Lovely Return Worthy Porto Inland from a Grungy Port City

I requested that my lactose-free pastries be waiting in the Observation Lounge each morning so I could watch our arrivals. Unfortunately, the sailing into Leixoes was not promising.

We were ready to hit Porto as soon as the ship was cleared. Our "Veranda Suite" on Silver Whisper was identical otherwise to our balcony-less "Vista Suite" on Silver Spirit except that on Whisper there is more than ample room to walk around the foot of the bed.

The shuttle bus' guide was all excited about these horsemen, probably to distract us from the pretty ugly port

The sight of classic trams gave us some hope that Porto might have some charm

Monger cleaning fish on the street on the outskirts of Porto

Porto finally began to look good as we made our way to downtown from the far off shuttle stop

Elegant architecture of Porto public buildings

Main railway station mosaics depict the history of Portugal

Hard to know which way to look 

Imagine, public coin phones. And surrounded by gorgeous mosaics

Lovely mosaic facade on local church in Porto

Imposing looking Cathedral of Porto

Interior of cathedral was very photogenic

The port tasting was far off on the other side of the Douro

Town Hall, Porto. Curious statue had free WiFi around its base. Perhaps the lady's sad look was due to the slow download speed

Barbara trying to ensure that the waiter was not pouring the dreaded Tikki Sauvignon Blanc, the only wine on the ship we didn't like. The chefs had just purchased fresh oysters for a late lunch.

Thursday - 8 May 2014 - Porto, Portugal

Barbara and I looked forward to visiting Porto after an hectic two days in Lisbon. I ran up to the Observation Lounge early to watch our arrival to the port city of Leixoes (pronounced, "Chwaaa", I believe). My lactose free pastries, coffee, and freshly squeezed orange juice were waiting, but the view out of the window was not promising. Leixoes was shrouded in fog, and the port is very industrial. As Porto is the second largest city in Portugal (I don't believe there is a third largest city in this small country), I began to fear the Porto would be grungier than Lisbon and without much charm. With the high unemployment and crime rates, I was fearing that we'd run out of iPhones.

Remaining optimistic however, we were ready to get on the first ship's shuttle bus for the half hour ride up the Douro River to downtown Porto, supposedly yet another UNESCO World Heritage Site. Only a few other passengers joined us on pier as soon as those pesky authorities did whatever it means to "clear the ship". The guide on the bus did the best she could to cheer us up by pointing out a group of guys on horses as, "A very rare and wonderful sight." It was clear she was trying too hard. And it had begun to drizzle. But then things started to look up. A venerable tram gave us some optimism that maybe we could find a tram or two to take and perhaps portended that downtown Porto might have some style.

We were inexplicably dropped off by the bus at a nondescript urban park, and the longish walk into the main part of town was not enhanced by the sight of an impromptu fish cleaner and let's just say, not handsome locals. But as we headed down to the main part of town, the weather began to clear up. We found we were enjoying pretty winding urban streets, elegant public buildings, and then one of the best sights in Portugal at the main railway station. Blue mosaics cover all the walls and the ceiling of the huge foyer of the station, depicting the history of Portugal. A couple of tour group were trying to figure out which way to look. So were we. I was amazed by the mosaics surrounding the public coin telephones. Imagine, there still are public coin telephones somewhere in the world. Unbelievable.

Upon exiting the train station up the hill on the way to what the guide book said was the "iconic cathedral", we discovered mosaics everywhere. A lovely little church was striking, but the exterior of the Cathedral of Porto just looked quirky. The inside was different. The cathedral turned out to be spectacular, one of the most impressive anywhere and quite different from those in Spain we had seen earlier in Spain.

We descended to an overlook behind the cathedral to plan a walking route down to the river. As much as we wanted to do some port tasting on the other side of the Douro, we calculated we didn't have time to cross the river, visit a couple of port makers, and then get back up Porto's many hills to make the last shuttle before today's 3:30 pm all aboard time. It was a bit early for port tasting anyway, we rationalized. So we decided to make our way back to the trash laden park to the unmarked ship's shuttle bus stop. We now had time to make a detour to see Porto's town hall square with its forlorn naked lady statue. There was an unexpected treat when we returned to Silver Whisper for a late lunch. The chefs had bought fresh oysters in the local fish market, hopefully not from the fishmonger lady. After the somewhat not perfect Silver Spirit, Silver Whisper, now felt like home.

Conclusion: Porto is return worthy, and maybe next time we'll get to do some port tasting. Also we really liked Silver Whisper.