The exchange "Autumn Course Porto 2010" took place from October 24th to 31st in Porto and Lisbon and of course we, two members of the IACES LC Karlsruhe, couldn't miss it.
We spent the first two days of the exchange in Lisbon, where we visited the beautiful old town with its narrow and lively streets as well as an unusual building site in the city center. An old market hall was being converted into a multi-storey parking garage with a sky bar on the top floor, from which you can enjoy an overwhelming view over the whole of Lisbon. In order to adapt the height of the former market hall to that of the parking garage, the pillars of the old construction were broken out with the help of mini excavators and new pillars with a lower floor height were installed, thus providing space for more parking spaces. We ended the day in Lisbon in a few cozy bars in the narrow streets of the old town.
On the third day, we took the bus to Porto, where we visited the complex conversion of an entire block of houses into a luxury hotel with a park in the middle of the city. We also visited the new construction of the future tourism terminal for large cruise ships in the port of Porto.
During a day trip to Braga, we had the opportunity to visit the soccer stadium of the then Champions League participant SC Braga, built for the 2004 European Championship. The special feature of this stadium is that it was built directly into a rock face. The roof construction is supported exclusively by prestressed steel cables and without any supports.
Despite the extensive and interesting programme of the LC Porto, there was still enough time in the evening either to sit together with the international exchange participants or to plunge into the nightlife of Porto, including the university commencement parties.
We would like to thank the LCs in Porto and Lisbon for the good organization and a week of great programme.
Text: Michael Mayer