Porto City Tour

Our ship is actually parked in Gaia across the Douro River from Porto.

 

This morning we had a walking tour of the city.  We walked across one of the many bridges across the river, one of which was built by a student of Eifel (the tower in Paris Eifel).  As we strolled up through the old town we learned that the Festival for St. John the Baptist will be June 23 and they are already decorating for it.  The old tail boats parked in the river will sail out to the ocean and then back, pretending to haul wine to market.  Thus begins a weekend of drinking and fun.

So much history in this region involving the Moors, the Jews and Christians, some of whom were Knights Templar. In the 15th Century, the royals were not allowed in the city as it was run by the upper class and they didn’t want the royal laziness to affect the working class.  Therefore, they could only stay three nights and then they had to leave.  

There are many large and ornate buildings, some are former courts, and of course the Cathedral is the main building of power in the city as the Bishops had more power than many city officials. 

The trains station was had many beautiful mosaic murals telling the history of Porto.

After dinner a men’s chorus called TUNA performed for us.  We didn’t understand the words but the music was nice.