Porto’s Maria Pia Bridge was built by Gustave Eiffel of Paris Tower fame in 1877. It used to carry the railway over the River Douro.

Behind it is the Ponte de São João or St John’s Bridge, which now carres the rail traffic.

Closer view:-

Maria Pia Bridge, Porto, Reverse View. Infante D Henrique Bridge in background:-

North support, Maria Pia Bridge:-

Porto is bridge heaven. There are six bridges across the River Douro of which the Dom Luís I Bridge (Ponte D. Luís I) is a two-deck bridge that carries the metro line I featured a few posts ago as well as road traffic on its lower level.

It being a very nice day we enquired about the length of the boat trip available on the nearer boat in the above pictures and having plenty of time decided to go for it.

From that vantage point we got closer to the north bridge support buttress:-

The one below is from the bridge’s Wikipedia page and the last photo is of a distant viaduct bridge somewhere across the Douro which I had taken on the way down to the river:-

Porto is a stunning city. I suppose it helped that the sun was shining – after all, even Cowdenbeath looks good in the sunshine – but the buildings were interesting. Not just São Bento Railway Station and the tiled churches but even generally “ordinary” buildings.

This was just down from the Great War Memorial. That tiled church is just to right of centre here:-

“Ordinary” building:-

Some of the streets were narrow though:-

And like all great cities, Porto has a river, The Douro:-

That way kind of led us out of town so we doubled back and found this way down to the river:-

Looking back up to city from bank of River Douro:

Porto’s War Memorial is an imposing structure with a statue of a soldier reminiscent of many British War Memorials, set in a large square with a lovely pavemented approach:-

Plaque to those fallen in subsequent conficts:-

Plaque to commemorate 100 years since the start of World War 1:-

The base of the Memorial pedestal is decorated with representations of artillery shells:-

Sadly there was some grafitti on the base of the Memorial, a piece of which can just be seen to the right above.

Dedication to those who died in defence of overseas provinces. (If my deciphering of the Portuguese is correct):-

There are three cartouches on the Memorial, to the sides and rear. This one commemorates Angola, Naulila, Inhoga, Mongua, Ngiva:-

As best as I can make out this one says Franca, La Lys, Laventie, La Couture:-

And this one Mozambica (Mozambique,) Necomano? Sirra Micula? Namacourra?

It is one of the less remembered aspects of the Great War that Portugal was one of the Allies and sent troops to fight on the Western Front.

Germany declared war on Portugal on 9/3/1916 though before that there had been tensions over sea trade embargoes and border clashes in Africa. 12,000 Portuguese troops died and 82,000 civilians due to food shortages.

In São Bento Railway Station in Porto we found a commemorative display of photographs of Portuguese involvement in the war.

Grande Guerra (the Great War):-

Declaração de guerra (Declaration of war):-

A caminho das trincheiras (Portuguese trenches?):-

A retaguarda (Training?):-

A vida nas trincheiras (Life in the trenches):-

Destruição e desoleção (Destruction and desolation?):-

Campos de prisoneiros (POW Camps):-

O desfile da vitoria (Victory parade?):-

The best tiling we saw in Porto was at São Bento Railway Station (Estação de São Bento.)

I neglected to take a photo of the exterior. This one is from TripAdvisor:-

No tiles there obviously. But the vestibule was fantastic – not to mention packed with people whom it was impossible to avoid getting in the pictures except when only photographing the upper portions:-

The frieze at the top showed agricuktural scenes:-

I had to stitch two photos of the corniced ceiling to get most of it in. The words Minho and Douro refer to the province in which Porto is situated (between the Minho and dDouro rivers):-

This brilliant interior reminded me of Groningen Railway Station.

One of the architectural features of buildings in Porto was tiling, as in this church:-

See the side wall:-

This had extensive tiling:-

And this was striking:-

It wasn’t just tiling. I liked the architectural sculpture of a lion here:-

Some buildings were less ornate but still relatively exotic to Scottish eyes:-

Coming out of Trindad Metro station we headed downhill. Almost the first thing we came across was this delightful pavement:-

Imagine that in a city in the UK!

It ran down by the side of an extremely impressive building which I believe is the City Hall:-

The huge plaza below it led to a road junction beside which was an equestrian statue of Don Pedro IV (Dom Pedro IV – and I of Brazil) aka “The Liberator”:-

Further into the city I found this statue of Henry the Navigator, of whom I had learned when I visited Lisbon in my extreme youth:-

This road train just trundled along as we were in a leafy square in Porto:-

Porto (Oporto) has a brilliant tram/metro system with six different lines (which sometimes meet up) and 80 or so stations.

It was the first time on the cruise we’d had to negotiate a foreign transport network, but the ticketing machine had an English option and was easy to use. The tickets were also cheap. For a fifteen or so stop ride into Porto from Matosinhos the cost was €2.60 return; for two!

The one we got on was heading for the home of Porto FC, Estádio do Dragão, but we had been told to get off at Trindad for the main part of the city so I never saw the stadium.

These photos were all taken on the way back when we had to make a change.

There are at least two types of tram on the Porto Metro system as seen here:-

The tram on the opposite track was going to the Estádio do Dragão. You can just about make that out on its destination board, even though it’s coupled up:-

Our final destination tram to Senhor de Matosinhos, though our stop was Matosinhos Sul:-

Porto’s metro system – it’s really a light rail – goes along streets, underground and even over the River Douro via the Dom Luis I bridge (Puente Don Luis I):-

UEFA Europa League* Final, Dublin Arena (Aviva Stadium), 18/5/11.

Another disappointing final – as they so often are. Why do teams approach a one-off game as if they are going to get a second chance?

Okay, Braga managed to defeat Benfica in the semi-final by dint of not attacking very much but this was not a two-legged tie and they weren’t going to have home advantage for half of it. As it was they waited till they were one goal down before making any effort to attack.

In the second half they were more than able to hold Porto. Who knows? Had they gone at Porto from the start they might have got something from the game. If you’re going to lose anyway why not try to win instead?

It wasn’t much of an advert for the Europa League, which usually has more entertaining games than the utterly turgid Champions League the final of which, a week on Saturday, will in all probability be another dull watch.

*Like EUFA’s so-called Champions League this is another “league” which isn’t.