7/16 Porto's Beautiful Azulejo Everywhere
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07/16/2019 - 07/16/2019 79 °F
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The second largest city in Portugal, greater Porto is, like Kansas City, a metropolitan area comprised of many different cities; the population of the entire urban area is nearly 2.5 million. Port wine is named after Porto which was twice dubbed “The Best European Destination” by the Best European Destinations Agency (whoever that is). After a day and a half here, I concur. Come to Porto; you will be delighted with this place. Once an outpost of the Roman Empire, it dates from medieval times. It is very cool; the old town is old, the Douro riverfront is fun, the food is, so far, universally great.[float=right]
After breakfast in the Helgrim dining room, we were off on a Porto tour at 8:30. The Cathedral (along with São Francisco Church, for which construction began in 1383) sports an interior of Portuguese gilt woodwork. But it was the courtyard that caught our eye.Clerigos Tower is the highest point in this low city; it can be seen from just about everywhere. and the Livraria Lello & Irmão is known as the most beautiful bookstore in the world because of its stained glass skylight shielding a gorgeous wooden staircase. The Igreja do Carmo church sports a wonderful blue and white azulejos tile sidewall.
The town is the birthplace of Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460) and was home to then penniless J.K. Rowling who lived here from 1991 to 1993 and taught English as a foreign language. It was during that time that she outlined her concept for the entire seven-book Harry Potter series and gave birth to her daughter Jessica.
The Cais da Ribeira (the riverside area) is a wonderful piazza setting with a great view of the impressive Ponte Luís I Bridge which, amazingly, dates from 1886. Today, boys with a deathwish—or at least none of the wisdom that may come to them in a few years—leap to the Douro below. One jumps, one dives, two don’t. The Captain of The Helgrim tells us that, as a boy, he leapt from this bridge as do these young men. Now, he points out, he commands a ship that sails beneath it. The view from the bridge to the Douro River is wonderful, too wide to adequately capture on an iPhone camera.
We arrived here too late to celebrate Porto’s Festa de São João which lasts for just one night on June 23rd (St John’s Eve). My research shows that, for some reason, people hit each other with mallets to commemorate their patron saint, eat grilled sardines and dance a lot.
Everywhere in Porto there is azulejo tile, brought to Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) from Seville, Spain, by King Manuel I of Portugal in the 15th century. The area was then dominated by Islamic peoples and the word “azulejo” comes from the Arabic “zellige,” meaning, polished stone.
Imitated in a limited way on Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza, here blue and white azulejos art, created here in many workshops, is seen in Porto’s Cathedral, the São Bento Station, the Igreja do Carmo church and spectacularly at many other places, particularly the Capela des Almas chapel. The tiles tell picture-book stories, most of a religious nature—typical of the times—no more so that at the impressive central Campania train station.One of my favorite things at the station, however, was watching a mom teach her youngest how to photograph her oldest.
We enjoyed a coffee at the Majestic Café—a tourist trap to be sure but one in which it is most pleasant to be caught. Ward and Donna picked up the tab for Jim, Becky, B4 and me. We were all amused by precisely aligned pigeons only to realize that they were fake news aimed at keeping real pigeons at bay. They tell us that it works.. Up Rua de Santa Catarina, we were more accurately enchanted by a sculpture festooned façade.
Traffic in Porto is its main drawback. I recommend walking over the dreaded coach; its faster and more fun.
That is not to say that host Mario Ferreira’s coaches are not to be admired; they are quite nice. His fingerprints are everywhere but when you own so many businesses serving tourists like us, you are widely noticed and appreciated. As a group, we are amazed at what this man has accomplished and at the gracious generosity he has shown us, both on board this vessel and at dinner last night. I argued for the check but he would have none of it.
Dinner tonight is at a round table for eight and Allan, Nancy, Ward, Donna, Jim, Becky, B4 and I engage in wide ranging conversations, learning from one another, mostly agreeing about important and unimportant things and, in short, reveling in the peace of the evening. Tomorrow morning, the Helgrim sails away from Porto--there are locks in our future. I have navigated locks aboard a cruise ship on the Panama Canal and aboard a 65 foot long river barge that I, along with dear friends, piloted on the U.K.'s Trent & Mersey Canal system. Locks are fun; more on that tomorrow.
