West Coast of Europe & to Casablanca Cruise - Leixoes & Oporto

Leixoes is the port of Oporto & we were there by breakfast, which we had at about 8 & then, off to the tram station across the Leixoes Drawbridge, the promised rain not only not having materialised, it kept off all day except for a brief shower at lunch time, by when, we were lunching anyway. The tram was a splendid modern one &, with a change at Trindade Station, took us to Sao Bento Station, well up the steep river bank which houses the Old City. The stations were very nice, too. We walked down a little way & then, up what amounted to wide alleys & a huge flight of steps to the Cathedral, a splendid viewpoint across to the area above Sao Bento.

The cathedral itself was worth visiting & with its cloister, all of which had some tiles with pictures. We had noted the large number of buildings with tile covered areas, invariably the same design of small tiles repeated, often hundreds.

The Cathedral

Cathedral inside

Cathedral tiles

Cloister

From the Cathedral, we dropped down a very long series of steep steps to the river, passing the oldest house in Oporto, 13thC & finally, going through a bar to the Douro river bank.

Overlooking roofs

Part of the Wall

Oldest house

Café at the botom of the steps

Walking West, we turned up by the Infante Henrique's house & looked at its cloister before coming into a main square with the Chamber of Commerce on one side & a street leading to the Factory House, the English Port exporters club, which was all shut up, alas.

River frontage

Old Port Wine boat

Many buildings have balconies

Little church on the river front

Infante Henrique's house

Infante Henrique's cloister

Then, we went into the St Francis Church next to the CoC (E8 with brochure). This had been a perfectly good Gothic church until about 1700, when the walls & pillars were encrusted with quite over-the-top gilded wood carvings, one of which purported to show Jesus' family tree, which I thought was supposed only to have one member. Then, into the catacombs, which were not very gloomy, despite the skulls.

Across to the Port Wine Shippers

Chamber of Commerce

The Factory House

St Francis of Assisi Church

Catacombs

In the catacombs

We gradually walked back up the hill to Sao Bento Station & trammed back to the ship, just in time to get a salad lunch.

Sao Bento Church

Leixoes drawbridge

Balmoral at Leixoes

In the afternoon, I made up the first web page for the trip & edited some of today's photos but some will need the attention of full Photoshop back home.

The ship left at 1645 & I took photos of Leixoes & the coast as we went out. There was a themed evening of the Wild West. I had my usual cowboy hat & a check shirt not worn since Xmas at Geof's 14 years ago, which passed muster. Avis did not bother but wore one of her spectacular casual outfits. We went to a Country & Western show in the Lido Lounge. I can't stand C & W but did later congratulate the kids who did it for their sheer professionalism. We then went up to the Observation Lounge. The pianist was quite good but, apart from one bit each of Beethoven & Bach, played easy listening, of which there is too much on this boat.

Port 2 - Casablanca

Port 3 - Gibraltar

Port 4 - Cadiz

Port 5 - La Coruña