Breakfast in the hostel around 9am, but late departure from the hostel for the day (10.30am). We walked down our street and another commercial one to end up outside the Igreja (= church) do Carmo.
The church has a stunning side wall made of frescos of famous portuguese tiles. The tiles are blue and white and called azulejos. Inside the church it is really heavily decorated, which was surprising compared to churches we visited before in the rest of Europe, but kind of similar to the ones in Mexico.
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| Igreja do Carmo - tiled wall |
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| 1st couple selfie of this holiday |
Weather is not cold but grey. We continued walking towards the town center, passing the Igreja dos Clérigos, the main square with at its end the town hall (Camara Municipal), and the Igreja dos Congregados. From there we went to the train station Sao Bento which is famous for it's tile work too (plus we looked at trains for Braga).
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| train station Sao Bento |
We followed the walking tour suggested by the travel book and went up old fortifications and had a good view of the bridge Ponte Dom Luis I, build by an apprentice from Gustave Eiffel.
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| Damien and Ponte Dom Luis I |
Then we headed for the Sé (= Cathedral) and its cloister. The cathedral was not that impressive but the cloister is worth paying for. The wall are covered of Azulejos.
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| Porto's Sé and its cloister |
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| Courtyard of the cloister |
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| Cloisters' walls |
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| The big fresco of Azulejos above the cloister |
The historical center of Porto is a UNESCO World Heritage site. We headed back to the center of town, bought some take away lunch and had a picnic in a park. Before walking all the way to Casa da Musica.
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| Pizza slice, bola de carne, batata con carne, bolinhos de bocalau |
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| Jardim de João Chagas |
Time for some architecture! Casa da Musica is a concert hall build by the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, opened since 2005. We took a guided tour in English and got the chance to see much of the building.
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| Casa da Musica from outside |
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| Inside the main concert hall |
On our way back to the center of town, we stopped at the park Jardims do Palacio de Cristal and walked in the gardens and had a really nice view of the Douro river.
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| Jardims do Palacio de Cristal |
The sun is getting low, but we managed to do one more thing, we went up the tower of the Igreja dos Clérigos. Which is the highest point in the center of Porto. We saw the sunset from there.
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| Tower of the Igreja dos Clerigos and a tram |
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| Panorama of the city center |
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| Sunset in the horizon above the Atlantic Ocean |
Heading to the hostel we went passed the closed famous bookshop, luckily the light was on inside and we could see a part of the beautiful staircase. Found a place to eat, recommended by the French travelling book (Guide du Routard), but it was a huge disappointment for dinner...
Another night in the private room in Eden House.
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