Boots on the Ground, Porto Portugal Part 2. Porto in Pictorial Form.

This time around it made sense to show you the visuals from this incredible place.

And visuals you shall have.

The weather was mostly gorgeous with a day or so of rain in the mix but the rain added a nice moody almost goth-like atmosphere. Some of the locations really stood out with a cloudy background.

The walking tour gathers.

That fucking sky is so blue it short circuits your brain.

What did we do to our skies here in the US?!?

WHAT DID WE DO???

The tour started out right here by City Hall. “Look for the red umbrellas” was our direction from their website. I found them eventually but not until I had gotten turned around like 6 times and also stumbled through the red light district. I swear I was only here as a tourist.

The tour guide told a story about there being a church on the other side of City Hall who complained and complained about new construction so near their church, so the city responded back by ensuring that the City Hall building was so big that it completely blocked the view of the church from the west.

This plaza is also like the gathering place for everything. Holidays, speeches, political rallies, protests, you name it.

I’m pretty sure this is the old city hall building.

And an obelisk nearby that was crowded and I didn’t do additional research on.

The tour guides broke into language specific groups.

This part of town, known as “Baixa” district, is filled with all of the bougie stores you would find in any major city but I ain’t into labels so that part didn’t enter into my thought processes.

Our first stop on the tour was the Sao Bento train station. It’s one of the “got to see” touristy things that was truly crowded as fuck this day. I’m glad I didn’t try this on a weekend.

See if this next one looks familiar at all.

The design of this station was the inspiration for the Kings Cross station in Harry Potter. You know? The station where the students loaded up to take the train to Hogwarts? Yes there is a Kings Cross station in London but without anything close to the style of this place. 

JK Rowling lived in Porto and used parts of the city for inspiration in her books.

Let’s check the schedule.

You can board here for about any destination in the Schengen area of Europe.

The train stations surroundings were a bit of a shit show since they’re adding in a subway stop and the construction was fucking nuts.

The station is known for its interior featuring their blue tile murals. Get used to the blue tiles in this town. Sao Bento station has “around twenty thousand azulejo tiles (551 square meters)” according to Wikipedia.

Let’s get a gander shall we?

Reminder: every one of these photos can be enlarged. The murals show Porto’s history and they are insanely fucking cool.

Let’s keep looking.

The murals also depict rural life in Portugal.

Look at the detail.

What will surprise absolutely nobody is how very catholic this city is. Still, most restaurants and bars were open on Sunday, they know where the Gravy Train is.

Speaking of churches…

Again, look at the sky! It’s almost unnatural. I’m pretty sure this is the “Igreja e Torre dos Clerigos.” Which you can see for miles around.

Do you like blue tiles with your churches?

This is “Igreja do Carmo.” The entire side is covered in the blue tiles.

You can see the construction around Sao Bento station in the background. There’s a kick ass Roman fountain right on this spot too.

We’ll get back to the blue skies in a bit but we’re on the church theme here.

I absolutely love this photo. The clouds just set the whole thing off. Please zoom in on this thing.

Oh yeah this would be the Igreja de Santo Ildefonso originally completed in 1739 but re-tiled with the azulejo tiles in 1932.

For the record I did NOT go in any of these churches because of my blatant atheism but I did hear the interiors are quite lovely with only a smattering of catholic guilt.

Another thing, see those stairs leading to the church? Those stairs with no handrails? Your ass is EARNING your church visit with that shit. No way my broken ass knees make that fucking climb.

Now do you like your churches with A LOT of blue tiles?

The Capela das Almas or “Chapel of Souls.” Let’s get a better look at the side.

A slightly different angle.

The murals depict the lives of saints. Your eyes will be seeing a blue tinge to everything for the next hour or so. With the clouds you can tell these were taken the following day.

Back to the walking tour and the sunny weather.

That’s better. Not sure on this one. My notes say “Church like structure” so, yeah. Let’s stick with that.

Porto isn’t laid out as a grid, there are plenty of streets that taper into major intersections resulting in many traffic circles that look like absolute fucking chaos to navigate and there are also 5-way and 6-way intersections which, ditto.

It’s cool how they use street corners to essentially assist in designing the buildings.

Lots of cool architectural tricks around. 

Not to mention brick and cobblestone streets.

Pretty interesting how they use the old buildings, UNESCO World Heritage Site remember? And they integrate new businesses into them.

Photo was obviously taken a different day.

The Saturday and Sunday that I was there saw the place swarming with European tourists. One of my Uber drivers said that on the weekends folks will fly in for a day or two on Ryanair for dirt cheap. Our tour guide said that Porto basically owed its survival to Ryanair. Once the discount airline started using Porto as a hub, the tourists arrived and the economy started to rebound. During the Early Aughts the country experienced a serious financial meltdown and it was the tourism and tax incentives that finally saw the country turn around.

Look, tourists!

The city was incredibly clean and nothing smelled bad! It was amazing.

You would find some occasional graffiti but I was told it’s a cross between art and politics and I guess a lot of people are pretty pissed off at their current mayor.

The walking tour was about 3 hours long and it ultimately ended at the Douro River.

First though, here’s a cool shot of what remains of the original city wall. Yes, Porto used to have a walled entrance from the river.

The river came into view.

One of my favorite shots from the trip.

Followed by some seriously hairy stone steps that were close to 1,000 years old and again with no goddamn handrails.

I function perfectly on flat surfaces and just fine up hills but stairs completely fuck with my knees and this staircase was one long winding motherfucker.

Finally.

There’s a bridge where you can cross the river to Gaia and the port wine facilities.

Got about a quarter of the way across then remembered I’m not super swell with heights either. Hey, these are my issues and I can deal with them.

And this lovely edifice…

Is the Puente Doña María Pía bridge [I’m pretty sure? There are a shitload of bridges in this town] built by Gustave Eiffel in 1877. Yes, that Eiffel.

As you may have noticed from that last shot there are TONS of restaurants along the river. This area is called the Ribiera District and all of those cool colorful buildings are mostly hotels and Airbnb rentals.

I dined with an absolutely lovely couple from Dublin who told me I could stay at their home any time I came to Ireland to visit and I damn sure am considering the offer.

Finally after all that walking and hills and food and wine I sure as shit was not walking back to my room so a quick and cheap Uber ride was the order of the day.

And I know several of you are curious about certain things so here’s one you can cross off your list.

Yes, they do.

SO? Anyone want to be my neighbor in a few years? I’ll set up the landing spot and let you know the details when I get there.

Part three coming soon.