Our last day in Porto began with cold, wet weather, just like all the others had. We lazed about in the morning, hoping that it would clear up, but eventually we gave up and took the metro to Vila Nova de Gaia across the Douro River, a prime spot for picture taking. When we got off the metro, the clouds were very dark and rain was threatening to fall.
You can walk across the bridge right beside the train, and even walk across the tracks at will. Seems a bit dangerous, but the train moves slowly at this point.
As we clicked away on our cameras, the sky began to clear so we decided to go down to the river and maybe take a Six Bridges Cruise. Several types of boats make this popular type of cruise under the six bridges in the area. It's a 50 minute sail and costs about 15 euros/person.
There seem to be two options for getting down to the river from the metro stop and back up. You can walk the narrow twisty streets or take a short ride on the ropeway for 9 euros. We opted for the ropeway.
As soon as we emerged from our descent, we were approached by a very persistent middle aged woman with a limited command of English who was determined to sell us a 6 Bridges Cruise. By this point in the trip, we were used to people trying to sell us sunglasses or bracelets or scarves or trying to lure us into their restaurants as we walked down the street so we kept saying no and being skeptical, but the price was the going rate and she wore us down. The next thing we knew we were walking with her all the way down the other end of the dock.
There was a heart-stopping moment when a rambuctious child escaped his mother's grasp and ran dangerously close to a moving tour bus. She and I both gasped, and she gave up on English and began telling me a story in Portuguese. Although it seemed to be a mournful story about a child whose parents didn't watch him carefully with tragic results, I love these travel moments when a connection is made with a local resident. I hated to say goodbye when we finally reached our boat.
It was a pleasant sail upriver under several bridges.
Then we turned around and sailed back against the current which was not quite as pleasant.
From the river, we had a good view of the Fernandine Walls built by King Fernando in the mid-14th century. The tracks of a funicular lie between the walls and the houses, but it doesn't seem to be running at present.
Here is a picture of the ropeway as seen from the river.
The boat sails almost to the sea before turning back upriver.
As we walked back to the ropeway, we passed our determined saleswoman trying to convince another couple to buy a cruise so we gave her a thumbs up on the cruise, and told her we had enjoyed it.
Here are some pictures with more sunlight.
