The Douro terraces
River and mouth from the green steps.
JP Bennett from Yamato, Japan — CC BY 2.0 · bDom - artiste - www.bdom.info from Enghien, Belgique — CC BY 2.0 · Alexandre9099 — CC0 · Alexandre9099 — CC0
Second-day afternoon as rule: after Bolsa and São Francisco a quarter-hour climb — green siesta, then terrace sunset — families stretching it longer for the peacocks. January-March, camellia season, is the locals' secret.
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The Crystal Palace Gardens are Porto's great green balcony: eight hectares the German Émile David drew (1860s) around a vanished glass palace (the modern Super Bock Arena dome replacing it) — the gardens remaining the jewel: Porto's famous camellia woods, linden walks, duck lakes, and peacocks loose over all of it. Their secret is the stepped view terraces along the southern rim: the Douro opening suddenly below with the Arrábida bridge and the river's ocean mouth west — angles the centre itself never owns, each terrace (the Feelings garden, the hill terrace...) a free sunset seat. It is the second day's perfect rest between stone centre and loud river — emphatically family ground with its peacocks and ducks — neighboured by the Romanticism Museum in the Quinta da Macieirinha, where Sardinia's deposed king lived his last days.
River and mouth from the green steps.
The city's flower as woods, January-March.
Rua de Dom Manuel II, 4050-346 Porto