Porto Preparation

In preparation for the Portuguese Coastal Camino, we are spending a couple of days in Porto getting acclimatised. There is a lot so see and do here.

The Grande Hotel do Porto is a lovely place to stay and very close to the old town where most of the things to see and do are situated.

The day started by walking downhill (and Porto is very hilly) towards Porto Cathedral. This pre-Romanesque church is mentioned in the De Expugnatione Lyxbonensi as being present in 1147, so it is assumed that construction of the present building began in the second half of the 12th century and work continued until the 16th century. There were major Baroque additions in the 18th century, and further changes were made in the 20th century.

We continued downhill to the waterfront for a coffee and soak up the sun, before the crowds started. It wasn’t too long before tour groups from cruise ships started filling the waterfront cafes.

The only way back to the hotel for an ice cream before heading off to our afternoon guided tour was up a series of (very steep) flights of steps – definitely got some good leg exercise stored up for starting the Camino.

We started the tour at the Portuguese Centre of Photography which was a prison during the dictatorship of Antonio de Oliveira Salazar – 1933-1974 but in now a very different building. The author Camilo Castelo Branco was imprisioned there for adultery and wrote his book Amor de Perdición (Love and Perdition) while incarcerated. Next stop was the Livraria Lello which, along with Bertrand in Lisbon, it is one of the oldest bookstores in Portugal and frequently rated among the top bookstores in the world (placing third in lists by guidebook publisher Lonely Planet). Local legend has it that JK Rowling used the staircase as inspiration for her Harry Potter books (she lived in Porto for a couple of years).

Next stop was São Bento station, constructed over a number of years, starting in 1904, based on plans by architect José Marques da Silva. The large panels of around twenty thousand azulejo (tin glazed ceramic) tiles (551 square meters) were designed and painted by Jorge Colaço. The murals represent moments in the country’s history and the multicolored panels depict rural scenes showing the people of various regions.

We the crossed the Dom Luís Bridge over to the town of Vila Nova de Gaia. At its construction, its 172 metres (564 ft) span was the longest of its type in the world. and the project was initially proposed In 1879 by Gustave Eiffel as a new bridge over the Douro, with a high single deck in order to facilitate ship navigation.

The last part of the day was the very touristy boat tour of the 6 Duoro bridges. The temperature dropped and the wind picked up noticeably as we passed under the last bridge before the sea, but only for a short while as we turned back to the mooring.

Tuesday started with a visit to the Majestic Cafe. The cafe originally opened in 1922 and was designed to look like a Parisian cafe in the Art Nouveau style by the architect José Pinto de Oliveira. It was originally an exclusive and upmarket cafe that acted as a place for the elitist members of society to meet. JK Rowling conformed that she wrote some of Harry Potter while sitting in this cafe. The pastéis de nata was absolutely delicious.

Next stop was the Tower of the Igreja dos Clérigos. Construction of the church began in 1732 and was finished in 1750, while the bell tower and the monumental divided stairway in front of the church were completed in 1763. The tower is 75.6 metres high, dominating the city while there are 240 steps to be climbed to reach the top of its six floors and have a commanding view of the city

Final tourist part of the day was a visit to the Museum and Stadium of PC Porto. The museum was very impressive – an interesting point being that FC Porto stood against the dictatorship and has to face many sporting “incidents” as preference was given to Lisbon based teams.

Helena is joining us later today for the first couple of days walking. Tomorrow morning we start the Camino and head up / along the coast to Povoa de Varzim.