Porto

Porto is a fascinating city, very pretty in parts, and very different to anything one would see in Australia.
The Clérigos Tower 
view of Porto from the river
Many steps!

It is situated on the River Douro,  and apart from the river side areas, tends to tumble down the very steep river banks.  The churches, and many other buildings, show the beautiful blue and white Portuguese tiles, often telling a story.  Not only are the tiles decorating the inside walls, but also often decorate the outside too.
Tiles on the inside.......
...and on the outside

It was lovely to meet Julie, and together we did our best to explore the city.  We bought a 48 hr hop on, hop off, bus tour which also included a boat trip looking at the bridges crossing the Douro.  The traffic in the city is pretty heavy, and each bus trip we did took in excess of 2 hours - less traffic on the river so that was a pretty speedy trip.


A ""sculpture" at the sea - in the middle of a roundabout, from our bus tour

We explored various churches, contributing to their maintenance with fees charged.  I don't mind paying fees to see these places because maintenance costs must be huge, and my few euros contribution, hopefully, will add to it.  Some of these venues, as in Lisboa, were over-run with tourists.   There seemed to be bus load, after bus load of people wandering around, ear phones in their ears, following the raised (but unopened) coloured umbrellas of their leaders / guides.
The Cathedral had surprisingly few decorative tiles.
It is here though that the first waymark, from Porto, is.

There were some lovely nightime views 
I walked across the (Luis) bridge one night, the same one  that I had entered the city by.  It was fine when I started, but half way across the thunder and lighting began,  and then torrential rain.  An iron bridge, 150 meters high is not the safest place to be in a thunderstorm, and by the time the rain began my pace was very brisk.  So was everyone else's!  They all made a dash for the hotel lobby at the start of the bridge and crammed in, so I just followed!  The poor hotel staff would have had a sodden mess to clean up after the exodus.  
at least I was able to get a nightime shot from the bridge.







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