Round The World and other travels

I first woke at 0600, but lay in bed dozing and resting until a more reasonable 0735. Conditions outside looked very misty, a good deal more so than on the previous day. I had my usual breakfast in the hotel, then returned to my room to make my preparations for leaving. As I briefly leafed through some hotel literature, I thought at last that I might have made a breakthrough with the name mystery. This particular publication always used the 'Porto' version, without the initial 'O'. But I noticed that when a sentence in English started with 'Porto' as the subject of the sentence, the equivalent Portuguese sentence started with the two words 'O Porto'! Was this it? I convinced myself that it was - good enough for me, anyway! I checked out without any problems and was able to place my bag in storage, to be picked up later in the day. I wanted to make use of my last morning in Porto for a final bout of sightseeing; it seemed pointless just to hang around the hotel.

For the third day running, I began by catching a no. 3 bus towards the city centre, and bought another day ticket. I got off at the Crystal Palace for a look around and was very glad that I'd done so. It wasn't so much the building itself that I found impressive, but rather the magnificent river views available from the gardens. I then travelled to the Cordoaria district, where I noted the new tramway construction weaving its way through the old buildings, and I once again marvelled at the Clerigos church, precariously perched at the top of a steep hill, its tower providing an easily visible landmark all over the city centre.

From here, I walked down to the main station, briefly calling in at the entrance hall to view the artwork - another useful tip from those American ladies at lunch on Saturday. Then I climbed up to the cathedral by a slightly different route to the one I had taken on Sunday. I had a look inside but, in all honesty, did not find it particularly welcoming or impressive. I realised something that I had missed before : the cathedral is adjacent to the road that crosses the top level of the main bridge. Again, it was interesting to see the work in progress to prepare the way for the trams. I found a narrow, winding path down to the riverside, a passage that was made all the more hazardous by quite disgusting amounts of dog mess   The city has a real problem with this : the concept of 'poop & scoop' doesn't seem to have caught on yet.

I crossed the bridge for a final look back at Porto from the Gaia side, then retraced my steps and took the little funicular back up to the higher level. It is a very modern system, with cars that manage remain upright whether on the gradient or on the level section at the top. I caught a bus to Campanha station, as I wanted to make my return to the hotel by sampling the metro one more time. It proved to be very much quieter than the previous day and in no time at all, I was once more approaching Le Meridien, where I picked up my suitcase. Although I had intended to take a taxi to the airport, I had a last-minute change of plan. My Scottish sense of value took the upper hand! As I already had a public transport day ticket in my pocket and was in no hurry whatsoever, why waste EUR20 on a taxi? Accordingly, I had a leisurely but quite enjoyable journey by ordinary public bus.

I was still too early for the check-in desks to be open, but was able to collect my BPs from the BA ticket counter and made my way to the small lounge in OPO that appears to serve frequent flyers of all the airlines. I used the computer for a while and then simply relaxed for a bit. Time seemed to pass remarkably quickly and soon it was time to head for Gate 5. Boarding was by bus transfer, and the process seemed to get underway very shortly indeed after I had seen the aircraft taxiing to its stand.

On arrival at a very quiet EDI, I had a real stroke of luck, managing to get on board the car park shuttle bus just before it pulled away from the stop. The drive home was predictably straightforward and I made it home by 2255 to find that all was well. The curtain-raiser was over and the main performance would follow within the week.