May 16 Last Day in Porto

 It is our last day in Porto Portugal.  Tomorrow we head for Amsterdam to spend about 6 days with Alexis and Rob before flying home.  So today we tried to do all the things we wanted to do, but still had not done.  So our plan was to to walk down the hill to the waterfront - head for the cable car.  Take the cable car up to the top of the mountain.  Then walk across the top bridge into the old city of Porto.  

We took photos as we were on the 5 minute cable car ride.

Then we cross the upper bridge.  It is cold - but not wet yet.

But - suddenly the winds come up!  The rain starts pelting us.  We stop and try to pull out our rain coats and put them on.  Umbrellas would not work with the wind.  How do we protect our cameras?

We manage to get across the bridge and head for the Cathedral.  It is still raining so many people are trying to get out of the rain and get into the church.

There are a lot of beautiful tiles.

It is still raining - but more lightly.

We head for the Sao Bento train station.  We actually saw this a couple of days ago - but did not realize what it was.  

So many beautiful tiles inside - telling the story of the city of Porto

After the train station we headed to lunch at the same place we ate a couple of days ago - the Kabob place - it is cheap and good.  Then we headed down to the river front.  The next thing on our agenda was to take a boat tour of the Douro River.  Michael wanted a particular kind of boat.  There was one close by that met his standards - but it was getting ready to leave.  We just got on as they were ready to leave - so good timing.  I loved it.  I liked the different viewpoint/ the angle we were seeing things from.

The funicular we could have taken up the mountain that was not working.

We went out toward Foz - but just short of the Atlantic.  And then turned around and headed back to our port.

After we got off the boat we walked across the lower bridge toward the Gaia side.  

I had mentioned that I wanted Portuguese pastries.  So Michael found a star rated place that was way back beyond the tram - I should have known.  Things have been sitting around all day long - now they are not so good.  Then we headed back to the apartment.  It is 4pm.  We took the stairs - always painful.

May 15 - Serralves Park - treetop walk and Museum

 Today we had plans to see three things - but ended up seeing only one.  But it had multiple aspects.  We decided to go to Serralves which used to be a private estate on a lot of land.  It is now a contemporary museum with a treetop boardwalk and a building that exhibits several film artists from ages ago - with deep philosophical  themes.  But first the walk through the woods.

And then we headed onto the boardwalk.  So clever - just as the land took a deep dive they started the board walk.  So you didn't have to walk down the steep hill- but suddenly you were at treetop level.

So many interesting shaped and leafed trees. 

After the tree top tour we went to the film museum.

The rooms were so dark that I kept feeling I was going to step into a hole.  But they had so many films  on screens all going at the same time, it was hard to keep track of what was happening.  Everything was in Portuguese - sometimes with subtitles in English.  But how long would you want to stand there to watch the entire film?  And there were at least 10.  We finally gave up.

We headed back the way we had come.  Back to the entrance and the contemporary art museum.

The first artist was Mark Bradford.  Huge canvases.  

I got some of his stuff - the pictures were huge.  A lot had to do with unicorns - which I have to say made little since.  Later in his exhibit - he named them by number which made a lot more sense.

But then there were other artists - one who made some sewing projects with words in Portuguese.  They looked like first attempts at poorly done sewing projects and made no sense to me.  Maybe if I could have read the words it would have meant something.  

Then another room with a mask - but multiples of the same mask painted in different colors in many rooms - what the F did that mean?

OK - maybe I don't get contemporary art!!!