Tuesday October 14 -- Porto

Tuesday October 14 -- Porto
We had to be out of our cabins by 9, so we gathered in the lounge for a couple hours of card games, reading, etc. Cloudy & cool outside.
We piled into 8 taxis to go to the hotel. A couple rooms were ready so we dumped all our small luggage in them and went walking. There are many interesting streets going in every direction, so we all carried maps.

   

We visited the cathedral of St. Francis (not the same one some of us had seen the day before), which is very ornate with tons of gold leaf, many statues and so on. Overwhelming.

   

It has an interesting crypt and a small museum. Lunch was fun beside the river. Afterward, several groups set out to shop. We gradually made our way uphill to the train station and beyond, one of the highest points in the city. Cathy was looking for a fish scaler like she'd seen used the day before, and eventually we found the right store. To her disappointment the only one left was a lesser model. Later we found out that Lynn and Alma had beaten her to it and gotten the last of the better ones. Of course we popped into many interesting shops along the way. One of them was full of original jewellery, a few had beautiful cork purses, and another had a lot of handmade tiles, and painters working on new ones. Of course there were also lots of mass-produced things, but most of them originated in Portugal, rather than being imported from China. It was a good walk, with lots to see and good exercise.
Back at the hotel it was time for our last hall party of the trip, then some of us walked down by the river to find dinner. Larry, Elsie, Brock, Fred and I ended up in a small upstairs stone room, looking out over the river and pedestrian area. Very nice meal, good company. What more could we ask for?
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