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Including the area of Oliveira do Ouro
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The City of Gaia makes up the southern part of the metropolitan area of Porto. The Douro river bisects the city, Porto on the North and Gaia on the south. The Arábida shopping mall is located in Gaia. This is a very large, three story mall that is every bit as modern as any in the United States. In the older section of the city are located the wineries for which Porto and the Douro river are famous.
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The Gaia chapel is one of the first chapels constructed by the church in Portugal. The chapel is perched on the knoll of a hill. There are steep steps leading up to the chapel. The entrance has a beautiful rock facade that is unique to this building. The chapel has a baptismal font which is very handy. Like all chapels the Church builds in Portugal there also is a Soccer/basket ball court that doubles as for parking.
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The front entrance to the Gaia chapel served as the setting for many zone conference pictures. This one included Elder and Sister Uchtdorf. Notice the rockwork around the entrance way that sets this chapel off from any other in Portugal
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The interior of the Gaia 1 chapel is white with highlights of dark wood. The chairs for the congregation were stackable so that the chapel area could be used for other actives as well. Elder Peay and Nelson are demostrating putting on the whole armor of God.
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During the summer of 1997, the stake of Matosinhos celebrated the 150 years of the arrival of the pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley. A big pageant and out door activities were conducted at the Gaia 1 chapel. The hand carts were a favorite among the children. They raced around the small yard of the chapel until the wheels fell off the hand cart.
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The Gaia 2 Chapel is a ground floor suite of an apartment and office building. The chapel is not very large and the Gaia 2nd ward has out grown it. A new chapel is scheduled for construction.
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The Porto region is known world wide for its wine. One of the best known brands is Sandeman. Much of the wine and textile industry was developed by the British. As a result there is a large British population in the Porto area. The wineries line the banks of the Porto River which often floods. In 1996, flood waters rose as high as the heads of the people in the picture.
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While there are many quaint shoppping areas, Portugal also has many modern shopping malls. Arábida Shopping as it is called, has two levels of underground parking and three levels of stores, shops, restaurants (McDonalds and Baskin Robbins of course), and 20 movie theaters.
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Inside Arábida Shopping is a large Jumbo store. The store is combination of a food and general merchandise store. It is very modern and well stocked. We generally took new missionaries to this store on the way from the airport to help dismiss their fears of being able to find anything to eat in Portugal. This store had two levels with about 60 check out stations on each level. On Saturday evenings all 120 stations would be busy.
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Narrow roads are no deterrent to buses and trucks. In this case, we all waited as this truck and bus nudged past each other. Notice that the deep door ways provide a safe retreat of pedestrians in such cases.
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