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A long morning walk in Porto before
late afternoon flight home.
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Thursday 23rd November 2023
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It was time to leave
our beautiful ship and go home, however we only needed to
leave for the airport at 3pm. Most cruise companies want
everybody to leave first thing in the morning so that they
can prepare the ship for the next lot of passengers, but
Scenic is different. We were asked to vacate our cabins
by 9am, but we were welcome to use the public areas for
the rest of the day. They even served lunch and the bar
remained open all day. We decided that as it was another
beautiful day, we would make the most of it and revisit
parts of the city that we had seen briefly on day 2, when
the weather wasn't as good as it was today. |
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We didn't
have a specific route in mind, so we just started walking. It turned
out to be quite a long walk! |
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We gravitated
towards the area around the cathedral, where we spent quite a bit
of time. |
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From the cathedral,
we walked the short distance to the upper level of the Dom
Luís I Bridge with the intention of walking across
it and perhaps taking a scenic ride on the cable car, which
we had missed doing on day 2 because it was closed for maintenance. |
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Not our photo, but it
shows what the upper level of the bridge looks like (taken
from the other side of the river to where we were). |
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Almost as soon as we
began walking across the bridge, we stopped and held on
to the railings. The wind was blowing very strongly indeed. |
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People
walking towards us from the other side were struggling to walk in
the strong wind. |
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Still
hanging onto the railings, we braved a selfie, but that was it.
We headed back to the cathedral! |
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We decided
to take the steepish route down to the riverbank. |
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On the way down, we
came across this little chapel, Capela
de Nossa Senhora das Verdades and peered in through
the partially open door. It looked beautiful, but it was
clearly undergoing maintenance and was therefore not open
to the public. A lady appeared from inside and was very
apologetic but offered to let us have a better look inside
anyway, so we were able to take a few more steps into it.
She told us that it was a staging post for the Camino de
Santiago and that European funding was helping to maintain
it. |
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After
the long, but interesting descent, we were finally close to the
river level. |
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We walked back to the
ship along the river, where it was time for lunch followed
by departure for the airport. |
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We spotted
the arrival of the plane that would be taking us back home. |
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The obligatory
photos of us on a plane! |
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Watching a gorgeous
sunset from the plane window, we reminded ourselves that
it had been a wonderful holiday! |
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Once
home, Geoff could admire his collection of holiday acquisitions! |
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