Train to Oporto

View of Vila Nova de Gaia from the Cathedral

FRIDAY 26 OCTOBER 2007

The new metro system runs trains every 20 minutes into Oporto and we got there about lunch time. We had the cheapest Menu del Dia yet – 5 euros for a 3 course meal and drink!

Oporto seems a strange mix of beautiful 15th and 16th century buildings surrounded by alleys of terraced houses, many of them in a poor state of repair. Many of the houses are beautifully tiled on the outside and the walls of Sao Bento Station, Oporto’s central railway station, are decorated by fantastic Azulejos – Painted Ceramic Tiles.

The views from the Cathedral over the red rooftops are amazing. We walked over the Dom Luis I bridge, which was built in 1886 by an assistant of Gustave Eiffel, and had spectacular views of the River Douro, Oporto and Vila Nova de Gaia, where all the port lodges are.

12 years ago Roger, Tony, Jessica and I canoed 250 kilometres on the River Douro from Miranda do Douro on the Spanish border to Oporto, and it was interesting to see where we had landed the canoes when we had arrived. The new Infante Dom Henrique bridge upstream from the Dom Luis I bridge was being built at the time, and we had to time our passage under the bridge as the workmen kept dropping things off it!

Roger had another custard tart, and decided this one was definitely the best so far.

We caught the metro back to Pavoa de Varzim and went to have dinner with Jan and Tini on Cocon.