riches it brought.
From there we walked through the old Jewish part of town and down close to the Douro River. We said good bye to Goncalo and had lunch overlooking the River on Rua De S.Nicolav, at Restaurant Adega Soa Nicolau. We both had grilled Sea Bass, it was very good.
After lunch we walked back up the hill and over to the Ponte Luis I ( the Luis I Bridge ). It was reasonably busy with tourists crossing over and taking lots of photos. There is also a regular tram service each way across the bridge, the tam drivers make good use of their horns to warn errant tourists away from the tram lines. We did the tourist thing, walk over and back across the bridge and took the required photos and selfies.
From there we followed the road into town and back to our hotel. A really interesting day.