November 20

A Day In Porto

We were up to the alarm today - one of the few days on the cruise we'll need to do that - so we could have some breakfast before heading out on our tour of Porto, Portugal.  The city sits right on the river and you can see from the panoramic view that the city was built and grew by levels.  In medieval times I cannot even imagine having to walk up and down those hills!  

We began by riding the bus through the lower levels and seeing some of the important buildings before we disembarked near the train station.  We walked up to the cathedral, which could easily be mistaken for a castle.....because originally it WAS a castle for the ancient city!  Inside we saw more examples of how the Portugese use the blue tile for decoration.  The most interesting story was of the "silver alter" which when the locals learned of Napoleon's impending invasion they walled it off and covered it with plaster.  The French NEVER knew it was there :)  

We walked back down the steep incline to the train station where were shown the famous tile murals.  If you look at the close-up you'll note that these murals are all individually painted tiles about four-by-four inches square.  They are laid out, painted from a sketch and glazed.  Then they are numbered and mounted to the walls.  THOUSANDS of them in the train station - most impressive.  

We were then given time to walk the shopping district.  We saw another cathedral decorated with hundreds of blue tiles, remarkable!  You can see in the photo of Kim and I  at the top the Christmas decorations going up for the upcoming Christmas Markets.  While going in and out of the shops I found my memento of the trip.  I'd asked our guide Filipina the other day what would be representative of Portugal and she said either a blue tile or a rooster figurine.  To which I replied, "What about a rooster blue tile!"  "Perfect" she said, and that's what I found today.  Finally, the weather forecast was for lots of rain today, but it was chilly and cloudy all morning, not a drop (thanks to Kim for carrying the umbrella!).  Literally the moment we closed the bus doors to head back to the ship it started raining!!!!