Lover of Wine – Travel along on our adventures – DAVID & JANEEN

Porto, the city on the right bank of the Douro River and the starting point of our actual river cruise, is considered to be the second largest city in Portugal after Lisbon – but that is only if you include all the surrounding areas as many of the “locals” have moved out for better housing, leaving the interior of the city with a lot of empty buildings. Our boat, the Queen Isabel was docked on the Gaia side of the river (the left bank – the Douro separates the cities of Porto and Gaia).

Our first full day, after getting all settled in to our cabin, was a walking tour of the City. Janeen, fighting off a cold, stayed ‘home’ to rest and I took the adventure trail with the group doing the “do as locals do” which is the phrase they use for the more active walking tour.

The City is very picturesque and offers any number of beautiful sites to see.

Our trip included a walk across the steel Dom Luis I Bridge. This double deck bridge with light rail and pedestrians at the top and general traffic and pedestrians on the lower deck was designed, in part by Gustave Eiffel and built in the late 1800’s. From there it was a short climb to the Porto cathedral.

The Cathedral sits on the highest point and has a commanding view of the City.

From there we took a short walk to catch the local tram – not really a local’s thing to do as it is very slow and not running on schedule often.  It seems all the trams came from the United States sometime during the 1940’s.

The Train station was a treat – with wonderful tile murals on the walls depicting the history of the country.

Walking though the City was enjoyable. We visited parts of the City we (Janeen and I) had not visited in our visit 10 years ago. It is sad, however, to see all the empty buildings as many are in poor condition waiting for someone to come with lots of money to fix them up.

After the tour, we got back to the boat for various beverages and a discussion by the cruise director on the upcoming events for the trip.   Tomorrow, Tuesday, we start heading up river!

Sunday we packed everything up and loaded on the bus to head to Porto to board the boat for the river portion of the UniWorld adventure. However, after stopping for lunch we went to visit the Library at the University of Coimbra. This is one of the oldest universities in Europe having started in the 1290 in Lisbon and moved a coupe of times until it reached a final location in Coimbra 1537.

Our main stop was the old library. This was built between 1717 and 1728; it is one of the exponents of the Baroque Portuguese and one of the richest European libraries. It consists of three floors: it was completed in 1728 began receiving the first books after 1750, and currently its collection comprises some 40,000 volumes. Richly decorated in the Baroque style it was an interesting site.

After the Library we paid a short visit to the to the Capela de Saint Miguel. The original chapel most likely dates from the 16^th Century and the decorations clearly show that influence.

The organ, mounted between two windows, is really way oversized for the space. The chapel is still used for worship and other ceremonies’

After the visit to the University we completed our drive to Porto and boarded the Queen Isabella.

Saturday was an excursion to two different places – the Palace of Queluz and the Palace of Sintar. First stop was the Palace of Queluz.

This was one of the last great Rococo buildings to be designed in Europe, the palace was conceived as a summer retreat for Dom Pedro of Bragaza,  later to become husband and then king consort  to his own niece, Queen Maria I.

Work on the palace began in 1747 and was used for a number of years but after 1826 it slowly fell from favor. In 1908 it became property of the state. Over the years it has had fires, earthquake damage and lack of maintenance. Recently there has been a series of restorations undertaken to return it to its original condition.

We entered from the “public” side of the building, the not so formal face that is presented to the City and toured a number of different rooms. Our guide, Isabel (part of the UniWorld crew) gave great information about the furniture, designs of the rooms and historical events that occurred in the spaces.

After the interior tour we went through the gardens (always a highlight for Janeen) and back to the bus for our next Palace.

The Palace of Sintra is not as opulent as the Palace of Queluz and is the best preserved of the medieval royal residences in Portugal. It was occupied from the early 15^th century to the late 19^th century.

After we were finished up touring the Palace of Sintra, we headed towards the coast and to the small town called Cascais. This resort focused town had lots of new homes as well as well kept places of some substance. However, as it was getting closer to 2 in the afternoon, my particular goal was lunch.

After lunch, back to the bus and our hotel.

Friday was City Tour time with the bus and large groups using the headphone system to hear what the guild has to say. Our first stop was in Belém at the Monument to Fallen Soldiers.

The represented a dark period in Portugal’s modern history that ultimately resulted in the overthrow of the Salazar dictatorship but the toll on Lisbon was extremely high as many of the soldiers families originated from the capital. The Overseas War took the lives of over 9,000 soldiers and lasted between 1961 and 1974 as Portugal desperately tried to retain its African colonies.

From there, it was a short walk to the Belém Tower. The Tower built in the early part of the 16^th century is a fortified tower and was part of the defense system at the mouth of the Tagus River. Having survived for so long, including a major earth quack in 1755, it is the Ceremonial Gateway to Lisbon.

From there we boarded the buses and made our way to the Monument to the Discoveries. This monument was created to celebrate the achievements of the explorers during the Age of Discoveries and the creation of the Portugal’s empire.

The Age of Discoveries started in 1415 with the capture of the North African city of Ceuta by the Portuguese and reached a peak at the turn of the sixteenth century when Vasco da Gama discovered a shorter route to India and Pedro Álvares Cabral discovered Brazil.

The creation of trade posts and colonies on the new trade routes led to a Portuguese empire that spanned three continents, bringing wealth to Portugal and Lisbon in particular.

The monument was built in 1960 on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of Henry the Navigator’s death. Henry the Navigator was a driving force behind the overseas exploration and he financed many of the expeditions.

The 171ft tall monument, shaped like a ship’s prow, stands at the marina in Belém, the starting point for many of Portugal’s explorers.  It shows more than thirty statues of people who played an important role in the discoveries. Leading the way is Henry the Navigator who is shown standing on the bow holding a model of a caravel. Behind him are king Afonso V – who supported the exploration and colonization of Africa – and the explorers Vasco da Gama (who found a direct route to India), Pedro Álvares Cabral (discoverer of Brazil) and Ferdinand Magellan (the first explorer to circumnavigate the world). They are followed by navigators, writers, missionaries, a mathematician, a cartographer and other figures from the era of the discoveries.

After this we took a rest on the bus while the rest of the group toured a Monastery (we had visited it on our first trip to Lisbon so didn’t need to do it again).

From there a brief walking tour of the old town and then back to the Hotel.

Once at the hotel we popped out for a bite to eat – found a VERY local place where Janeen had the fish! There were maybe 6 tables and a counter where you placed all your orders. Not any English being spoken in the place!

After a full breakfast, we packed up and headed out for the day. From our hotel, we crossed the street and immediately went through Edward VII park stopping along the way for a couple of pictures.

After our walk by the park, we headed to the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum. Founded upon his death, the museum houses the collection of ancient and more modern art collected during his lifetime. It took a while to work out all the legal issues but eventual the building was created and the collection put on display. It seems Gulbenkian spent a lot of time in the far-east – born in Turkey but raised in Portugal and France – his collection seems to be vast. Organized by time period starting with Greco-Roman art and moves through classical antiquity towards more modern times.

Various things caught our eye. The entire collection is well displayed and informative. After exploring the various displays we hit the cafeteria for a nice lunch.

After lunch we took Uber to the Castle Saint George.

Built in the mid-11^th century, during the Moorish period, the castle is situated on the most inaccessible area at the top of the hill – and we were glad the Uber driver could get us close to the entrance rather than have to hike up.

The views of the city are wonderful – lots of red tile roofs, different color buildings and a view of the river is well worth the effort to get there. Of course we had to climb up to get to the ramparts and walk along the upper walls.

On the way back down to get another ride, we say this pastry shop with wonderful tile work on face of the building.  No idea of the products sold are any good but the outside looked lovely.  This is really a typical situation with lots of tile on the outside of buildings sometimes telling a story or just decoration.

All in all a nice couple of sites for the day.