Heading to Portugal by regular bus from Spanish Galicia, I planned to transfer to Porto by train to Lisbon. The bus would have delivered me to the capital anyway, but this transfer would have taken 9 hours, the train is faster and more convenient, and I wanted to combine business with pleasure: warm up on the road and take a walk around the charming city. But since my last visit to Porto five years earlier, the city acquired a subway and the bus station, which used to be a ten-minute walk from Sao Bento station, is now moved away from the city center - I had to use this subway.
The station is about a hundred years old, built at the beginning of the last century. He inherited the name from the Benedictine monastery, which was previously located on this site.
The lobby is richly decorated with a panel of twenty thousand tiled tiles based on the drawings of Jorge Colas on subjects from the history of Portugal and the history of transport.
The Lisbon-Porto line, the longest in the coastal country, disappointed me this time. In 2010, I rode the Alpha Express in a car with airplane seats, with wide aisles between them, there was a buffet, the flight attendants offered lunch on the way, although, of course, the tickets were expensive and the cars were half empty. This time I also bought a ticket for an express, and not for an electric train with all stops, but there was no trace of Alpha, even a little dirty in the toilets - a consequence of lower fares and increased accessibility to the public. The express does not enter Sao Bento, located in the city center, you have to take the “yellow” shuttle train, which will take you to the express boarding platform.
If on the last visit the city seemed calm and friendly, now the number of dubious personalities, especially near the station, is very large - the trouble of all of Europe, you need to watch your pockets and luggage.
Arriving from Spain, you must not forget to turn the clock hands - the time in Portugal is one hour behind the European one. The zero meridian of Greenwich passes through Spain so that most of its territory is to the west, but the Spaniards, for the sake of convenience, extended European time to the entire territory of their country, and Portugal, the only continental European country, lies entirely to the west of Greenwich - the edge of Europe.
The station is about a hundred years old, built at the beginning of the last century. He inherited the name from the Benedictine monastery, which was previously located on this site.
The lobby is richly decorated with a panel of twenty thousand tiled tiles based on the drawings of Jorge Colas on subjects from the history of Portugal and the history of transport.
The Lisbon-Porto line, the longest in the coastal country, disappointed me this time. In 2010, I rode the Alpha Express in a car with airplane seats, with wide aisles between them, there was a buffet, the flight attendants offered lunch on the way, although, of course, the tickets were expensive and the cars were half empty. This time I also bought a ticket for an express, and not for an electric train with all stops, but there was no trace of Alpha, even a little dirty in the toilets - a consequence of lower fares and increased accessibility to the public. The express does not enter Sao Bento, located in the city center, you have to take the “yellow” shuttle train, which will take you to the express boarding platform.
If on the last visit the city seemed calm and friendly, now the number of dubious personalities, especially near the station, is very large - the trouble of all of Europe, you need to watch your pockets and luggage.
Arriving from Spain, you must not forget to turn the clock hands - the time in Portugal is one hour behind the European one. The zero meridian of Greenwich passes through Spain so that most of its territory is to the west, but the Spaniards, for the sake of convenience, extended European time to the entire territory of their country, and Portugal, the only continental European country, lies entirely to the west of Greenwich - the edge of Europe.
Translated automatically from Russian. View original
Comments (0)
leave a comment
Show other comments …
