Porto

I am getting about a bit at the moment. This week-end I went to Porto in Portugal.

The VERY first impression when I was walking down the airport entry corridor was astonishment. They were advertising brightly coloured toilet paper called Renovo I think and describing it in English as, I can’t quite remember this, but as either ‘the most sensual or sexual experience’. Brightly coloured toilet paper? Which I didn’t see any of locally – it was all bog standard white. Gateway to a World Heritage site? I am pleased to report that coming back in to Luton we have pictures of places to visit in London.   AND they dis Luton?!!!

Next point, and I’ll get to the actual place shortly, I have bed envy. I pretty much have bed envy wherever I go at the moment, but we stayed in the Crowne Plaza (didn’t eat anything there) and they had an awesome bed with great big fluffy cushions/pillows PLUS a little box with 2 sprays in, one to sniff and one to spray on your pillow to help you sleep better! Loved it. A new bed and enormous pillows is on my wish list for the next time I have disposable income. However, we had to get room service to operate the e numbers whack in a plastic sachet coffee machine. What’s wrong with a kettle and tea bags?

Anyway, Porto is great. We were there four days and there really is enough to see during this time. The tall, old street facing buildings are beautiful and quite unique looking, but there were many derelict ones in between those that were still lived in. Some had bricked up windows and were clearly a façade only. You got a sense of the poverty of the place. There were a lot of street sleepers of all sexes and ages and many beggars. I don’t know if they were migrants.

We used the Lonely Planet guide to Porto September 2015, but much was already out of date. On the 8 bar pub crawl we could only find two that were open and related in any way to the description. Galeria de Paris retro tipples and 1920s Paris era Uma Vez No Paris are both worth a visit. The last made us laugh – full of hip and trendy young people with fringy lampshades like our nans had and playing music that was at least 40 years old.

Many of the churches were shut which was a disappointment, but those that we saw were gilted, baroque masterpieces. Architecturally there is much juxta-positioning between old stone and blue tiles which is very lovely. Quite a lot of street graffiti, some more artistic than others. There is a famous street artist there called Hazul. I liked the museums. We visited Taylors, one of the many port places. We went on the river boat trip. We went and spent the afternoon with a bottle of wine on the windy, Atlantic beach. The food was great. First taste of some pate consistency sausage called alheira. The residents were delightful.

Lisbon next.