Vila Nova de Gaia (Santa Marinha)

We started our day with a great breakfast variety in our hotel then took an uber to the start of our 3 hour walking tour. Angelica was our tour guide in Porto. My notes are a bit rough, but more to try to remember key bits of info or stories
Highlights:
St Francis church- gold leaf and tile

In the 800's a soldier kept the Moors at bay w.King, so king gave him the land which is now a district of Porto

Built cathedral as a fortress with 2 towers
Order of importance:
God
Pope 
Catholic kings
Bishop ruled Porto
Many Patron saints St Vincent -3 euros tower and view of city
Story goes that St Vincent, on his pilgrimage, and their horse with the relics walked into this church and died so they thought that was a sign from God to stay in Porto.

Public execution spot here also during dictatorship.
Dictator 50 years in power brought it here to say watch out

Over 49 churches

Very Catholic

Braga, also churches...all about praying

Porto is know for hard working

3-5 kg of gold in St Francis

Port wine institute

Camino trail signs w shell sun

Old boats carry port

Monastery above bridge

Fado music is deep and melancholy. Deeply felt by the Portugese people and they sing about:
Remember your sorrows, penas,
which are feathers, and go away with the wind, but my sorrows stay with me. They are heavy.

Santa Ana mother of Virgin Mary
People come pray here

In Gaia: 3 best things
Wine houses for port
Sunsets
View of Porta

Douro River with 2 bridges, one for king and one for the queen

Portugese people are
melancholy, were opressed through the long dictatorship
They like to complain about everything.
Glass not half full, its more like where's the water!!

Henrique the navigator start of the Discovery Era - statue and on tiles in Sao Bento train Station

Portugese chocolate stop- amazing
Oils, chocolate, jams, olive pastes

20,000 tiles hand painted in the
Sao Bento train Station
Tiles show Agriculture, wine, local festivals, religious processions
Story around top is timeline from Roman Times to the arrival of the train
Henry the Navigator 

Most beautiful McDonalds in the world in the former Majestic Cafe
This is where JKRowling wrote the first 2 Harry Potter books

Francescina( means little french woman) sandwich of porto.
A French man created it to see if Portugese women ( very conservative)would be more liberal like French women.

2 churches side by side, one 16th century and the other 17th century separated by a 1.50m house in the middle. This was to avoid taxes because 2 churches could not share the same wall

Sicamore trees in a park across from Justice Building
Lady justice in front of justice building is not typical during dictatorship of Salazar. This one basically represented:
"I see you, I don't care about justice and I might stab you first"...during dictatorship
Typically, Lady Justice is blindfolded b/c she is fair, doesn't care your background or who you were, her scales represent fairness and she is not stupid, has the sword just in case!
The park across the street has art installations which some say signify laughing at the Justice system???

JkRowling connections, wrote 2 books in Majestic Cafe which is now McDonalds.
Coincidences from her time living in Porto: Book store in Porto very similar to in her book and movies , griffin fountain, 2 churches joined by 1.50 m house, university students and cloaks, salazar character named after dictator

Mayor wanted a 4 km stretch like Champs Elysses in Paris. Church was in the way and said no to moving it, so they built a building in front of that church with the same shape and one tower so you can't see that church at all now. That building is now the City hall!!

St Clara Church - so beautiful
100 to 150 nuns in cloister separated from public by gates with spikes on it. The public had to be at least 20m away from the nuns for privacy.
Jacarinda wood used for the nuns chairs in the upper cloister is from Brazil. It is almost extinct so can be difficult to do restoration. They had an organ used to practice before doing actual masses.

Gold leaf throughout the church was from Brazil. It was a tax payment to gov't who then gave some to the church

They had images on their chairs to indicate which nun sat in each chair. Some images were made to remind the nuns how ugly the men were and as a reminder of their choice to become a nun. The images may have been requested by the nun because of an interest and images were chosen from medieval influence.
The nuns' chairs were designed so they could rest their arms on the arms of the chairs and place the edge of their butt on image on the chair to rest and their dress covered this do they still looked like they were standing.
The nuns would sing and the public thought it was the angels singing b/c they couldn't see the nuns above in the cloister.

After the tour we went for lunch and tried the local Francescina dish. It was very good. We then visited the St Clara Church and returned to pick up some of the pastes from the chocolate shop. We went into a few shops here and there, walked across the top then returned on the bottom of the Luis I Bridge. We walked to the bus stayion to get back to our hotel in time for our meeting to get our bikes and information for the start of our cycling trip on the Coastal Camino tomorrow. Afterwards we had another charcuterie dinner together before heading to our rooms to pack and prep for tomorrow. A great day today👌Leggi altro