The Bahblog

I'm sure it looks like all we did in Porto was drink port, eat delicious food, and walk all over, but I did convince Nate to go to a couple historical places in between all of that. There were three highlights - the train station, the cathedral, and the Stock Exchange Palace.

The Sao Bento Train Station

The Sao Bento Train Station's interior is decorated in wonderful, hand-painted tiles. The tiles show historical and folk scenes from the region. On one side, medieval battles between Spain and Portugal are portrayed.

Another side shows the 1387 wedding of Portugal's King Joao I and the English Princess Philippa (parents of Henry the Navigator, who is also portrayed below).

The top row shows the evolution of transportation, from Roman chariots to the arrival of the first train.

I still can't believe all of these tiles were hand-painted. I remember painting a tile as part of an elementary school are project and I can assure you it looked nothing like these. The train station is small and all of these tiles are in one room, but that makes it easier to absorb all of the history portrayed and appreciate it.

The Oporto Cathedral

The 12th century Romanesque Porto Cathedral is where King Joao and Princess Philippa were married and their son, Henry the Navigator, baptized.

The cloister is gorgeous and decorated with elaborate tiles portraying the poetry of Song of Songs.

To be honest, the cathedral is a bit of a let-down after seeing the cathedrals in Spain and Italy. It looks like it needs to be restored and the poor lighting made it difficult to appreciate the main altarpiece. However, as a fan of old cathedrals I'm still glad we went.

The Stock Exchange Palace

The Stock Exchange Palace is the most modern historical place we visited. it was built in the 19th century by Porto's Commercial Association. Although the building itself was completed in 1850, decorating didn't finish until 1910. The tour itself was a bit strange. We've been touring places built anywhere from the 1200s to the 1700s, touring something built in the 1800s in Europe felt a bit too modern. We also accidentally missed our scheduled tour (it wasn't completely an accident, we prioritized finishing our delicious lunch) and ended up taking a tour in Spanish. I understood about 50% and relied on Nate to translate the rest.

Onto the palace itself. Once inside, there's a grand staircase and a lovely court chamber made of French wood.

We also saw the temporary office of Gustav Eiffel.

The tour finished in the beautiful and mesmerizing Arab room. From floor to ceiling, it's decorated in a Moorish revival style. It's gorgeous.

And there's proof that we did something besides indulge ourselves for three days!