For our first full day in Porto, our plan was a morning walking tour Paula booked through Tours By Locals, then lunch, then across the bridge to Vila Nova de Gaia (usually just called Gaia) for a port house tour in the afternoon.

The original tour we booked was a half-day with a professionally licensed guide, but a couple of days before we left, she notified Paula that she had a family emergency and was unable to guide us at that time. She offered a different time, but we had already booked ourselves solid for our Porto visit. So, we cancelled that tour, got our money refunded, and found another option called Porto Half-Day Photo Tour with a Local with professional photographer José S. He had set our meeting point at Clérigos Tower for 9:30. Great, we thought, we can sleep in a little, leisurely grab some coffee and pastries around 8, then make our way there.

You know there’s a “but” coming… We researched the area around us online the night before – lots of restaurants, bakeries, etc. – but we couldn’t find anything that opened before 9am! And, of course, when we’d run into a mini market that night, we forgot to get coffee and milk for the apartment. In looking at the Google Maps walking route from our apartment to the Tower, it said it would be a 20-minute walk to go 1.1km uphill 84 meters (that’s an elevation change of 275 feet). Yikes! We don’t have those elevations around Houston, not that we walk anywhere anyway! There’s no way I can do that in 20 minutes – at least 30 for me to manage that elevation change over that short of a distance. I checked every coffee shop/bakery along the way on Google and none opened until 9. There was a bakery directly across from the Tower, so that became our objective to reach it when it opened. Around 8:30, four jetlagged travelers took off pretty much straight uphill with a few switchbacks along the way. We only made a couple of wrong turns and had to retrace steps – my fault, I was the navigator.

Along the way, it started raining, of course. Dave didn’t bring an umbrella – that was my fault, too. So, when we got to the souvenir shops near the Tower, he ran in one to buy an umbrella, while the rest of us walked on over to the bakery. It was a little bit after 9 and we needed caffeine – and pastries, of course! Paula contacted our guide to let him know where we were and a few minutes later he arrived, told us to take our time and he’d be waiting across the street at Clérigos Tower.  

The history of the tower translated from the website https://www.torredosclerigos.pt/:

In 1753, at the request of the Clérigos Brotherhood, the Italian architect Nicolau Nasoni presented the project for a bell tower, and in 1754 work began on what would become the most beautiful and towering tower, dominating the entire urban landscape of Porto. In July 1763, with the placement of the iron cross at the top, and the image of Saint Paul in the niche above the door, its construction was completed.

The baroque characteristics that define it are the maximum expression of the spectacularity of baroque, where the typical motifs of this style give the tower movement and beauty.

At more than 75m high, after climbing 225 steps and reaching the top of the tower, the view over the city is stunning.

After our hike uphill that morning just to reach the base of the tower, we bypassed climbing to the top of tower for the view, plus it was rainy and foggy, so the views wouldn’t justify the effort (at least that’s what I told myself)! The tower truly is visible from almost everywhere in the city, its iconic silhouette reigning over it.

Besides, we had many more iconic Porto sights to see…and suddenly one appeared! Even better, José positioned us for a photo with both the streetcar and the tower.

Yep! It’s tall! We worked our way across the street to the gardens adjoining the University of Porto.

Next we waited out a downpour before viewing the side of Igreja do Carmo and Igreja dos Carmelitas with its impressive façade tile scenes alluding to the founding of the Carmelite Order and Mount Carmel in Israel. The composition was designed by Silvestre Silvestri, painted by Carlos Branco and executed in the Senhor do Além and Torrinha factories, in Vila Nova de Gaia, and dated 1912 (per Wikipedia). Although it looks like one edifice at first glance, this is actually two separate churches, one for the monks and one for the nuns. There is a 1-meter wide house between the two which was occupied until the 1980s!

We passed the Livraria Lello art nouveau bookstore with its many Harry Potter fans lined up outside to take a gander at its gorgeous interior (you can google it to see). Due to the hordes, the bookstore now requires the purchase of tickets (8 Euros or 15.90 Euros for priority access) to enter which can then be used to discount the price of buying a book there. Locals just wanting to buy books can get a special pass. Supposedly J.K. Rowling was inspired by the interior of this store and its impressive staircase. Although she herself has debunked that story as a myth, fans persist. We couldn’t believe all the people lined up in the rain to go in!

Next, we stopped for another photo op at the colorful mural commissioned by Steak ‘N’ Shake (they have a location in the building) called Painel de Azulejos (Tile Panel) by Lisbon artist Joana Vasconcelos.

From there we went back near the tower where we sheltered from another downpour, and waited for it to lessen for our next photo op.

Continuing onwards, we headed back in the direction we’d come from the apartment earlier in the day to arrive at the Miradouro da Vitória (Victory Viewpoint) for its views over the city and Douro River. Thankfully, the rain had stopped while we were at this lookout.

Just after I took this photo of José and another without him, I decided to move to flatter ground. My feet went right out from under me as I slid down the wet cobblestones of the small slope where I thought I had a good foothold. I guess I was wrong! My thought as I realized I was going down was that I would just keep sliding right into José and take him out, too! So, I extended my left arm to try to stop myself and ended up jamming my wrist. I also remember raising my right hand high as I was holding my new iPhone 15 in it and didn’t want to drop it! José and Dave (I think) helped me up, but the pain was so intense I went into shock and had to find a stoop to sit on because every time I tried to stand up, I got dizzy and nauseous. I could move my fingers, so that was good, but pretty much any movement that involved my wrist was a no-go. Paula had an Advil with her, so I took that. After maybe 10-15 minutes, I was still struggling to stand, so we decided to request an Uber to come get Dave and I and take us back to the apartment so I could put ice on it and let José, Keith, and Paula continue the tour. José ended up having to request the Uber because Paula couldn’t get her app to work, and I wasn’t in condition to try mine. Dave reimbursed José the 5 Euro fee in cash. They all waited until the Uber driver arrived. By then I could stand without being dizzy or nauseous, I guess the Advil kicked in. It took almost 30 minutes to get back to the apartment because the traffic was so bad due to construction. We probably could have got there faster by walking! But that was my whole issue – I didn’t think I could walk the distance with it being mostly downhill and dealing with the pain. Luckily, there were ice cubes in the freezer at the apartment and I took some more ibuprofen when we got there. I also made use of the apartment’s washer and dryer to get my wet jeans clean.   

José, Keith, and Paula continued their walk encountering many more iconic views and photo sites. In the following slideshow, all photos of Keith and Paula are by José, any others were taken by either Keith or Paula.

‘El Gato de cobalto’ (the blue cat), in the first picture below, is an enormous piece of street art more than 10 meters wide and nearly 18 meters high located in a very narrow street. Click the arrows or swipe to progress through the rest of the pictures in the gallery.

I was feeling better as they started back across the bridge on the lower level, so we rejoined them along the Ribeira near the apartment. José took us further along the river to one more final photo stop and gave us a local recommendation for a nearby restaurant slightly away from the touristy places before saying “adeus”.

José did a great job guiding us, pointing out photo ops, taking our pictures along the way, and sending 25 images of us on our walk afterwards. He also checked in to see how I was doing a couple of days later. We’d highly recommend him if you are interested in this type of tour in Porto. His website is: www.picturyphototours.com.

I’ll defer lunch and our afternoon port house visit to my next note! However, I’ll let you know now that I managed the rest of our trip on lots of ibuprofen and limited use of my left hand/arm. I got x-rays done when we got back to Houston, no fracture detected, but I have an appointment scheduled in a few days with an orthopedic doctor to check for any ligament/tendon damage. It’s much better and I’m getting by on over-the-counter meds, plus ice/heat packs, after a few days on a prescription anti-inflammatory. I still can’t lift anything heavy or get some twist lids off though.

UPDATE: The orthopedic doctor took new x-rays and reported that I do have compression fracture in my left wrist. It’s been 3 weeks since the injury and he said it appeared to be healing ok. He put me in a sturdier brace than the one I was wearing for 2 more weeks and I go back for follow-up in 3 weeks.