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Porto 3 29 16
The day began with a half-day tour of Porto, while the rain continued.
We took some photos of the very attractive Porto landscape from the bus. Porto is Portugal's second largest city with a population of 1.4 million.
It looks like one church in the background but it is actually two churches. Churches were forbidden to have common walls so a narrow house was built in-between. In this case the house separated monks at one church from nuns at the other.
The Porto City Hall is in the distance with a statue of Peter IV in the foreground in Freedom Square.
Porto like Lisbon has streetcars, adding to the city's charm.
After the bus tour, we switched to a boat to float down the Douro River passing the Dom Luis I Bridge, opened in 1886.
The Gaia cable car system opened in 2011. It provides views of some of the Porto wine cellars.
Very interesting landscapes as we floated down the river.
Train crossing the Dom Luis I Bridge.
Our Porto local guide, very knowledgable about the city and the port wine cellar we were about to visit.
The Episcopal Palace or Bishop's House of Porto. Dating from the 12th century and expanded during the 17th, it was used by bishops until the 19th century.
View from the river of both the Bishop's House on the left and the Clerics Tower in the distance on the right.
The boat for our river tour.
Porto is famous for…what else…port wine. We next visited Graham's, one of the world's leading makers of port wine. Its 1890 Lodge (wine cellar) has spectacular views of Porto.
Some of the recent history of Graham's.
Huge barrels house port wine while it matures.
The room was very cool and dark.
Notice the dates on the port wines.
Although it was early afternoon, we were scheduled to sample three ports.
Our wines were ready for the sampling.
The view of Porto from Graham's terrace.
Another view from the terrace.
After the tour concluded, we had time to walk around the center of Porto.
On everyone's "must see" list was a visit to the Lello bookshop in Porto. J.K. Rowling lived in Porto in the 1990s and the bookstore provided some inspiration for the Harry Potter stories.
The bookshop is so popular that they charge an admission fee that is refundable if you buy an item of greater value.
Lots of grandparents were buying presents for their grandchildren here.
We viewed one of Porto's electric trams as we continued our walk.
Once again, we returned to the Church of the Third Order of our Lady of Mount Carmel and the Church of the Carmelites separated by a narrow house.
The tiles depict scenes from the founding of the Carmelite religious order and Mount Carmel in Israel.
Description of the tile facade.
The interior of the Church of the Third Order of our Lady of Mount Carmel.
The Clerics Tower of the Church of the Clergymen. Construction began in 1732.
The Maria Pia Bridge, a railway bridge, built in 1877 by Gustave Eiffel. It carried trains across the Duoro River to Lisbon. A modern bridge replaced it in 1991. The bridge was the longest single-arch span in the world when built.
In the late afternoon, we arrived at the reception area of our hotel in Porto.
Part of the hotel's beautiful grounds on the river.
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