The coloured quay
The stacked houses over the Douro — the mother postcard.
Georges Jansoone — CC BY 2.5 · Diego Delso — CC BY-SA 3.0 · icpcnews icpcnews — CC BY 2.0 · icpcnews icpcnews — CC BY 2.0
Two are ideal by Alfa Pendular train (two and three-quarter hours): a centre day (Ribeira, Lello, Clérigos, São Bento, cathedral) and a two-banks day (Bolsa, bridge, Gaia and its lodges, Pilar sunset) — one compressed day is possible. Porto is no second Lisbon: stonier northern temper, warmer people, heavier kitchen — the country's true duality.
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Ribeira is Porto's deathless postcard: narrow-shouldered coloured houses stacked over the Douro quay — yellow, red and blue under hung laundry — the wine lodges of Gaia opposite and the iron bridge's arch above: the picture that made all Porto World Heritage (1996). The quay runs cafés and restaurants square against the river — the lanes behind (Barredo, Fonte Taurina) a true medieval maze of arches and stairs where popular Porto still lives above the tables — and the old square keeps its fountain and Bernardini's cube. Everything walks from it: the Luís bridge on foot to the Gaia bank, and the traditional rabelo boats run the six-bridges cruise, the classic river half-hour — while evening turns the quay into a lit gathering doubled in the river: northern Portugal's loveliest night.
The stacked houses over the Douro — the mother postcard.
Barredo: arches, stairs and people's Porto.
The lit evening doubled in the river.
Cais da Ribeira, 4050-509 Porto