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Day 6: Change of Plans

Great Hall of Palace

The alarm went off at 7:00AM, but I wasn’t ready to face the day.   I woke up with a stuffy nose and a soar throat, and just feeling tired and no way going to be able to climb the steps of the church we were to visit.  So, we canceled the planned excursions for the day and just stayed in Porto.  It was a good thing we canceled the excursions for the day because the one location we were going to go was raining and the second location was going to be close to 90F.  I don’t care if we were going to be on a river, 90F is too hot for me.  

Thus, today we walked down to Palaco da Bolsa and the Church of Saint Francis. The Palaco da Bolsa is the home of the commerce office, so it is still used for government affairs.  The tour was interesting and we got to see items used by Eifel (the guy that built the Eifel tower), from when he was living and working in Porto.  Also, one room which we didn’t get to see well, because it was being prepped for a meeting that was to be held later in the day. Half of the room was wood, and half was plaster but you would never be able to tell unless someone told you because the plaster work is that good it blends seamlessly into the woodwork.  The most interesting room was the Arabian room, which at the time was meant as show of power and has 22Kg of gold leaf. 

The Arabian Room

Over a staircase in the Palace

After that tour we went next door to the church of Saint Francis, which is no longer a sanctified church but a historical site.  I was not allowed to take pictures in the church, all the other churches, which are sanctified, I could.  I guess they don’t want people to really capture the how badly the church needs restoration on the inside.  The church is connected to a small museum and catacombs, which we also got to see.  The catacombs are where they house the statues used for saint day processions.  Some of those statues are a little creepy looking.   Afterwards we headed back to the hotel to drop some things off before grabbing lunch.

Lunch today was at the French Fries Factory, which served German sausage and French fries all cooked to order.  It was really good.  From there it was back to the hotel so I could lay down for a bit, I was really tired.  We did pop out briefly for gelato, and then again for dinner, which we had at Don Pepe’s.  Don Pepe’s is Mexican street food. It wasn’t too bad.   From there it was back to the hotel to pack things up and prepare for our drive down to Evora.  

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