Erasmus+ Braga: suite du séjour!

Monday 18th April 2022.

Today we went to Porto and first began our tour by a visit of its international port. Unfortunatly we had to stay in the bus but turned around the diverses terminals.  The first one is a cargo terminal and can welcome boats measuring  until 300 meters whereas the second one can contain only 200 meters boats.

We discovered the terminals different section. There were the wood chips section, constantly watered to minimise the dust, whose products would be send to paper industries, the glass recycling section, the ciment section and so many others .

The port is really active it sees thousands of trucks every day, and is committed to reducing emissions as much as possible, using new technologies. 

After that, we arrived at CIIMAR ( the »Centro Interdisciplinar de Invetigação Marinha e Ambiantal » of Porto)

What a surprising building! Its ellyptic shape intrigued us until we learnt it was to copy the shape of a wave and its walls was made as the fishes scales reflecting the day light in different directions like the real ones. This technic makes the building’s colour change along the day. The hexagon shape also reminds the molecular stucture and show the biodiversity of the ocean. 

In the center people are working on different thematics of the sea life as aquaculture and biotechnologies, and the challenges the sea life face with climate change and pollution. It was a really nice visit and it was interesting to learn more about the sea and its secrets .

Then we had lunch and went on boat on the Douro river which is the third widest river in Portugal. Along the river we encountered many bridges, some recent and other more ancient -the first one was build in the nineteenth century-, including  some iron bridges inspired by Eiffel’s constructions. These bridges are important means of communication between south and north Portugal, some road and some rail, and play a major role in sustainable exchanges.

Finally we went to Callem cellar, a wine cellar, because Porto wine is really famous. We learnt about its fabrication process and the different kinds of wine they compose, and how they adapt to extreme climate situations, and climate change.

We went to bed exhausted but delighted by the wonderful day we had.

Mathilde

Tuesday 19th April

So, on Tuesday at 8am we stayed for an hour in class with our host, then we went to the town hall to meet the mayor, but on the way we stopped to see a beautiful church. Then we arrived at the townhall and met the mayor, who explained that Braga is one of Portugal’s leading sustainable cities, and has an ambitious project of reaching carbon neutrality soon.

After that we visited another church, a very old and very beautiful catholic church with a huge organ and impressive architecture. We walked in the streets of Braga and went back to school for lunch – our frst expereince of the school canteen : soup and cod fish cakes ! In the afternoon, in the theater, we saw a dance and singing show, then we the students talked about their presentations about Seas and Oceans, and the major problems each region has. We learned many things but we all share the same conclusion : seas and oceans are vital and lust be protected !

Finally we all (or almost everyone) went to Rodovia park to play football together, a super way to share cultures.

Maxime