Porto, Part 3

-
1 April 2012

Wanna see another form of beauty after reading Part 1 and 2? Let's go to the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art. If you go on Sundays between 9am and 1pm, you can save 9 Euro entrance fee for visiting the museum and the garden. At time of visit was the exhibition of Raymond Roussel. It features 300 pieces of collection which recreated his universe and inspired some of his surrealism movements.

Its restaurant serves buffet lunch at a reasonable price. It was quite crowded. We were there after 2pm, too late to enjoy the buffet which would be ended at 3 pm. Some tables in the terrace overlooking the museum garden, a great pleasure to dine in the nature.

The best part is the beautiful and tranquil garden. Families, couples, students with teachers, friends dotted the garden but not crowded. I like the mini farm with animals feeding themselves lazily on the green lawn. Feel like in the nature and not in a city. No one will overlook the striking red sculpture by Claes Oldenburg, who also inserted his needle and thread dominating Piazza Cardorna of Milan.




The icon of Crystal Palace Gardens is a huge domed pavilion which is used for concerts and sport events. It is a landscaped gardens, surrounded by a lake and dotted with roaming peacocks. A bonus is it overlooks River Douro and you have stunning views of Porto. The Garden is located a bit up the hill but still within the city centre, with walkable distance.














Out the park, going back to the main streets scatters with historic buildings.  First one comes into sight may be Soares dos Reis Museum.  It showcases art from dissolved monasteries and convents.  Collections include paintings, glass, ceramics and jewelry.

 
Going forward will come the hospital with a dark wall. Restoration needed! Still further on the right is one building of Porto University.







Soon the renowned book store Livraria Lello will appear.  The exterior is Gothic white wall with elegant paintings.  We were there on Sunday.  It was closed, unfortunately.  The interior is intricately decorated and admired by an amazing staircase leading to the heaven.


Continue to stroll along the street, up and down, to view the undulating city. 













































For more information, also read Part 1 and 2.
Location: Oporto, Portugal

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Croatia Trip - Split - Baptistery & Mt. Marjan

-
Image
In the 5th morning we visited the temple of Jupita (Baptistery), Meštrović museum and hiked up to Mt Marjan.  The baptistery is for total immersion.  It is beautifully crafted.  Next to it is a statue of Saint John the Baptist.  Meštrović museum is detailed in another section.  Please refer to Day 5 Split - Ivan Mestrovic We started the climb of Mt. Marjan around midday.  The sun was high.  The ascend was quite steep.  But the view over the town was spendid.  The path was barren.  We hardly saw any people, perhaps one workman who was on duty.  There were some Romanesque churches along the way.  The first one looked bright white under the sun.  It's beautiful.   Continued on the white 'sandy' path, second and third churches came into view.  Hu hu, destination reached!  For a while the sky turned cloudy.  It did not rain, fortunately.  We went to a public swimming place to immerse into the water after the sweating walk.  Yeah yeah we did not know previously
Read more

Kbal Spean

-
Image
Kbal Spean is a unique archaeological site situated 50km from the Siem Reap.   Religious stone cravings sit on the river banks and bed, 150m stretch of the Stung Kbal Spean River.     Kbal Spean is commonly known as the "Valley of a 1000 Lingas " or "The River of a Thousand Lingas". Lingas are phallic representations sacred to Brahmanism.   It is a symbol of fertility.   Hundreds of them are carved into the rock of the river.   Other carvings include gods such as Vishnu , Shiva , Brahma and animals. To appreciate the beautiful carvings in the nature, one has to climb a trek for around 30 minutes.   Exhausted but worthwhile. Reclining Vishnu is often the theme of carvings.   Others include Shiva and Uma mounted on the bull, Brahma on a lotus petal and still others which I can't figure out exactly. Animals, lingas, yoni dot here and there.            Downdream is a waterfall. On the way is another spot with carving
Read more

Marshal Zen Garden Beitou 北投少帥禪園

-
Image
Marshal Zen Garden was built during the Japanese-colonised period of the 1920's.  It was renowned for the hot spring and was used as the entertainment hub of the Japanese pilots during the end of the World War II. In the 1960's, it was used to confine Marshal Chang Xue-liang and his wife Zhao Di. We checked in in our hotel Double Inn and was driven there.  The environment is very soothing with a lot of green, flowers and typical Japanese set up. We first enjoyed our afternoon tea after travelling straight from Alishan to Chiayi to Taipei. You can visit the Zen Garden if you hold a booking of  the tour, hot spring or restaurant. It was very nice to enjoy the afternoon in its tea house  小六茶舖. It's cosy and the food was superb, good value for the money. NTD900 for two. Marshal Chang and his wife were detained at the Zen Garden for decades.  Though it was years ago, the exhibition of his room, photos and his life made me feel the loss of
Read more