The Juliens: Porto: Monday

My conference didn't start until Tuesday, so we struck out Monday morning (in the drizzle) for some more sightseeing. From the hotel, we first walked to Jardins do Palácio de Cristal for some hazy views across the Douro. The gardens were also very beautiful and in bloom. From here, we walked into Porto old town, specifically to Torre dos Clérigos (a big church clock tower), which we climbed, again for the views. We also ducked into the church, which was pretty but less impressive. From here we went to a restaurant called Guarany for lunch. It was good but not amazing. After lunch, we took a look at city hall then walked to the Lello bookstore, which is famous for supposedly having inspired the Harry Potter books. We grabbed a snack of delicious cakes at a random bar on the way walking from the bookshop to the city's cathedral, which, of course, sits on a hill. The cathedral was impressive, but even more impressive were the cloisters. We spent some time here. Then we wandered down the hill to another church, Igreja Monumento de São Francisco. The interior of this church is covered in an unbelievably amazing amount of gold. One thing that I read said that it is no longer consecrated as a church because it was thought too ostentatious. Maya was disappointed; she expected it to be much shinier. After the church, we went on a tour (in English!) of the Palácio da Bolsa, which used to house the Portuguese stock exchange. This visit was definitely worth it, especially for the chandeliers in the staircase and the Arabian themed ballroom at the end. At this point, we were all very tired, so we rewarded two well-behaved girls with a boat ride up and down the Douro river. The weather had really cleared off, and it was a very nice end of the afternoon. After the river, we walked up the hill to the Restaurant Raiz, which was nothing short of amazing. We focused on their tapas, ordered too much, and loved it all. We topped it with dessert. The one Maya and I shared had the words "chocolate" and "casserole" in it, and it's better than my mini chocolate cakes; Tim had sweet potato pudding. Cora had dessert from every direction. We headed back to the hotel and our beds via the metro. This day clocked a total of just shy of 20K steps, and 46 flights of steps.

In the Jardins do Palácio de Cristal

10 seconds after this photo was taken we had "lost" Cora. I'm still not sure how it happened... she must have run pell mell down a hill at the same time we were walking up some stairs and we just didn't see her. What seemed like 10 minutes later (was probably less than a full minute) of searching high and low and screaming her name (with some concerned looks by another pair of tourists), I heard her quietly calling "but mommy, I went down the hill to you..."

The Torre dos Clérigos

I (Christine) took this one. Go me.

This one, too. This is the keyboard for the tower's bells. Which were ringing (yikes!) as we came down the stairs.

Lots of the streets of Porto had these flags and other banners strung up. We could only guess that they were for the Eurocup, which was ongoing while we were in Porto.

Inside the Lello bookshop. I took these too; Tim didn't go in.

Just some Porto graffiti

Too cool for school.

Up there? That's the cathedral.

In the cloister of the cathedral.

To quote Audrey: "Never underestimate the power of an older sibling to influence the younger sibling by simply existing..." This is the story of Cora's life these days.