Showing posts with label The Flying Horse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Flying Horse. Show all posts

25 April 2019

Porto landing - Monday 25 February 2019

After a busy British Airways flight from London Gatwick to Porto there was time to explore the hotel's local area and dine on fish and visit a Cafe Macau for a glass of a port and a beer before bedtime.

The Flying Horse, Gatwick Airport

With an afternoon departure there was time for a beer at the Flying Horse in the departure lounge of Gatwick's South Terminal before heading to the gate.
After the 50p reduction for a CAMRA member's Wetherspoon voucher, a pint of Titanic Brewery White Star cost £3.85 and helped pass the spare time nicely.
The ceiling, floor and walls of the Flying Horse have been made over recently and it was also interesting to view the cellar housed behind windows with text describing the 'Making Beer' process.



At 18:00, after an uneventful flight, a coach transferred passengers from the aircraft stand to the terminal giving views of  parked planes and the evening sky above the Atlantic coast.
By checking the Metro do Porto website in advance I had made a plan to buy one Andante Azul ticket with 5 x Z2 (2 zone) fares for 6.60 euros total and a second Andante Azul ticket with 2 x z4 (4 zone - for airport to/from city centre) fares for 4.60 euros total. Each cost includes 60 cents for the rechargeable tickets that can only store one type of fare at any time.
Andante Azul (Blue) tickets - front and reverse
Uniformed staff in the ticket machine area can give assistance to tourists using them for the first time. Payment can be made by card or cash and receipts are also issued.
The Metro train would fill up after the photo I took on boarding at 18.20 having validated my journey by presenting the 4 zone ticket to a reader on the way to the platform. There was space under the seat for my carry-on cabin bag. Porto is in the same time zone as London and the light was now fading fast. The train headed inland and then turned south towards Porto.
I left the train at Trindade, revalidated my 4 zone ticket and found the platform for the orange D line train heading north west towards Hospital São João and travelled a further two stops to Marquês.
At 19.10, on the way to Hotel Grande Rio, I stopped to take a photo of the floodlit church of