A Day Out in Porto

On Tuesday, during our week in Northern Portugal, we woke up to a very overcast sky.  Thinking that it may hang around for most of the day, we decided to head out and do a bit of sightseeing in the nearest large city, which was Porto.

Porto is Portugal's second largest city after Lisbon, the capital and it's airport was where we flew into the country.  It was only an hour away and as we approached the city we were pleased to see that the sky was blue and the sun was shining.  It had been a good decision.

We started off our visit by stopping off at the Casa de Musica, a wonderful concert hall designed by Dutch architects Rem Koolhaaus/OMA. We didn't go on the tour of the building, but did have a little look around what we could and stopped for a drink and a snack in the lovely café. (I had a wholemeal croissant, the first I've ever had and it was surprisingly good.  If they had these in the UK, I would definitely buy them, despite the calorific value.) 

This very contemporary building was a stark contrast to some of the more historic sights of Porto.  I particularly liked the buildings embellished with tiles.

There were also some interested artworks embellishing some of the buildings.

Cat lovers will love this particular one and bunny lovers might like the one below, which interestingly, was three dimensional and made from all kinds of junk.

I also liked this art work made entirely of old tyres. A great idea for recycling them.

Aside from being famous for the production of Port, the city is also know for it's six bridges, three of which you could see from the one we were standing on in this photo.

The above is the fourth bridge we saw, which we walked across twice, one way on the higher level and back along the lower level. We took the cable car from the top of the bridge down to the riverside, where there were lots of restaurants and market stalls.

Either side of the river the town climbs up and this results in lots of small, cobbled streets to climb.

Not for the feint hearted or those with mobility problems, but there are trams and tut tuts to hire to get around too.

It's a beautiful and very interesting city to visit. I'd highly recommend it to anyone.