Monday the 24th of July was the first official day of my annual leave so my wife and I decided to be proper tourists and take a bus tour of Porto. I guess most people would share photo's of the significant buildings, monuments and such other sights from a tour. I have a few snaps like that, but took advantage f the fact that I was sitting at the top of an open roof bus, to take photos of some interesting parts of Porto you normally would not see.
Let's start before we were on the bus, we had walked to the tourist offices near the Torre dos Clérigos (Clérigos Tower) which is the iconic bell tower of the Igreja dos Clérigos (Church of the Clergymen).
The Church facade with the bell tower in the background.
Further up the hill and another shot of the facade, which is, like so many other buildings in Porto, exquisitely detailed.
The bell tower from the side, this photo does little justice to the height of the tower and it is quite imposing.
Skip to when we are on the bus and waiting to go, I took a shot of one of the buildings surrounding the square, Praça da Liberdade.
Building built in such a manner, to a point and a few floors up, may be common in Porto, but I have never seen a building like this in South Africa so I find them quite fascinating!
Immediately to the left of those fascinating buildings is another fascinating building, albeit for a very different reason!
Considering the location of this ruin I am very surprised no one has stepped in and rebuilt it. It would seem that the ground alone is incredibly valuable so why not? What am I missing?
I think this is the Sé Cathedral, but was to busy looking around and taking photos to pay attention to the recorded tour guide! It is however a beautiful building, whatever it is called.
To your right a picturesque view of the wonderful Rio Douro...
and to your left a ruin, who knows what stood there before? It might have been a grand old house!
Behind the ruin we see another building in the process of going the same way, seemingly left to fall to pieces.
I find such things to be very sad.
If you dislike seeing sad buildings, STOP SCROLLING RIGHT NOW!
Another home, in a sad state! Only visible from the top of the bus we see the roof above the entrance as it is about to cave in.
All the windows on the ground floor have been bricked up, so this has not seen any love for a while and judging by the for sale sign, it won't see any love from the current owner!
A change of pace, some delicious looking pastries, yum.
There were plenty of these, but I only snapped one. Tall but narrow buildings towering above the buildings around them. Very strange to me.
Not sure what year this building was built, but those balconies make me think of the seventies!
Also, I may not have many cranes in the photo's, but they nearly litter the skyline. I think there are more of them than when we moved here a year ago, which is good!
Interesting design, but I only managed this poor shot as we drove by.
We got off the bus at an old fort, but it was closed, so we could not get a look inside 😒
If this wind sock could talk and you asked it for a report, I am sure it would say something along the lines of...
'F*!KKIN WIND!!"
It did not flap wave or move, it just remained dead straight as if it was frozen. I do concur, the wind was strong and cold...
The fort, still closed, but still impressive.
The wifey, holding on to her hat, because wind.
Back on the bus, we made our way up the Rio Douro, boats sitting idly, waiting for something to do.
The rusty remains of what may have been a roof of a factory once?
Yet another ruin, the roof has completely cave in, visible from the light through the windows. This RIGHT NEXT to the river!
One of the many boats taking tourists up and down the river.
So many of these style building here, it looks to me as though each door is an entrance to an apartment, meaning in this image alone there are ten apartments alone in the foreground. Ten tall and narrow apartments. I would love to see inside of one and get a fell for the dimensions, from the outside they look like they would feel like living in a tunnel 😁
Missing tiles, broken windows. It could look so beautiful and it has a view of the river.
Some of the bigger boats for tourists.
And that ends of day one.
The bus ride took a bit longer than I thought it would, so we did not have as much time to explore as I had hoped. We needed to still get home on time and fetch the kids so were a bit pressed for time.
It was still great to go around Porto, and not be driving, so we could both take in more of the city and see places we would not have gone to otherwise.
We did go again today, Tuesday, but on a different route with the same company. I will create a post with the photo's from today a bit later, possibly tomorrow.
So what do you think? Not the usual post n a city?
Why do you think there are so many seemingly abandoned and empty buildings in Porto? There were many more that I just did not take photos of.
Am I crazy thinking that the buildings with a view of the river should have been snapped up and renovated already?
