We stood at the bottom of the stairs and looked up. “That’s a lot of steps there!” A statement that was said half-heartedly.

“What’s our alternative?” The next question popped up in the air, as expected.

“Well, there’s the path right there that follows the road and zigzags all the way to the top of the hill. We can try that one”

Two heads tilted to the side of the road obviously trying to visualize the path ahead. The narrow path was only visible as far as the road curved to the right. Nothing else. Two heads began to slowly shake simultaneously.

“That’s too narrow and almost twice the distance as going up the stairs!”

A few moments later, we were huffing and puffing as we slowly progressed up the 496 steps to Porto Cathedral.

“We made it!” A statement that was wheezed out of the lungs rather that stated forcefully. “We made it!”

What a feat!

”That’s a massive cathedral! It looks like a fortress! Look at those thick walls, narrow window, and thick twin towers!” One of us said in between breaths. The exclamation points of our statements cannot be overemphasized. It was indeed huge!

We look at our notes again and one says, “well, accordingly here, it was built as a Fortress Romanesque architecture, like a fortress in the 12th century, following the Christian reconquest of the region.”

Furthermore, we both noted that we were on top of Penaventosa Hill. That alone gives this Fortress Cathedral the advantage of a strategic view of the surrounding area.

“Hey, another interesting fact”

”What?”

”This parvis (the open space in front of the cathedral) was where the Bishop of Porto historically convinced passing Northern European crusaders to join King Afonso Henriques in the siege of Lisbon.”

”Really!”

”So maybe that’s the reason that King Afonso Henriques successfully recaptured Lisbon from Moorish control?”

We both paused a little bit before saying, “maybe”.

We both look around to appreciate the view. There was not a crowd of people but there was a steady stream of people walking around. Maybe tourists like us? Where are the locals?

”Come on, let’s go inside”, as both of us nodded our heads and started walking to the cathedral’s main doors.

Random photographs of our travels. Memories found and captured in a photograph.

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