I thought I'd start with a picture of our cute little window seats which are right off the kitchen. They're not too practical but they are great for...
Holding your morning cuppa and morning pasteis de Nata. They're like an egg custard in a puff pastry. Really good. We also had croissants, cheese, ham, fresh juice and jam.
Our first stop was at the cathedral Se which is just around the corner. There was an Italian mass happening so we sat and listened as the two priests fought over which psalms were supposed to be read. I wanted to take communion because I figured the wine would be great but I demurred. That's right. I do that some times!
This church is typical here as the whole thing seems like it would be stunning if any parishioner owned a paint store and a shamwow.
We passed this building and I just had to take a picture. It was a holiday today called Corpus Christi. Our waiter last night told us that it was a holiday but didn't know what it was. He said that he worked every day but Tuesdays so if it wasn't a holiday on a Tuesday he ignored it.
On our way to the next church we walked along a couple of shopping streets but were accosted by gypsies who really didn't want to take no for an answer so we took some smaller streets.
Our ultimate goal was to climb this...
So that we could see this.
And this.
When entering the Clerigos church one has to see this...
It's a bit of a bummer to see an ugly parking deck amidst all of the old buildings until you begin to climb the tower and realize that on top of the parking deck is this...
After our climb which wasn't too bad but was as narrow a staircase as I've ever clumb up, we took a stroll in the sanctuary. This tiered altar thing seems to be a thing here. This was the first church we've seen that looked at all kempt.
Also we found the most f-ed up Jesus I've ever seen.
Here he is in better days with an impressive head of hair and a wee little willy.
Now to explain the title of this blog. This city seems to be cherub crazy. There are cherubs everywhere. But the really odd thing is how many disembodied baby heads there are. Here is but one example.
And have you ever wondered how many baby heads Mary could fit under her skirt? A lot! Look at this little guy peeping around.
And here is Rebecca post climb enjoying a sparkling rose in the park I showed you before. We were there at noon so we got a concert of bells and a carillon.
Here was our view.
And here is our table with duck feet.
Rebecca wanted her picture taken with this tiny statue.
Lunch was at a "typical" Portuguese restaurant. They started us off with four fried things. The middle one (I'm eating the other one) is a cod fritter. The one on the left was a seafood dumpling and the one on the right is meat. They were very good.
Rebecca chose what was essentially a schnitzel with melted cheese and an egg on top in the same sauce we had yesterday. It was incredible.
I ordered bacchalau which was very good as well though it was a huge portion.
We thought we had ordered two glasses of vinho verde but we were brought a bottle. At 9 euros, who can complain?
This is just a street on our walk back.
Another stop along the way.
And the world's cutest little laundry.
After a siesta we headed across the river to the cais de Gaia where all of the port houses are. Right around the corner we saw this. Where has this been all my life!?!
We walked across the bridge and the views back toward Porto were pretty spectacular. Rebecca ran 3 miles this morning and had already seen the view.
I decided that instead of taking the 9 gillion stairs down the hill we should take the this thing like civilized people.
All of these are port warehouses. Someone is in desperate need of a roofer.
Selfie on the cais.
These two were jumping off the bridge (the lower section which was still pretty high) for money. There was another guy walk around asking for money. Rebecca said to the guy - "This is ridiculous." The guy said, "You think it's ridiculous?" I said, "The jumping isn't ridiculous - that looks like fun. Paying to watch it seems ridiculous." The kid on the left kept doing the sign of the cross hoping people would pay for the danger. The kid on the right's attitude sort of belies that fear!
We toured the Ramos Pinto Port House which was interesting though our tour guide was a mess. She said that they has 3.3 million liters of port in their warehouses which only represented 1 percent of the port in all of the houses. Is it possible there is that much port being drunk?
We learned a lot about port and it was pretty interesting. The best thing we learned is that we prefer white port and tawny port. I didn't even know there was such a thing as white port. I've included a bit of tape of our tour guide who talked at all the decibels in a very animated way even though there were only about 8 of is in very small spaces. I wish I had gotten her saying Adriana Ramos Pinto which she said 100 times. It was an assault on the ears.
We went back to the same place for dinner where we had meats and cheeses.
And these little numbers. Goat cheese cooked in puff pastry with some sort of jam and a lingonberry and mint leaf. I highly recommend. After drinking all of the port we had a glass of sparkling wine.
We live at the top of that bridge. My idea was to take the elevator on the left but it was broken or isn't for public use. Long story short, we climbed stairs all the way up and had to go down several alley ways and into a ratty building which we were sure would be where we met our end.
Another small break at the hotel while we waited to walk back to the bridge for this.
P.S.
When we got back to the hotel, Rebecca went out to look at the garden which we hadn't seen. She came back rather quickly saying that she had been attacked by a sea gull. I of course doubted this and was told to go see for myself. Here is a video of where my doubts got me. I wish I would have had Rebecca film the whole thing. I might have run away arms and legs akimbo.
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