EU 2017 (xi): Porto (III)

For this entry, I'm just going to combine the third and fourth days in Porto into a single post. There's just not a lot of content to make them as individual posting. And as a heads up, there's only going to be one more post after this one to sum up my last day in London and the trip home. Woohoo! I'm almost there :D.

As far as my itinerary is concerned, I would think 2 nights would be enough for Porto. If I did drink, I would have certainly gone on the "Douro Valley and Wine Tasting" tour, or at least the 1 hour wine cave tour at Gaia. Perhaps they would entertain me with some non-alcoholic drink, but that wouldn't be the real thing, would it? :). And if the weather was permitting with blue skies on Day 2 or Day 3, I would have opted for the river cruise. Or if I had known better, I would allocate one night in Coimbra. People in the forums were saying that Coimbra could be done in a few hours, enough time to catch the next train to Porto. I was a bit reluctant to do so because a few chimed in that there weren't any lockers at the train station.

Anyways, I had no regrets. Even though there's not much blog-worthy contents for the last two days, I did have a wonderful time despite all the rain that we had on the third day in Porto. Yup, the heavens opened up at midnight and continued on for much of the day.

The checkout time for Casa dos Lóios would be at 11am. So right after breakfast and packing up my things, I left my bags at the hotel and walked around for a bit until it was time to check into the next hotel.

The weather forecast for Wednesday and Thursday. Yikes!

I resorted to checking out the Igreja (Church) São Francisco - "a Gothic building ... and Baroque inner decoration". Unfortunately, no picture taking was allowed in the church which had used hundreds kilos of gold leaf to decorate the wood carvings. Firouz's "Is it the 19th century?" sarcastic tune kept playing in my mind :D. The visit also included the crypt. I had that eerie feeling as I walked in the crypt, and I kept thinking to myself, what am I doing here again?. I did take pictures including the piles of bones underneath the crypt, which you could see through the glass screen on the floor. Now come to think of it, would it be inappropriate to post those pictures here? I'm putting up a couple for now, but I might reconsider later..

School trip

Am I walking directly on top of the tombs?

Mmm..

It was still raining when I left the church, so I went up the hill towards the direction of the Clérigos Tower. I walked a bit farther and reached Livraria Lello bookstore. There was already a line of people waiting to get in and to escape the rain, so I dismissed the idea of checking it out.

It was still raining.. oh well

The Nando's chicken is everywhere! Hahaha. No! It's the Rooster of Barcelos! The legend has it that it proved the innocence of a man who had been falsely accused and sentenced to death

I decided not to go in because of the line and for being wet

Do you agree? :D

Right across the Carmo Cathedral I noticed a few trucks were setting camp with the wording Tour Campeoes Europeus writting all over. The Euro Cup that Portugal was touring Portugal and it was making a stop in Porto. Cool!

Eder scored the winning goal with these boats

With the Euro Cup trophy

The rain stopped just before 2pm, so I collected my bags and went down to Ribeira to check in into Porto River Apartments for the last night in town. The room came furnished with a kitchen - plates, utensils, a dishwasher, a microwave and the likes. While I did utilize several items, but the best thing about the room was the view of Gaia and the Dom Luis I bridge. What better way to spend the last night in Porto right? ;)

Loved it!

This is where I would continue on the post to the next day until checkout. I just spent the afternoon in the area. These pictures may give you the feeling of déjà vu :D

Because one is not enough :D

That bridge at the end was what Eiffel designed

if I recall correctly, these were just €1,29!

Boa noite!

My British Airways flight to Gatwick on that Thursday was at 5:25 pm, so I had plenty of time to get there. I chose to take the metro to the airport. A Zone4 Andante ticket only costed me €1,95 and another €0,60 for the card. In addition, it took me roughly an hour to get to the airport. Thank God it didn't rain as predicted by the forecast when I walked to Sao Bento.