After the driver dropped us in the city center we toured the central train station – SAO BENTO. The station had been a monastery and retained the blue and white Portuguese on much of the wall. Above that the more colorful story telling tiles crowned the traditionally shaped entry hall. The bright yellow trains span out across Europe.
At Santa Clara church we learned about Mannerist construction and decoration. The simplistic exterior belied the ornate gilded woodwork of the interior. The Cathedral District has such varied architecture. The Se Cathedral itself was built during the 12th and 13th century. During the 18th the people put up plaster walls to disguise the more valuable silver chapel. Since the church was a monastical one there are still cloisters which we visited.
Nearby the Torre dos Clerigos, Tower of Two Priests, is perched on the hilltop. It is the tallest building in Portugal. Ruth and I declined to climb the 240 steps to have a better view of the Douro River. It winds through the city and is crossed by seven bridges. On the other side is the town of Vila Nova de Gaia. This is where the wine lodges are the controlling entities for the creation and delivery of Port Wine.
After the walking tour, several of us walked along the Cais da Reibeira, riverside, until we came to an open air market type restaurant group. Ruth and I had cheesecake and hot tea. Others enjoyed full lunches with sangria. Then we made our way back up the hill met the bus and finally headed to the Ipanema Parc Hotel. It was very, very nice. Fancy. Ruth and I settled into our room and arranged what we needed for the first couple days of our tour. Wanting to stay awake, because for me that works better when traveling overseas, we put on our swimsuits and made our way to the rooftop swimming pool. It was raining! Rats. Back in the room we checked email and started to read when a bright sun broke through the clouds.
Mission to remain awake resumed and we left the hotel to go to the ATM. It was just a block from the hotel. While there trying to make sure I didn’t do anything wrong, I seldom use the hole in the wall, a man came up to ask for money. We said no. He continues and Ruth spoke to a passerby who said not to give him money. Ruth asked this gentleman to tell the first one to move along. He did.
We were going to walk to the Lidl but realized he was following us. We turned right around and walked back toward a group; of people by a store front window. Looking in the window we could see he was coming toward us again. We talked to the two men and a lady and asked what to do next. We just stayed talking to them and they told us it didn’t used to be a problem but now this street was used for drug dealing! When the hustler saw were not moving on, he figured the jig was up, but made his way back to the ATM. The gentleman directed us by a different way back to the hotel. We met Nina by the hotel elevator and told her of our experience so she could remind everyone. At our 7:45 meeting before our buffet dinner, Nina did not mention it so that will be my goal tomorrow on the bus.
Dinner was pretty good, cod fish, a Portuguese staple, some potatoes and the same kind of cheesecake we had at lunchtime. I was disappointed that there was no introduction session so we could know more about the people with whom we are traveling. And so our trip has safely begun. Ruth made it to the plane and we were not mugged!!!
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