Porto, Portugal

We arrived in the port city of Leixoes, Portugal, early yesterday morning, Tuesday, May 1, for a half-day visit to Porto, Portugal's second largest city.  A very short, and to be sure inadequate, visit, but an introduction nevertheless to a beautiful place, and one well worth coming back to for an extended stay.  Porto is known for its port wines and historic architecture.  Its fate was sealed when the barcos rabelos delivered the first wine shipments here from vineyards in the Douro Valley.

I walked all around the ship on an outside deck early in the morning before our scheduled departure time to visit Porto.  Unlike most ports we've been to, which either had no cruise ship terminal facilities at all or very modest and dated ones, this port has a beautiful modern passenger terminal building and ramp system.  (Click on any photos to enlarge them.)

    

Here are other views of the port area from the ship, including a few showing Leixoes' beautiful beach.

        

We had limited time here, with an all aboard deadline of 1 p.m.  So we decided not to do an organized tour but, rather, just take the Viking-provided bus into Porto, a ride we were told would take about 20 to 25 minutes, and explore on our own.  When we disembarked and entered the terminal, we were greeted by a local welcoming troupe performing Portuguese ritual dance.

    
I made the assumption, based on nothing factual, that the ride to Porto would be on a highway of some sort and not particularly picturesque.  Wrong.  The distance between Leixoes and Porto is actually quite short, but the route is on local roads (very nice roads) along the beach and through residential areas, so the bus drove at relatively slow speeds, which we actually welcomed because we were able to take in the visuals along the way.  The beach area is very appealing.  For the most part, the only people out at this hour (about 8:15 a.m. on a holiday (May Day)) were runners, bikers, walkers and dog walkers.  As you undoubtedly know, Europeans tend to start their day later than we do, and have dinner much later in the evening than we do.  Note the photo of the cruise terminal and our ship in the distance.

              

At a certain point, the bus turned away from the beach and toward downtown Porto.  This part of the drive was along a very attractive 4-lane road with a biking/jogging path in the center, lined with flowers, all the way to the city.

  

The homes along this route were upscale and not unlike what we often see in the states.

      

We knew we were close to downtown when we sighted the first of the several bridges across the Douro River for which Porto is known.  Does the design of this bridge remind you of anything or anyone?  It, and others, here were designed by Gustave Eiffel before he began work on the Eiffel Tower.

  
                                   

The first major building we passed in town before we were dropped off was the courthouse.  Quite impressive.

  

We began our walk in the hope of covering as much of downtown as possible before having to meet the bus at 11:45 for the return drive to the ship.  Along the way we encountered many monuments of one sort or another.  Here are just a few.

                                                                    

There are also attractive structures around town like this kiosk.

Particularly prominent from several different parts of this very hilly downtown is this gorgeous Baroque-style clock/bell tower, called the Cleriogos Tower or Clergyman's Tower, part of the church of the same name, located in the Cordoaria district.

                                                            

As you can see, the church itself is adorned with ornamentation in the same style.  Here are a few more shots of it.

               

Porto is often referred to as the City of Granite.  There are endless examples of majestic granite buildings throughout the downtown.

                                                                                         

A building not to be missed is the railroad station.  It is known particularly for its tile murals that depict the history of Porto.  I've included a photo of the architect's signature on the outside of the building.  An elegant touch of the sort I've just never seen before.  Note the happy camper in the last frame.

                                                 
                                

Another historic building is the Stock Exchange Palace built in the 19th century, although it no longer serves as a stock exchange.  Aside from the few rooms shown below, admission was by ticket only and there were no more tour tickets available for the morning we were there.

                                                                       

More prevalent than any other style of building to be found throughout Porto's downtown area is a kind faced in ceramic tile.  They come in all shapes and sizes and can be very colorful.

                                             

There are other styles as well, such as these examples.

                
                

This building near the riverfront is reputed to be the birthplace of Prince Henry the Navigator, said to be Portugal's most famous explorer.

There are also some interesting doorways around town.

                                

Even the interiors of some shops feature colorful decoration.  Here's a sardine store with interesting ceiling and walls, for example.

                 

Porto also has an actively running tram line dating back to 1895.

           

Another appealing neighborhood in Porto is the so-called Ribeira district along the Douro.  Some of the tile-faced buildings shown above are in this district.

    

On the other side of the river are the wineries that produce the port wines that Porto made famous, and vice versa.

    

When we returned to the area where we were to catch our bus back, I noticed yet one more unique feature, trees growing on the roof of this not unattractive mall-type building next to the bus stop.

The ride back simply re-traced our original route and was uneventful.  We did pass this performance hall that I hadn't noticed on the way into town.

When we got back to the beach area in Leixoes we could see lots of surfers on their boards in the water, but I wasn't able to get any good shots of them.  We did see these surfers on land who apparently were calling it a day.  We also passed some cars like this one making clear again that biking and surfing are among the recreational activities that people enjoy here.

  

As we approached the ship we were greeted, as usual, by a crew member offering us a hot towel for face and hand wiping.  Oh, have we been spoiled!

What happened next was this over-the-top welcome back onboard by several of the crew (staged, of course, but nice nevertheless) of the kind that we were treated to every so often, but not regularly, during the cruise.  That's Janis's back in the first frame.  And the guy in the middle of the last frame is one of our two cabin stewards, Rommel, who is from the Philippines.

                                                  

This next team was there to hand us glasses of Porto's port wine.

  

Here's a photo of Janis and the ship's general manager, Sujith Moran, who does an incredible job running the place.  (Of course, under the law of the seas, the captain is the master of the ship, but Sujith is effectively in charge of everyone and everthing except for the navigation of the ship itself.)

Our sailaway, like most of them have been, was beautiful to watch.  Note the different angles of the cruise terminal as we moved away from the pier.

                                         

And, then, finally, the ritual of the pilot boat circling back to pick up the pilot.  I love watching this.  (Can't you tell?)

        

We loved our introduction to Porto and hope to return here one day.

We're now at sea on our way to Greenwich/London.  We'll arrive on Friday, have one day there with British friends and then fly home on Saturday morning.  What a trip this has been!!!  So, faithful blog followers, that's all she wrote.  (Of course, time and distance will undoubtedly offer perspectives on this whole journey that for us may not be entirely apparent at the moment.  For now, suffice it to say that we feel so fortunate to have been able to do this and to see and experience so many amazing places in the world that we otherwise would not likely get to visit.)   Thanks to all of you for taking this ride with us and for your welcomed comments along the way.