Tag Archives: porto

Porto Rooftops

During our summer 2023 visit, Portugal we stayed in lodgings not far from Porto’s Ribiera district, whose waterfront is visible at the far upper right of the picture. Because we like to walk a lot in such towns, we spent most of our time on that side of the Duoro River, the main waterway flowing through Porto and shortly after to the sea. But on this evening we had business across the river as we began our walk.

We walked to the east and then crossed one of the eye-catching bridges, the Ponte Luis I. This is mainly a rail bridge, but there are walkways for pedestrians. As the bridge reaches the far bank, the river-side hills rise quickly to meet it. I paused here to photograph over the tops of the characteristic red roofs toward the Duoro as it continues downstream toward the ocean.


G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Overlooking The Duoro

Overlooking The Duoro
The Duoro River winding through Porto, Portugal on a hazy afternoon.

You would be wrong if you thought that I had shared all of the photographs from our 2023 Europe travels! I came back with more than 5000 image files. I’ve traversed the full set a few times, and there are a lot more photographs there for me to finalize. This one comes from our stay in Porto, Portugal, on a warm late afternoon when a random walk took us past this viewpoint above the Duoro River, at a park where the locals were hanging out.

We wander quite a bit when we travel. In fact, just plain walking around and discovering things is probably our favorite activity. This has some downsides — sometimes our approach means that we miss important things. But there are benefits: we see things that folks on the usual tourist itinerary may miss, sometimes we end up talking to people, and we have an experience that is closer to discovering (rather than being led to) things.


G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Apartment Facade, Porto

Apartment Facade, Porto
“Apartment Facade, Porto” — A building full of tightly packed apartments, Porto.

We visited Porto, Portugal last summer during our travels though (mostly) Southern Europe. We spent a week in Portugal, split between Porto and Lisbon. We had heard good things about Porto, and it is clearly a city that combines history with modernity. That, in fact, seems to sometimes lead to some (typical urban) conflicts as older areas transition to incorporate expensive real estate, and you’ll sometimes see juxtapositions of wealth and poverty.

I saw this building on our very first walk in Porto. We headed toward the historic Ribiera district, which features densely packed buildings on a steep, hillside landscape alongside the Duoro River. The building in the photograph is not, as far as I know, any sort of historic treasure, but it is a visually remarkable structure. . It appears to be very dense apartments of some sort, and I can only imagine wh=at it must are like inside.


G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Narrow Street and Steps, Porto

Narrow Street and Steps, Porto
A woman stands below steps ascending a narrow street in Porto, Portugal

Narrow Street and Steps, Porto. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

A woman stands below steps ascending a narrow street in Porto, Portugal

On our first walk in Porto we headed straight for the historic Ribeira district. This neighborhood rises steeply from the banks of the Duoro River and is filled with extremely narrow and twisty streets on the impressively inclined hillside. Yes, it is a popular tourist destination, but with good reason. In places the streets are so narrow that I was reminded of wandering Utah slot canyons, with soft light filtering down from above.

Later on our visit we branched out a bit more — though to be honest we barely scratched the surface of the place during our stay. We love to walk when we visit cities, and there were plenty of opportunities for that in Porto. On this day we took a long and semi-random looping walk that took us past busy downtown areas, to hilltop views of the Duoro, and through more neighborhoods — like this one where we stopped to photograph the steep and narrow walkways near the end of the day.


G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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