The Molhe de Carreiros

The Molhe de Carreiros

The Molhe de Carreiros, the Praia do Molhe in Porto, the Esplanade do Molhe and the Bar do Molhe traces of an era. Space is short for so many memories. I invite you to go down Rua do Molhe on a sunny Sunday morning in the sky and calm down in the sea. Passing the Gondarém Street, the Atlantic will begin to appear to you in the form of an immense, serene beauty, flowing down a horizon line beyond which you can imagine New York slightly south and Boston slightly north. You will feel like coming closer to see and feel the sea more closely. Cross that which was once Rua de Carreiros, transformed with the advent of the Republic in Avenida do Brasil. Go down the stairs and then there is an esplanade, a beach, a wall (which the photo documents), and today, not for fifty years, several bars-restaurants. It is a place laden with memories of various eras, leisure times of their youth, meeting point for gathering and for the beginning of so many programs of weekend or summer. The waterfront, the Carreiros Jetty, created to serve as a shelter for fishermen, is a secular reference that gave its name to Praia do Molhe, Esplanade do Molhe, Rua do Molhe, Café do Molhe and Bar do Molhe. The beach of the Molhe appears to us with the colorful distinctive of the equipment of its dealers, established for long years: the white one of Laura Valente; the green of António Teixeira; the red of Maria Teixeira; the blue of Jose Allen. Kids, on vacation, we spent hours risking jumping from rock to rock. Older, we rented boats with bathrooms for baths there a good hundred meters outside the harbor that the wall created. The wall had at its far end well into the sea, on its south side, a board for the bravest to jump (I jumped a few times), a spectacle always appreciated by many. In the 60s / 70s the offer of reasons for living and leisure in this area was very scarce. In the Esplanade there was the Café do Molhe, of selected frequency. There was a small sale, Mr. Ferreira's little shop, with the hobby of table football games, now a pleasant bar-restaurant for his children. There were seasonal sales, in the summer, of ice cream and lemon and redcurrant refreshments. Ah ... there was also a breakdown of the Guard-Fiscal, to what they say to control less lawful business from the sea. That there were.