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14-Feb-2012
Last 4 Reservations:
 Czech Republic > Prague:
Hotel City Bell
booked from Kaufbeuren (DE)
Italy > Rome:
Astro Hostel
booked from Burlada (ES)
Italy > Rome:
Roma 2000
booked from Street Somerset (GB)
Italy > Venice:
Hotel Tintoretto
booked from Street Somerset (GB)
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Porto city guide and tourist informationPorto is Portugal's second largest city, and a very busy industrial and commercial centre. The city itself isn't very populous (about 350.000 inhabitants), but the near metropolitan area ranks some 1.800.000 inhabitants, in a 50 km radious. The city was built along the hills overlooking the Douro river estuary, and its historical centre was awarded World Heritage status in 1996.
The downtown core of Porto consists of many buildings built into a cliff face that overlooks the river. Stone cut stairs run up and down the cliff face and labourous but rewarding walking tour. Across the river are the many port warehouses.
What to see in Porto
The Ribeira, which is also a good place to start visiting the World Heritage area; the São Francisco church; the Stock Exchange palace; the Modern Art museum at Serralves, the "Casa da Música" (House of Music) concert hall; the port wine cellars; the amazing ocean front drive, known as "Foz"; the 6 bridges connecting Porto to Gaia over the Douro river, etc.
You may also like to see the City Hall (Câmara Municipal) and the vast square in front of it.
There's also a multi purpose pavilion with nice gardens to rest which is called "Pavilhão Rosa Mota", also known as "Palácio de Cristal".
For shopping I advise you to take a stroll around Bolhão which has a food market and handycrafts stores, and Santa Catarina street, which is near from Bolhão.
Take a cruise upriver. Go at least as far as Pinhão - the landscape is absolutely stunning. If you choose to do this in the Summer, don't forget your factor 30 sun screen!
Based on work by WikiTravel - Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 1.0
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