I couldn’t help recognising the scene in this photo from Saturday’s Guardian Review:-

It was illustrating an ensemble piece about various writers’ relationship with Europe.

The photo brought back memories of that wonderful trip we took down (and up) the River Douro from just that jetty in the picture and which I featured in this post:-

And this one:-

Curiously an item on Reporting Scotland on Thursday? night about the trip of Rangers to Porto for a Europa League* game also showed scenes of the same jetty. Synchronicity.

*So-called.

The Wine Box, Porto, on the northern road approaches to Dom Luís I Bridge has Art Deco styling:-

Another tall Deco building. Note cartouche below roofline:,-

This one’s yellow paintwork emphasises the strong horizontals:-

Terrace of Deco:-

Zoom to lower down the terrace:-

Hotel Vincci, Porto, is a modern Deco style hotel by the banks of the River Douro. Helitours landing pad is in the foreground.

More of Hotel Vincci fron River Douro- plus heritage tram to left:-

Close-up. I like the clock:-

There’s a different view of the hotel here.

Almost Deco. Note Aragem sign on building in left foreground::-

We’d just walked past Aragem which had a very unusual appearance by its side door. The wall looked a sif it had part melted!:-

“Melted” wall upper portion:-

Aragem from a distance:-

Another canopied corner building:-

We discovered a fair few deco style buildings in Porto – far too many for one post

On the way down from Trindad metro station two were in the one street:-

Indeed, adjacent to each other:-

The second one had a lovely balconied curved corner aspect:-

Not to mention a good cartuche above the doorway:-

This one was a bit further on:-

Porto’s beautifully elegant Arrábida Bridge (Ponte de Arrábida) carries motorway traffic over the River Douro on the western portion of the ring road around central Porto.

From the River Douro:-

Photo from Wikipedia (taken from the Vila Nova de Gaia bank of the river Douro):-

Statue on top of bridge pillar:-

Support pillars and statue:-

Close up on one of the bronze statues (from Wikipedia):-

Arrábida Bridge looking back towards Porto:-

Concrete tower. This was just beyond the Ponte de São João. It looks a bit like an aircraft control tower but there wasn’t an airport nearby:-

Multi-chimneyed building:-

River bank Church. Note tiles on gable end facing the river:-

River boats, buildings and Igreja de Santa Clara Church on hill crest:-

Igreja de Santa Clara Church on centre-left of photo:-

Port warehouses and old style boats:

On the hill here can be seen a dome that we were told by the river-tour guide was the only building left from an Exhibition that had been held in Porto:-

Beyond the Arrábida Bridge before we had to turn back we got a view of the mouth of the river Douro as it meets the Atlantic:-

Bank of River Douro, Porto, Dom Luís I Bridge to left of photo:-

Mosteiro da Serra do Pilar, Porto, Dom Luís I Bridge to extreme right:-

Yacht on river:-

Riverside buildings and river cruise boats:-

Another river cruise boat. Its inhabitants must have been visiting the port warehouses along the banks as they were in singing mood!:-

More buildings, Arrábida Bridge in background:-

I took this photo of the Arrábida Bridge (of which more later) from the road above the north bank of the River Douro before we found the starting point for the boat trip:-

And I took this zoom from the bank itself:-

River bank buildings hard by the Dom Luís I Bridge:-

Other river bank buildings:-

Heritage Tram, Porto:-

This bridge seemed to take a road out over the river,* presumably because the houses were right on the bank and allowed no room:-

Cable cars. They seemed to come down from near the Dom Luís I Bridge:-

*Edited to add:- it’s called the Viaduto do Caias das Pedras.

Back to more pleasant things.

This is the Ponte de São João or St John’s Bridge in Porto which appeared in the background of my photos of the Maria Pia Bridge and replaced it as a carrier of rail traffic across the River Douro.

It’s another elegant concrete structure:-

If you look to the left of the bridge support in the above photos you can see kilns. Those brown things look like kilns anyway. This closer view also shows the nice arches on the river embankment:-