Streets of Porto
For a short introduction to Porto please see here. Shot in February 2015.
Discovering Porto
Porto is truly a magnificent city. Though unmistakably Portuguese, it is pretty different from Lisbon. Porto is much smaller than the sprawling Metropole in the south, but that’s the apparent difference. While Lisbon is more polished and colorful, Porto has a more rugged feeling – ochre color tones being much more prevalent in the city’s architecture. The narrow streets of Porto are every writer’s dream city for the location of a suspenseful historical thriller set somewhere between the 16th and 19th centuries. And then there are the churches, covered in pure gold; they are monuments of the town’s past glory. It was a time when Porto was literally the country’s principal port, and all the riches of Brazil poured through the city, bringing previously inconceivable wealth to the citizens. Finally, the British conceived the Port Wine to ship wine from Northern Portugal to the British Islands. While it is solid and heavy, at the same time, it tends to be sweet and gentle. It’s much like the city itself, actually.
Porto in Rain II
Shot on a weekend end of February while roaming through the rain soaked streets of Porto in Northern Portugal. You’ll find Part I here.
Photographing Lello & Irmão
Also called the “Harry Potter”-Bookstore, for JK Rowling supposedly being here and taking inspiration, Lello & Irmão is a magnificent piece of architecture in Porto, Portugal. It was built in 1906 by Xavier Esteves, a well-known Iberian architect of the prewar period. Usually, the style is described as Neogothic-Jugendstil, and while that is true, it definitely has a fantastic or mystic touch. Indeed, the bookshop would fit very well in any wizardry story, and it is the perfect place to dive into your fantasy book. The store and the books seem to mix here in an engaging, almost magic way. I very much recommend a visit.
Porto in Rain
Shot last weekend while roaming through the rain soaked streets of Porto in Northern Portugal.
Portugal V (last part)
Some weeks have passed since I visited Portugal in mid-February, and I started sharing my impressions with you in a series of posts. This one will be the last one for now. But I will be back in April with new pictures of a new city (hopefully :))! Enjoy.
What is truly remarkable about Lisboa and Porto, and what I didn’t mention before, is the excellent choice of hostels here. Portuguese hostels win competitions on Hostelworld and Hostelbookers almost yearly, and they deserve the prices! A Lisboan hostel I can recommend from my own experience the Good Morning Hostel on the Praca dos Restauradores in the city center. The people there were lovely and very helpful. We cooked together and had a great time. If you go to Lisboa, check it out.
I can’t remember the church’s name, but it was undoubtedly in Porto. The city has many magnificent churches, some made of pure gold. They are reminiscent of a colonial era in which Porto became one of the wealthiest cities on the Iberian peninsula thanks to trade and the importance of the local harbor. + I miss the blue sky terribly.
Number 28 is again seen on a rainy day in Alfama. My favorite part of the old town. The surroundings of the Castello are stunning and very charming. It is a lovely part of the town for a walk, but you shouldn’t mind steep hights 😉 In case there is always a tram to bring you up & back.
A panorama picture of Porto. One day was definitively not enough for Porto. Although there are not many traditional “tourist sights” here, the city doesn’t need them. It is the maritime flair, the port wine, and last but not least the architecture and the small streets which are selling Porto and making it so attractive (especially for Britons, we were told, because there is a cheap connection from London introduced recently).
There had to be a cat picture at some point 😉 I get her anger, but I probably wouldn’t enjoy it if someone pointed a camera at me 10 cm in front of my face. So I was a bit of a cat paparazzi here. Guilty as charged. Still cute 🙂
The end of the world. Almost. The back of the European continent at Capo da Roca is 3000 km from home. It is a unique, almost spiritual place. Unfortunately, we had terrible luck with the weather; the wind was awful and cold as ice, so we had to return relatively quickly. Our hope to see the sunset stayed unfulfilled, too. It was beautiful nonetheless.
Michael Hoffman Photography 