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.