Porto

Religion

Here is a summary of the beginning of a story. I have chosen to put it in dialogue form and not give it its middle and ending. Angels talk to Lot.

Lot is sitting at the gate of the city of Sodom. He speaks to the two strangers first.

Lot: Look, my lords, turn in, I pray you into your servant’s house and stay the night, get up early, and go in the morning.

Two angels/ strangers: No, we will stay in the street all night!

Lot: But you must stay!

And they stayed. He made them a feast.. Genesis 19 : 1-3 The story continues in this chapter… ( The book of Genesis was written by Moses about 1,500 years before Christ.)

‘Every act of life, however small, has its bearing for good or for bad. Faithfulness or neglect in what are apparently the smallest duties may open the door for life’s richest blessings or its greatest calamities. It is little things that test the character. It is the unpretentious acts of self denial done with a cheerful, willing heart that God smiles at.’

Travel

This is an invitation to walk a while in Porto. I have put the time I took the photo under each one and something about each place where applicable. First, some general information.

Porto is the second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is a global city.

‘ The global city represents the most complex and significant hub within the international system, characterized by links binding it to other cities that have direct tangible effects on global socioeconomic affairs. ( New York City and London are the only ranked in the Alpha ++ category by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network.)‘

Let us get out of a BOLT taxi where a tall column dominates the square.

What does this mean?

The column was built slowly from 1909 to 1951. It is the work of Porto architect José Marques da Silva and the Sculptor Alves de Sousa. The lion is a symbol of Portuguese and British victory over the French  imperial Eagle.

We continue to walk, and the neat terraces for agricultural planting come into view as we walk steeply downhill towards the Douro River.

Roy then chooses to walk beside the tram lines as the path is narrow next to the bridge, which with Bess would be difficult.

Here it is for you to see.

Another realistic characterful face of a woman with young trees growing in front, then umbrellas in red with white stacked chairs. The bowed head of an elderly person near to us. Yellow of homes to our right. So much of life and its colour represented here.

There is then a cluster of people, almost a crowd.

Why?

We sit under some umbrellas and eat a simple but kindly served lunch. The omelettes are well filled with stringy cheese and served with a circle shape of rice and chips scattered on top. We are hungry and with salad; beef tomatoes sliced thinly on a bed of lettuce with onion and grated carrot. We are grateful and satisfied. We stay quite a while as it has started to rain a little.  Enough to make sure we and the table are covered by the square of the umbrella.

We walk on and something so adventurous catches my attention. A cherry picker with a man holding a picture.  He is painting with a navy/ black spray tin. His face is protected from the fumes. I am so close that I know the picture in his hand is the same as the one he has nearly finished painting. He stops he looks at the street . I say:

” How long?”

He says: ” Five days.”

I know he is important. I smile, and he continues to work. I find out later how really important he is.

Look at this. How special to see.

Mr Dheo is a prominent Portuguese graffiti/ street artist based in Porto  painting all over the world for the past 25 years. It was a privilege to see him working.

Our time in Porto. We are travellers. We enjoy what we see and better still the road has many surprises.

Take care,

Sandy 🙂