Professor Sharon

Our day in Porto is next on this great trip.

Up early to have a great breakfast in the Pousada do Porto, Freixo Palace Hotel .   Our room faced the river, and although we could hear the nearby traffic on the bridge, the smells and sounds weren’t at all citylike.

The view from our pousada (hotel) room…

Our morning included a bus tour of Porto, then a boat cruise on the Douro River on a replica of the type of boat – rebelo – once used to transport the port from the vineyards up river.  It truly must have been a skilled captain to arrive with all of his port intact for the storeroom!

It was a great weather day indeed.  We were let off, after our hour or so cruise, on the other side of the river to get back on the bus to take the most amazing ride up small roads to Graham’s tasting rooms.  Our bus driver, Pedro, was to show his skills in driving over and over this week!  We were told it was a “magic” bus! At one point, he and another full size bus managed to actually pass by each other on these small streets.

Tiny roads that our bus driver got us through (full size bus) on the hill up to the Port storage and tasting rooms.

Graham’s cask of port…wouldn’t you like to share some of this?

We were there! Looking down at Porto from Graham’s

The afternoon was a choice to either get driven back to the hotel, or dropped off in downtown Porto.  We choose Porto and enjoyed a great walk about poking our noses into the train station with some amazing tile work and just walk about the city.  We decided not to see the church or the old stock exchange — already a little tired of paying money to get to look at history for a few moments.

The incredible tile work inside the Porto train station – all four walls floor to ceiling.

We stopped a couple of times to have a small snack and a drink. At some point we decided it was time to walk back along the river to our hotel.  The city began to smell so heavily of car exhaust it was really sickening.  It took about 45 minutes to get back.  We were able to walk on a fairly wide sidewalk with the river on our right and a small, but heavily traveled – and at high speed – two lane car road.  Unfortunately, we saw a biker crash while avoiding a terrible pothole with a small lorry just missing him.  There were fisherman along the way as well.  We wondered what they were fishing for, and noted that they were “saving” the seaweed that came in on their lines.

Picturesque Porto

A side street we spotted as we were walking around Porto