On  Wednesday we got up early to fly to Porto to join our OAT trip. At 7 AM our doorbell rang and there was Eddie with a cab on the way to help get our luggage down to the cab. Unbelievable service!

The flight was uneventful and so was the cab to Grand Hotel Porto. The hotel is located on a pedestrian street, but cabs have access to bring passengers with luggage to the door of the hotel. After checking in we started looking for what to do in Porto. The first thing that jumped off the page was an exhibit of photos collected by Frieda Kahlo over her life. With a stop along the way for lunch we walked to the exhibit which is at Centro Português de Fotografia located in an old prison which was worth the visit itself.  Carol has written papers on Kahlo and we have gone to every exhibit and film about her life so it was appropriate for us to see this exhibit which will be moving on in January. Watch for it, it has been traveling for several years. 

Dinner and a nights sleep left us with most of an open day until our group gathers so another online search turned up a Robert Mapplethorpe exhibit at Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art. More photography by a renowned if “difficult” photographer. We got a cab for the trip across town and paid our fee and only then realized there was so much more to see at the museum. There is a major exhibit of models built by Anish Kapoor plus four constructed pieces in the gardens. We took lunch at the museum so we could keep going.  

I have not included any Mapplethorpe images here. 

Back to the hotel to meet with our group.