Porto, Take II

 We had a morning tour of the area and were on the bus and ready to go at 8:30am.  An overcast morning drive down Avenida Da Boavista (the longest avenue in Porto, and also the one on which our hotel is located) to where it ends at the Atlantic Ocean.  The Boston Crew had walked there yesterday (it doesn't look far on a map, but it's a few miles there and back) and said the city park (Parque da Cidade) is lovely.  From there we turned south and headed down Av. de Montevideu before a quick stop at Jardim do Passeio Alegre - best known toilets in Porto!  Maria, our guide for the morning, was quite serious about that because, as it turns out, the toilets have Art Nouveau tiles inside (and no, you cannot use the restroom there for free, you must pay).  The garden had some lovely fountains as well, but we didn't stay long enough for me to have a proper perusal.

Bathroom tiles

From there we headed to the Stock Exchange (it's not really a stock exchange anymore, but the name stuck), the home of the Commercial Association of Porto.  It's a beautiful building with a neoclassical facade.  It houses lots of paintings and lovely carved granite.  But the pinnacle is the "Arabian Hall" - a stunning room full of gold-gilded tiles from floor to ceiling, absolutely spectacular and well worth the 18 years it took to finish building.  

While there we learned about some of the history of Portugal.  King Pedro IV (he was also King Pedro I of Brazil, just to keep things confusing) had a daughter named Maria. She became the only European monarch to have been born outside of Europe (though she was still born in Portuguese territory).  Anyway, the death of Maria's grandfather (King Dom João VI) sparked a crisis because her father, King Pedro had claimed thee independence of Brazil (and himself as Emperor there).  There was another male heir Miguel (or Michael for those of us English speakers), but he'd been exiled for causing problems.  Since King John hadn't proclaimed which of his sons was the next ruler, and Brazil didn't want to be united with Portugal under one monarch again, Pedro decided he'd give the throne to Maria (only 7 at the time), she married her Uncle Miguel (crazy, but true) and he would act as regent until Maria was old enough to rule.  A civil war broke out in 1828 (known as the Liberal Wars) after Miguel agreed to the plan, but then arrived in Portugal and quickly deposed Maria and proclaimed himself as King.  Maria was restored to the throne in 1834, and her former-fiance (Uncle Miguel) was exiled to Germany.  The final king of Portugal, Manuel II, was exiled in 1910 after a revolution which ended the monarchy.

Whew...that was your history lesson for the day.  From there we took a wet walk over to Igreja de Sao Francisco (Saint Francis Church), a Gothic church covered in gold-covered, wooden, Baroque carvings.  

No photos allowed inside, which I thought was a tad odd since it's no longer a church.  The Italian Friars arrived in Porto in the 13th century, but since the friars were originally beggars the bishop wouldn't allow them to live inside the city walls.  They eventually grew quite rich and built the church in the 14th century.  The friars left in 1834 and the church closed.  When they reopened it as a museum they decided keeping the bodies buried there was no longer appropriate, so they moved them to some catacombs across the street.

Another rainy walk towards the southern side of the Duoro River, over Ponte de Louis I (Louis I Bridge was built by a student of Eiffel), and into VIlla Nova de Gaia.  

Although only across the river, it's a completely different city and actually has a larger population than Porto.  When in Port, you do a Port tasting.  We headed to Burmester Winery to learn about Port making and then to try some.  To make port they had wine spirits to fermenting wine which stops the fermentation process and keeps the sugars.  The Duoro Valley is a demarcated wine region (much like the Champagne Valley in France) and is actually the first such region in the world (and therefore the oldest).  The grapes are grown in the valley, harvested by hand, and then transported to Porto to be aged.  They can use 100 different varieties of grapes to make port, but Burmester uses only 18.  The white port was very sweet, hints of honey, and even the tawny port was sweet, but I still preferred the white.

A rainy walk back to our bus, and then we were deposited back at our hotel.  A snack-lunch of tuna and crackers (my long-time readers will recognize my preferred travel snack), while drying out and waiting for the rain to end (by 4:30 it had stopped) gave me time to journal and upload photos before heading back out for the evening.

My fado performance for the evening was at Ideal Clube de Fado, where they advertise you can "Discover the most authentic tradition of classic Fado in an intimate concert with renowned Porto artists."  It was highly recommended on the internet, and for good reason!  As their website states, 

"There are many ways to sing the Fado, but among our artists we cultivate a passion for the origins of this song, which was included in UNESCO’s lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2011. At Ideal Clube de Fado, we believe that each concert is a live act of creation, a unique experience that is renewed every day and drinks from the inexhaustible source of this strange way of life that is to be Portuguese."

There article here attempts to explain the difficulty people have in defining fado (and what fado is not). 

Porto, Portugal - And so it begins

 Blessedly, my travels to Portugal (by way of Philly and Madrid) were uneventful, sleepless, but uneventful.  My nascent Spanish does help in reading Portuguese (and some in listening comprehension), but does not help in figuring out how to pronounce things.  Portuguese is the 5th most spoken language in the world, granted, that's mostly because of Brazil, but it's still an impressive statistic for a language that doesn't come to mind when I think of languages most spoken around the world.  Oddly enough, the first Portuguese speakers I ever remember meeting was when I lived in Japan.  Anyway, back to Porto.  It is home to the second largest university in the country which was founded in 1911.  The country has both private and public schools (for primary, secondary, and university level).

I arrived at my hotel around 1pm, and my tour manager, Nelia, met me in the lobby - I must have been easy to spot because she asked right away if I was with Gate1 (maybe traveling alone does have its advantages at times).  I was relieved to know my room was ready and I could go relax and try to get a power nap (6am the previous day was a distant memory of when I'd last slept).  After gaining some energy I decided to walk to the market.  It was a fantastic spring afternoon with mid-60's weather, plenty of sunshine, and barely a cloud to be seen.

Casa da Musica

There were some lovely parks, the iconic Casa da Musica, stunning tile-fronted buildings on the Rue Alvares Carbal, and plenty of little shops.  I walked maybe 2k before I started feeling like I was getting blisters on my heels.  I had needed to stay awake, and it was lovely outside, so turning back despite not reaching my destination didn't bother me - I didn't want to start my tour with blisters anyway!  The walk did keep me awake and out of the room long enough that when I returned I was able to do some journaling before heading down to the tour orientation and welcome dinner.

Oddly enough, I'm the only solo traveler on this tour, normally there are a small handful of us.  Not a worry, I found a lovely group of 11 friends/family from Boston and they welcomed me to the open spot at their table.  We are 42 people total, and we did go around the room and give a brief introduction, but I couldn't hear everyone.  This tour is also comprised entirely of Americans (no Brits or Australians this time), although about 1/3 of those are first generation immigrants to the U.S.  We have Russians, Iranians, Chinese, and Sri Lankans which helps keep things interesting.  Dinner was a tasty meal of pumpkin soup, sea bass, cabbage, mashed potatoes, and a chocolate mouse torte for dessert.  By 9:30pm all of us where exhausted and everyone started to head off to bed.