Porto, a Plethora of Posters

Casa O Muro
see all photos »

Another day, another train trip, this time Lisboa to Porto, nearly 3 hours travelling time. Up early, we are soon at the Santa Apolonia Station after catching the Metro to station. A modern streamlined train awaits us and as we leave the station we are served drinks of our choice, coffee, tea or juice from the service trolley. A little later as we hurtle along at nearly 200km per hour breakfast is served at a cost of 5.90 Euros each and it's much better than airline food! All this makes for extremely pleasant travelling through a country side that is far different to Spain, mixed agriculture, hardly an olive tree in sight and green forested hills. Porto is upon us quicker than we could of imagined and its the same old story of catching a cab to our hotel and being over charged as the driver takes a more circuitous route than necessary. We checked with the hotel after we were dropped off and the cost should have been about 5E not the nearly 8E we were charged. The problem is that is you don't have the knowledge of how the Metro/Buses connect with the Railway station and where they go and it's difficult to get to your hotel any other way other than by taxi. The stations don't make it any easier as most of the terminals have very little information on transport connections apart from where the trains go. As we discovered later it was only a 3 stop Metro ride to about a block away from the Hotel. Yes even Porto has a modern underground Metro system and is a slightly smaller city than Brisbane.

Tourist river boat
see all photos »

We are staying at Hotel Sao Jose, a bit more up market then we have been staying in recently, it even has leathered padded doors to each room, very swish! Unpacked and on the loose we head down into the heart of Porto, passing through the Central City Markets which are only partially open due to the time of day and decide to  do a very uncharacteristic tourist thing and catch the "Porto Train" for a one hour ride around the city at a cost of 7 Euros each. We are the only dummies aboard and enjoy a slow but bumpy ride around the main tourist sights while a multilingual commentary runs, sometimes in sync with where we are and sometimes not. The train starts and finishes at the Porto Se Catedral so it’s a Church visit to end the day. This Cathedral is built of granite as are many of the buildings in Porto so the colours are more that grey granite kind rather than expanses of washed limestone, a more subdued kind of scene with lots of mosaics of all colours on the exteriors of the buildings. For us the most impressive part of the cathedral is a room, probably used for administration originally, that had a magnificent wooden and painted ceiling.

one that will stick in our memories of Porto for a long time

Elusive Chinese Restaurant
see all photos »

A wrong turn means a slightly longer walk back to the hotel but we get there eventually. In our meanderings we have noticed the extraordinary number of bill posters everywhere, almost an art form, advertising all sorts of cultural and film events. Its something we haven't noticed in other places we have visited to date. There are large and small posters of the same design and sometimes some up 5 or 6 metres square. Every available space is used, much more pleasant than the ever present graffiti in Lisbon. There is of course graffiti here but not on the same scale. Another oddity of Porto is the incredible number of shoe shops, every street seems to have at least one.

Poster 1
see all photos »

Porto is not a culinary haven and does not seem to have a great deal of bars or cafes in the style we have become accustomed to on our trip. All around our hotel are snack/cafeteria type places that basically serve fast food and the "coronary" delight, a speciality of these parts called a Francesinha. This is a bit like a hamburger but thicker with the whole lot covered with melted cheese and a beer and tomato sauce and served with chips, we saw them being served and decided No Thankyou. Our search wides as we desperately seek somewhere reasonable to eat, even the inevitable Chinese restaurant will do, until eventually we find a place called Regaleira which is more like a restaurant and has a good and reasonably priced seafood menu. Not until we had sat down and ordered drinks did we realise that it was also a renowned Francesinha restaurant!

Poster 2
see all photos »

We indicated we wanted to order off the menu and almost immediately this plate of what looked for all the world like a spade full of the beach with mussels, seaweed and strange tubular things attached to weird shells was put in front of us. What do we do with this? The waiter then showed us how to pull the outer casing off the tube attached to the shell and you were left with a thin length of raw seafood to eat. I tried it first and it was absolutely delicious, crab like with that lingering taste of the sea. After a few more I finally convinced a dubious Carol to try one and she was hooked, we demolished the whole plateful before our mains arrived. The rest of the meal was good as we both ordered seafood it and made for an enjoyable evening albeit quite a late meal.

Poster 3
see all photos »

We were told the appetisers were called Percebes and are gathered from rocks along the ocean edge. Good old Google came in handy after tea and we learned they were goose neck barnacles and considered an expensive delicacy, we had been served them as a free appetiser! Another great experience and I would recommend you try them if you ever get the chance. We later saw them advertised in a Vigo restaurant at 160 Euros for a plate!

The Porto Train!
see all photos »

Breakfast the next morning is an entertaining time, the usual continental style hotel food but we have one of the most sour faced waitresses I have ever seen, sucking a lemon wouldn't be that bad. She clearly doesn't want to be there, won't help anybody, drops a tray full of dirty crockery and crashes the crockery together, clean or dirty. It's a wonder the hotel has any unchipped plates and cups at all, she should realise that these days we are the reason she is working.

Cathedral organ
see all photos »

Penance time for me today after another church visit yesterday. Carol has decreed we are visiting the local shopping centres and Central Market and I am tagging along while she gets her fix, bling shops included. In the Central Markets it is very noticeable to us that all the stalls/shops are run by women, there is a rare man helping in some instances but the women appear to be the bosses. Eventually Carol's fix works and we walk down to the Douro River where we can see all the Port warehouses or caves on the opposite side, lots of tourist coaches parked all around them and tourist boats plying up and down the river, we reckon to avoid all that. It's a lovely day, blue skies, a little hazy and a light breeze and soon we find a small cafe one level up from the boardwalk along the rivers edge called Casa O Muro.

Cathedral ceiling
see all photos »

A wonderful spot to watch the boats pass by and just relax and hear people chatting in a variety of languages with quiet and unobtrusive background music playing. About 4 hours later after a few beers, olives, octopus salad, a ham and cheese plate, fresh bread and a carafe of Sangria we pay the bill and slowly start the climb up the hill photographing posters and signs. Suddenly lo and behold there is that Chinese restaurant we were desperately seeking last night but it's closed! We also solve another mystery, if you have been reading our tales (mostly true) you will have read about avoiding those dreaded doggie droppings throughout Spain. Well in Portugal no such problem and why, well the local councils have doggie dropping bins and we've got the photo to prove it. By the way check out our photo of Apple's latest product being trialled here in Porto.

Collection box
see all photos »

A most relaxing time and one that will stick in our memories of Porto for a long time. Now we must move on again before something spoils the memories, tomorrow Vigo and Spain once more.