Today was our first visit to Porto. The airport where we'd landed was outside the old city, and in a very ugly area. Now we would see the old city. Porto is a city built on hills with steep brick roads and often no sidewalks, difficult to traverse, especially for me with my arthritic knee. I took my stick thinking it might help, but most of the time it was in the way, because I needed my hands to take photos. The old city was a strange mixture of collapsing and uninhabited old houses, and renovated old houses, most of which had been renovated with new tiles. At least the broken old houses were mostly not being replaced with ugly modern buildings and perhaps someday they'd all be renovated. We found a garage where we could park the car. It had been quite difficult to find, but was located next to a bridge which had been designed by the builder of the Eifel Tower in Paris - though he'd quit early in the process and one of his students finished the bridge. We entered the parking lot which was below the bridge at the bottom of a hill beside the river, but getting onto the bridge which was at the top of the hill seemed to be rather impossible. We noticed a gondola that went from somewhere at the bottom and stopped at the top beside the bridge, so we walked along the quai in the direction of the gondola.
Port wine comes from Porto. The name makes the connection and this quai was where all the Port wine warehouses had been for hundreds of years and still were there, though now spruced up for tourists of which there were many. In the river in front of the warehouses, they'd anchored models of the ships that hundreds of years ago had brought the barrels of wine, mostly to England. The owners of most of the Port wine production in Portugal had been English. Along the pier there were both wine shops and sardine shops, the two main portuguese traditional products.
We reached the gondolas, got into one and were transported over the warehouses and river to the top next to the bridge. From there we walked across the bridge which had tracks for the tram, but no cars. Reaching the other side, first the kids wanted some souvenirs, then we started looking for a restaurant. Not finding one there, we went further toward the cathedral and palace, thinking we'd find a restaurant there. But althought there were many tourists, there was no restaurant, so we went into the church, that is, Marek and I went in. The others stayed on the plaza which was overlooking the river. I guess they'd had enough of churches. But this church was old, traditional and like all the churches thoroughly gilded, a remembrance on the period when Portugal had been a wealthy colonial power. Someone was playing an organ concert in the cathedral. Marek set off and I just meandered around, sat for a while in a courtyard and thought I saw someone who looked like Henriette's aunt, Gaby, but I thought that's impossible. I meandered back into the sanctuary and saw Marek talking to Gaby and her family. I couldn't believe it, as they hadn't believed it either that we'd by pure chance meet at this place. They wanted to view more of the church, but had decided with Marek that afterwards, we'd all go and eat lunch together. So I sat there and listened to the organ concert as did Christoph. When the others finished their church tour we went outside and surprised Henriette with the news. Then we all went looking for a restaurant. But now being 8 people several restaurants we passed could not seat so many, so it took a while to find a place where we all could sit at one table. I had an octopus meal which consisted mostly of a piece of octopus leg, and that was about all. I felt like having some ice cream, but not just plain vanilla, the waiter offered a Port wine ice cream and I thought OK, that's novel. It was good. Juli divided his desert with Marek, but no one else had desert. After lunch the Herrlingers went their way and we walked down the hill (very steep) to the quai, but now on the other side of the river. The sun shone and it was actually hot; the first time since being here I felt hot. We walked across the lower deck of the bridge to the parking lot. Got the car and then wanted to get out. There was no exit on the bottom level, nor on the second, third and so on until the 8th level where we could finally get out onto a narrow steep street, filled with tourists at the height of the top of the bridge. From there we drove through narrow heavily trafficked streets with old, not renovated houses, some in quite bad shape. This city shows clearly Portugal's periods of great wealth, and extreme poverty. Today I suppose it's somewhere in the middle, but is it going up or down? I don't know.
At home the kids went swimming again. For supper we decided to go to a restaurant that was very close to our house, just at the bottom of the hill. But it was closed until 7:30 or 8 PM. We had about half an hour to wait and at first thought we'd take a walk down to the river in the dark, but when we got back everyone wanted to go home. Henriette searched the house and found spagetti and tomato sauce and with some ham it was fine.

Upon our arrival in Porto looking at the Eifel bridge over the Douro River.

These boats are replicas of boats used to transport Portwine to England hundreds of years ago.

There were a number of these gaudy sardine and Port wine shops with loud music on the quai.

Henriette photographs Luise in the gondola over the Douro River.

A gondola above the Douro River and city of Porto. The Port wine boats are visible.

From the gondola you can see the warehouses where the Port Wine was stored before being shipped, mostly to England, perhaps partly still is.

From the gondola to the bridge, now crossing the river.

Looking down from the bridge..

Another view from the bridge, these small plots and houses, mostly half ruins, look like they are still being used as vegetable gardens, probably for poorer city dwellers.

Another view of the vegetable gardens.

This was the view from the end of the bridge into the city. The building with the painting was in ruins, the painting peeling away. I don't know who that person is supposed to be.

While searching for a restaurant we ended up at the Porto Cathedral. Marek and I went inside, the others stayed on the Plaza beside the cathedral.

Porto Cathedral.

Porto Cathedral.

Porto Cathedral.

Porto Cathedral.

Porto Cathedral.

Porto Cathedral.

Porto Cathedral.

Porto Cathedral.

Porto Cathedral.

Gretchen in front of the bishop's palace.

A Porto street viewed from the plazza by the cathedral.

Searching for a restaurant big enough for eight people in Porto.

Lunch with Herrlingers in Porto - Christoph, Gaby, Luise, Henriette, Luise, Marek, Juli.

A duke Henry was born in this house 1394. I think that's the date we decifered.

In the afternoon we walked down this pier on the other side of the river. Because the sun was shining and there were no trees, it had gotten quite hot.

Thursday

This was an early wake up morning because we had a time slot at Vila Nova de Foz Coa archeological site to see the paleolithic rock drawings at 9 AM. The trip to get there on the opposite side of Portugal near Spain would take at least two hours. Hosea had told me about the place with enthusiasm and suggested we go. I saw it was a long way from Porto, but it was decided that each person could pick one place they'd really like to visit. So I chose Coa. Marek had chosen Amarante, Julius wanted to go to the soccer stadium in Porto, Luise wanted to spend a day at home relaxing and Henriette wanted to go on a hike and had found an interesting place called Passadicos do Paiva where wooden walkways followed the river Paiva.
When we got up it was still dark but soon we saw that it was very foggy. When we set off the fog was thick as we wound through the mountains. Eventually a bit of light began leaking through the clouds and finally there were spots with no fog. As we reached about the middle of Portugal heading east, the scenery changed. It was still mountainous but the green Eucalyptus forests had disappeared replaced by a much sparser vegetation, the mountains looked rocky, the valleys however were cultivated. Here the cultivation was actually quite intense consisting almost completely of olive groves and vinyards. Instead of houses scattered haphazardly over the mountains they were now consolidated into well-defined small villages. It was obviously a much drier climate and the sun was shining brightly. The town of Vila Nova do Foz Coa looked quite new and well-to-do.
We found the entrance to the park and museum which was a modern building outside of the town. Here we got our tickets and met our guide, a young woman. Besides the five of us there was also a man in our tour group who was American and lived in Andover MA, knew Newton North High School so he and Marek could talk a little about that. We were bundled into the mini bus and our guide drove over country roads for quite a way. I asked why it was so far from the museum and she said, there were many places with rock drawings, some closer and some farther away. One of the first things we saw was the remains of some kind of construction which seemed to have no purpose, so she had to explain. In the early 1990's it had been decided to build a dam on the river to produce electriciy which was approved in 1995. Work was begun on the damm, but as a precaution archeologists began to study the Coa river valley that would be flooded completely. They had discovered that the rock walls along the river were covered with drawings some up to 30,000 years old. These would be ruined by the dam. School children of the area learned of the historically valuable sites in their area and began organizing protests against the damm. UNESCO had became involved and the protests spread. The socialist candidate for prime minister in the general election of 1995 resulted in a government change. Incoming Prime Minister António Guterres cancelled the dam project in November 1995. But part of the damm had already been built and some of the drawings were already submerged. Our guide told us the river was now 12 meters higher that it would naturally be. But removing the remains of the damm would be expensive and difficult. Along this river valley which was called Canada do inferno, canyon of hell, because it became so hot in summer had, during the ice age when much of Europe was covered with ice, been an ice free area with an acceptable climate where people could settle. These were the people who created the thousands of rock drawings. In the Neolithic period they cultivated grain in the area.
We descended into the canyon where one set of drawings were. There were other places open to the public though only with tour guides, but many areas were closed to the public. The drawings had been made over a period of thousands of years with some difference in styles which archeologists could determine. That made it possible to determine the approximate age of the drawings, since the same styles appeared for example in caves in France and Spain where it had been easier to determine age because scientists could test the earth in the caves, which was not possible on the rock surfaces, though an attempt had been made, but floods over the ages had washed everything that was not solid rock away.
The tour ended back at the museum where we could see films of the history and learn how scientists had been able to find the chiseled lines even where they were so thin they were not visible to the naked eye. For the drawings which I have included here, I obviously did not have the scientific tools to see many tiny lines so I could only outline the parts visible on the photos I had taken. I have included photos from the museum which show how scientists were able to outline the drawings far more extensively on replicas. The museum also showed the methods they used.

The museum had a restaurant and that's where we ate lunch. As usual I ordered, as the only one, some juice. The waiter said, well it would take a while, and I wondered about that, but I said it doesn't matter. Everyone else got their drinks, coke and fanta, right away. After a while he came with the largest glass of freshly squeezed orange juice I'd ever seen. Everyone thought it was very funny, in Germany fresh orange juice comes in mini glasses. But it was wonderful juice.
I had looked at weather reports before the trip and saw it would be rather cold, so I'd only taken warm clothes. But when the sun came out, it actually got quite warm and I was too hot with winter clothes. The day before, I'd gotten a short sleeved shirt at the local super market which I was wearing, but I wanted another one, so also bought a Coa T shirt with short sleeves. It was late afternoon by the time we got home, but even here there was sunshine and the kids took a swim.
At 7:30 PM we decided to try the neighboring restaurant, where we hadn't eaten the day before. There was no one else there. The waiter brought an octopus dish (it was common for restaurants to serve appetizers that hadn't been ordered right away, which, however had to be paid for. This one was good, but then we ordered a fish and noodle dish which was in a kind of soup. The fish was so hard we couldn't chew it. Never have I eaten fish that was so hard. It was very strange. All of us were disappointed at this bad meal, the worst we'd had.

The Coa river valley, the stone fence was built for the damm.

In the distance you can see the parts of the damm that had been built across the river and not removed. They were causing higher floods when there was lots of rain which happened every so often and every time the river rose, it could cause damage to the carvings.

This was the first carving we could see. The guide asked if we recognized what it was. The curious thing, she said, was that these carvings had been there thousands of years and after the people who drew them left, no one had discovered them again until the 1990's. Yet in the 18th century people had also carved drawings in the rocks. We saw one that had a Cross and a Christian message. The guide believed the paleolithic carvings had probably been colored and if so, could have been visible from the other side of the river.

I have outlined the cow carving from the previous photo in white.

This was probably a cow.

For this I couldn't discover the top of the head, so don't know what animal it was. I outlined what I could see in the photo. The scientists were able to determine the whole animal.

You can see our shadows on the rock, and note that the sun was shining. When scientists wanted to analyze the carvings they'd do it when it was darker and they could use lights to make the shadows show up

The horse on the rock above which I outlined here is in a style from the Neolithic period about 10,000 years ago when horses were drawn with the two ears.

Another carving. The carvers used two methods. In one method the sharp stone was used as a chisel and made a broken but deeper line. In the other method the tool was drawn and made a straight line which however was not deep and difficult to discover.

The horse with the bump on its head rather than two separate ears was a style used much earlier, as many as 30,000 years ago.

Another carving with two animals quite visible, though in all the carvings there were more animals that were less apparent.

I outlined the two most visible animals.

This is behind the museum where you can see what the landscape in that part of Portugal looks like. Luise is standing there taking a selfie.

This is in the museum. The rock is a model showing a deer carving replica as appears on some of the originals and outlined in white. Some animals were carved with obvious fur or hair like this. We did see one, but it was too faint to photograph.

This is also in the museum showing how the carvings overlapped in some cases extreme, like here, but almost everywhere there was some overlapping. In some cases the animals were drawn with extra legs indicating that they were running.

There was a machine in the museum which photographed a visitor with a picture of a Paleolithic human. You could then email the photo to yourself which Julius and Luise did. This one Julius'

This one is Luise's.

It wasn't often we had a sunset at the house because it was so cloudy, but on this day there was one.

Friday

We woke up to rain which didn't stop, but we were planning to go to Porto anyway. Our first tourist stop was the Harry Potter bookstore. Harry Potter in Porto? Having read about what there was to see in Porto came the discovery that the author of Harry Potter, J.K.Rowling had lived in Porto for some time and had been inspired by several experiences in that city for her books. Most important was the bookstore in her neighborhood which she had frequented. It was not a huge bookstore, but it was very unique. I suppose that the owners never dreamed that the English lady who often came in their store would some day make them rich. And they surely must be rich, because once they discovered the connection of their bookstore to the best seller Harry Potter books they took advantage of it. The ornate staricase in the center of the store was Rawlings' inspiration for the staircase in Hogwarts. The owners then created a tourist attraction which I think must be one of the most visited in Porto. To get into the bookstore you have to buy a time slot, so the store at least is not so full that you can't move. When we arrived there on a cold and rainy day there was no question where the bookstore was, the whole street was filled with people waiting to get in. We first waited in one line, but when we got near the front, we were told we were too early so we had to get in a different line and change our time slot. So we were at the end of a long line again. All this standing outside in the rain. The neighborhood, however, was nice with renovated old houses and plenty of trees. Eventually this line did reach the door and we were inside along with many other people. Of course, we had to climb the magic stairs, which though they didn't move definitely had a magical air about them. If you bought a book the cost of a ticket was deleted, just one, we'd hoped all the 5 tickets could be deleted, but no.
From there we did more necessary sightseeing. The church of the Carmelitas and Carmo beside the plaza had fantastic tiles on the outside, but we didn't go into that church. We went on to the Clerigos church which was more impressive inside though it had a high tower which we didn't go up, but we did go into the church. An interesting thing about these churches is that they don't have the triptych painted panels behind the altar which are common in old German churches, instead there tends to be statues, or scenes composed of life-sized statues sometimes of Jesus on the cross, but not always. If there are paintings they tend to be on the ceiling, whereas walls may also be decorated with tiles, a style I haven't noticed anywhere else.
I don't remember if we then went looking for a restaurant and then found one, or first went into the Porto railroad station which was decorated on all the walls with tiles, mostly of life in the 17th, 18th centuries I think. Most of these tiles were the typical blue and white, but there were also all-colored tiles, certainly a very impressive railroad station. As we were very hungry after all the sightseeing and it was also late we were getting kind of desparate to find a place to eat. It had also begun to rain harder. We saw a bakery, the kind that also had sandwiches, but on a closer look it also was serving warm food, not the least bit elegant, but there was room for us, so we ate there. I had octopus croquets which were good. When we left the rain had pretty much stopped. So we headed back in the direction of where the car was parked. There was another of the tiled churches which we went into. And we passed the big market which we walked through on the upper level. But it looked pretty modern, so we decided not to go to the lower level and just went on to the car.
At home we looked at a Netflix movie on the TV.

Various views of the magic staircase in the bookstore with Marek

Luise and Gretchen on the magic stairs.

The church Clerigos which we went into.

All the walls of the railroad station were covered with tiles, most of them the blue and white style showing life and battles in the 17th or 18th century - Henriette and Luise.

In the railroad station.

It was again dark, dreary and raining when we got up. Everyone was tired of rain, so we decided to stay home, relax and play games. However, Juli had wanted to go to the Soccer Stadium in Porto, so Marek and Juli drove off. There was no game, but they went into the stadium.
In the evening we ventured out to find a decent restaurant for supper. We had to drive a ways but went to a recommended one located on the river, which however, we couldn't see because it was too dark. I think it was at that restaurant where they served the pre-order appetizer pancakes. This notion of putting an appetizer that was not ordered on the table, was something that we'd also had in Spain, but here the appetizers were sometimes more than olives and bread. It could be cheese, ham, octopus, and here something new, small pancakes with fish and some green vegetable, they were really good and for once we were glad to have them.

The weather report said the sun would shine, but what we saw was thick fog. Our hope was that the fog would lift and show us the glorious sun. The plan was to go to the Piava River walk. That was Henrietta's choice. It was a hike from beginning to end of over 8 kilometers through a beautiful river canyon. I had in the past couple years not done well hiking 8 kilometers, getting cramps in my legs and feet after about 4 kilometers, and this was said to be a difficult hike. The path was mostly a wooden path built onto the side of a mountain and at one end there was a climb of 500 stairs or so and then another climb down with even more stairs which sounded like something I couldn't manage. They thought I should just stay home. Henriette bought 4 tickets for the hike (it wasn't free) as well as for a walk over a suspension bridge which also wasn't free, and in fact tickets could only be bought online. But this was really annoying for me. It was our last day in Portugal and I did not want to spend it sitting in the house. First I thought I could just be dropped off in the nearest town and both shop and explore it, but it was Sunday, no stores open and there were no larger towns near the hiking area. So I said, I'm going along. I'll just buy a ticket there and meander at my own pace, not with you. They were OK with that and then decided, they'd drop me off at one end of the hike where I could buy a ticket and walk to the Waterfall. They would drive to the other end and begin there and we could meet at the waterfall. They would stop somewhere in the middle and take their walk over the suspension bridge.
Well, it started out that way. I was dropped off at the suggested end, though it was possible to begin there and it was also possible to buy a ticket, though not with cash. They drove away. I had considered getting a cup of coffee before I set out, but then found the shop too far away, and just meandered off. By that time the fog was completely gone, the sun was shining brightly though the wooden path was on the shady side of the valley, birds were singing and I was completely alone on the path, hardly any other people were there so early. I began to really enjoy it, going slowly, just taking in the beauty of the place. The river had many rapids, the mountains were green though there were some signs of fall, trees with yellow leaves. There were a few stairs on the path and a couple places with steep hills and no stairs, but I took these slowly, partly walking sideways so I wouldn't slip and fall and I was just enjoying it. When I'd bought my ticket the man said the waterfall was over 4 kilometers away. I was a bit surpised, since we'd agreed I'd only walk 1/4 of the way, and that was half way, but I thought I'll walk until I meet the others, or at the latest at the waterfall where I supposed they'd be waiting for me.
Well it all didn't quite work out that way. There were kilometer markers and when I was approaching the four kilometer mark I thought the waterfall will be here. And just then around the bend all four of them appeared. I greeted them happily and they looked at me as if I were a ghost of something, finally said something like wow, you are here already. I said, stop, I'll take a photo of you which I did. But I was rather puzzled already. We were supposed to meet at the waterfall. Yes, Marek said, and he seemed angry. But I haven't reached the waterfall yet. It's that way, he said, and pointed to the way I'd come from. No, I said, there's no waterfall there. Yes, he muttered. I said, but I've just come from there and I did not see a waterfall. Luise said, maybe you mean this, and she showed me a photo on her smart phone of a waterfall. Yes, I said, where is it? Over there and she pointed in the direction I had been going. That's not a waterfall said Marek, it's just rainwater. I knew the waterfall was supposed to be at the kiosk and I could see the kiosk, so I was mystified. I'd like to get a cup of coffee at the kiosk, I said. It's closed, said Marek. Well, we have to go. Henriette has a termine and he set off at a fast pace and the others followed him. I was completely baffled. I couldn't imagine what kind of termine Henriette had and I yelled once more, there's no waterfall there. But they were gone.
I wanted to sit and rest a minute, but there were no benches there. A sign pointed to a toilet 50 meters away. Hmm, I thought. What do I do? I decided I didn't have to go to the toilet, and as I had no idea where the others were going, I decided, OK, the weather is perfect, I'm not really tired, I might as well enjoy it and walk slowly back where I came from. I'd be coming from the opposite direction and would see things I hadn't noticed before, so I set off slowly, meandering and decided not to think about why Marek was angry. And pretty soon I heard cow bells. This really surprised me. We were in a valley with steep rocky sides and forest, there was no pasture or grass anywhere. How could there be cows here. I looked in the direction of the cow bells and saw a cow slowly walking on the other side of the river, behind the trees. Then another cow followed, and then a third cow. What do they eat here, I thought. Well there are plenty of green plants, I guess they can eat that sort of thing. I took a photo of the cows. The thing was that as we drove up to this park there had been a sign that said cow. I thought it was a joke, escpecially because it was in English. There was no pasture anywhere. But OK, there were cows here, no joke.
Then I saw two women rowing kayaks in the river. They were moving through a placid section, but soon arrived at wild rapids. They parked their kayaks, got out and began exploring how they would ever get past these rapids. I thought they certainly are brave to try this. I walked on but saw them again at the next quiet place. OK, I guess they made it. At the next rapids, they got out of the kayaks again to search for a way to get past. I took a photo of them.
By then I'd forgotten about Marek. I started looking for other odd things. Like soon I saw someone staring at an object on the ground, it turned out to be 5 mushrooms that looked like 5 fried eggs next to each other. Then I saw a shrine that someone had attached to the rocks above the path. After that, feeling happy again, I sent marek a message asking where he was. He called back and seemed to be over his anger. This time he explained what was going on. The termine was for the suspension bridge and he said, he would drive the others to the bridge and come back and get me. I said, but you were supposed to go there on the way here. Yes, he said, but it didn't work out. Something was wrong with Henriette's order and she had to get a new time slot and go to a different place. They had to be there at 2 PM. OK. I said, and walked on.
When there was about 1 kilometer to go, Marek called again and asked where I was. I said at the place where there was no wooden walkway and the path was steep, it's not so far to the end. OK. he said. So on I went the last kilometer. I'd now walked over 8 kilometers with no break. As the end came into view all four of them were standing there waving and cheering. I couldn't help but laughing. But I was again puzzled. You've already been at the bridge, I asked. No, they said, we were waiting for you. You went so fast, we figured there'd be enough time, we'll go now. And I thought, I did not go fast at all. Yet how odd, I'd reached the half way point at the same time they had before, and now they said I'd gone fast. Oh well. So we drove to the suspension bridge. Henriette said it was a kilometer from the parking lot, and now they really had to hurry, so off they dashed. I thought, well I don't have a ticket and I can't get one, but I'd like to see the suspension bridge so I meandered on in the direction of the bridge which was not visible from that spot. It turned out to be, not a kilometer, but over 2 kilometers on a very steep downward path. I couldn't even see the bridge. But I plodded on thinking what else can I do. Going down the steep rock path, I had to take tiny steps and it took me a long time to reach the bridge, I thought. Yet, when I got there, I saw a bunch of people standing at the start of the bridge listening to a man explaining something or other in portuguese. The four of them were also standing there, Juli getting quite impatient, since they didn't know why they had to wait. Finally everyone started walking except the 4 of them. The man then began to explain something in English for them. And finally they were off. I had first tried to get Juli's attention as he was looking around, but he didn't see me. Finally I called his name rather loudly and Marek heard. They were again amazed to see me there. I took photos of them as they started off and waited for a while. Then decided to head up the steep hill back thinking I needed a head start. They caught up with me pretty soon and Marek supported me up the stone path. There was a restaurant at the top and a way down the road. It was afternoon and usually restaurants close, but fortunately this one was open as all of us hadn't eaten since early morning and were starved. The pre-order appetizers were bread, cheese and ham, and being hungry everyone ate it. Then came the meal, they had steak, I had fish but in the end it was too much to finish it.
Marek had an app which reckoned how much they'd hiked. It was 15 1/2 kilometers. Since I'd gone just as far except for the bridge, I walked 14 kilometers. I couldn't believe it. I'd done it without collapsing, no cramps in my legs, and according to them I'd gone fast. Actually, I was kind of proud of myself for having accomplished that. And well, I could have even done the bridge, except it was impossible to buy a ticket. As to the waterfall problem, what they were calling a waterfall was what I called rapids in the river, and I'd never have imagined calling rapids a waterfall, and what I called the waterfall, is what they thought was rain water. The rapids where they'd wanted to meet actually had a name, but they hadn't mentioned it, so I didn't stop there.
By the time we got home it was evening and we had to pack. We were leaving the next morning, our flight from Porto was again at 6 AM and we had the drive to Porto, the car had to be delivered and then by foot to the airport. It would be getting up at 3:30 AM again.

Getting up in the middle of the night, getting ourselves into the car, it was raining hard. We got close to the airport and parked the car where they thought it was supposed to be parked. But there was no place to put the keys. The kids and I stood outside in the rain with an ice cold wind blowing at us while they searched all over to find where in the world to leave the car keys. It took quite a while and we all were completely frozen. But finally they came and we dashed off to the airport. This time the flight was to Frankfort and then another flight two hours later to Berlin. And then we were home. Phew. But very interesting.