October 21, 2023
Our fourth necessity for getting to know a town is to master it’s public transportation. So today we planned to take the Metro across the water to the south side of Porto, to the town of Gaia.
But first, some housekeeping. We started the day walking down Alegria street and then over to the pedestrian mall Santa Catarina to a little cafe for coffee. We’d already had a little bread and fresh orange juice at the apartment. There we enjoyed yet another wonderful coffee before heading back to Allegria to a laundromat with our clothes. Alice knew it would be an hour to finish the laundry load, so suggested I go out and do a little street photography, getting back within the hour. L
Back at the laundry, Alice was waiting as a I arrived. The laundry was still washing, so I sat down and waited. Not long aftwards a man with flowing white hair arrived with a bag of laundry. Dominique, I later learned, was trying to prepare for his daughter visiting from France. Though he lived in the neighborhood, he’d apparently never used the washing machine here. First we had to negotiate language. It seemed to work best with him speaking Portugues and me speaking Spanish. I showed him how to start the monitor program, put in the money and get the machine going. Dominic is an architect, living and working here in Porto as he collaborates with two Portuguese architects on writing a book. He had some great tips on reaching some untouristy locations south of Lisbon
Once our clothes were in hand, we quickly climbed the hill to drop them off at our apartment, and then back down the hill to the Aliados Metro station, were we sturggled a little getting the daily pass. Then onto the platform, make sure we are gong the righ direction, and the train came. The modern yellow cars are wide, quiet and clean. We only went 3 stops south, but far enough to get to Cámara de Gaia.
We started walking south on a beautiful wide boulevard, admiring the shops and cafes. The tourist pressure was turned down significantly and we felt like we were in a real neighborhood. We decided to cross the road, and as we did so, were joined by a family. Two girls were walking and skipping and holding hands, and generally enjoying each other’s company. I smiled at the family gesturing at how delightful their friendship was, and the father asked if I’d like to photograph them, noticing my camera. This is so counter to experience in the US, and even much of Europe, where taking pictures of children is a highly suspicious activituy.
Seeing these girls, and the fact that one appears caucasian and the other appears Arab ( I might be wrong), made me reflect on Porto’s history. Porto was once on the edge of Christian and Muslim power struggle, with the Duoro River being the dividing line. Porto the Christian northern side, and Gaia the Muslim southern side. Gaia is the proto-Celtic word for what the Celts called themselves, well before the Romans occupied this settlement. Gaia or Cali can be interchanged. When the two cities are considered together, such as after the fall of the Muslim forces in 1037, Porto-cali became Portugal and eventually became the name for the whole country.
We walked on, down steep and narrow streets toward the northern edge of the river.
Now we were deep in the tourist flow again, but we decided to stop at a vineyard winetasting establishment, Câlem Port Wine tasting. We decided to try their red and white wines rather than Port, which we’ve tried and doesn’t appeal to us.
We then crossed the river on the lower level bridge below the Luis bridge, and then up a multitude of stone stairs to the Old Town.
There in the Passeio de São Lázaro, we found a cramped little restaurant with four tables and stopped in for lunch. The waitress and I negotiated languages- she would speak Portuguese and I would mostly understand, and then order in my limited Portuguese. We chose Octopus on a bed of spinach and sweet potato, along with some olives and fresh bread.
It was now 2:30, and a proper time to walk back to the apartment and get a nap as the clouds filled in and threatened to start the late afternoon showers.