[Wednesday 5th and Thursday 6th September; Portugal Days 5 and 6, Porto Days 1 and 2]
I could say something hackneyed like “where does the time go?”, or I could simply acknowledge that I’m running out of blog time, so this post will not be much more than a series of photos and brief commentary.
I'm rapidly running out of superlatives. What a wonderful country; what a lovely city. We arrived early by train from Lisbon; after a trip
Our arrival point is the spectacular São Bento Railway Station. It's as much a stop off on the tourist trail as it is a railways station. When we arrived the place was full off tour groups in all languages ...
After checking into our apartment, it was off the market from some coffee and supplies ...
Then of course the obligatory wander down to the Douro River and across the Ponte Luis I ...
An amazing sculpture on a building on the other side of the river, made entirely of recycled/scrap materials.
Below is the actual start point of our Camino, the Sé do Porto, or Porto Cathedral. It's only about 200 metres from our apartment, so on Saturday when we start walking we'll head down the forecourt of the cathedral and start from there. It lacks some of the grandeur of some of the other cathedrals we've encountered. We went inside and collected our credencials from the front desk. The process of obtaining the credencial had none of the ceremony, or sense that it represented something of significance, which I clearly remember experiencing when we obtained our first one's in St Jean Pied de Port three years ago now. Then we sat down at the Pilgrim's Office in St Jean and were almost "interviewed", in a very gentle and respectful manner. Today when I asked if I could obtain a credencial the man behind the desk simply said "Two Euros (each)" and tossed them over the desk. The end result is the same; the process and the emotion attached to it very different. Ah, well.
At the bottom of the Avenida Dos Aliados, my namesake ...
At the top of the Avenida, the Porto City Hall. A very impressive building, inside and out ...
Inside City Hall ...
We climbed to the top of the Torre at the Igreja e Torre dos Clérigos. Spectacular views of the city. A bit squeezy on top!
That's all for today. Last day in Porto tomorrow, and then off on the walk.