Saturday and Sunday September 20 and 21, 2014

We met at 8:30 in the breakfast room.  I don\’t like not sleeping in the same room as Ralf, but when it is half the price you do what you have to do. After breakfast we took the bus into downtown Porto.  As we walked to the Tourist Information office we struggled to keep on track, there are so many historic buildings.  Today was the Port wine tasting day not the touring the old city day.  I had read that the inside of the train station was stunning.  We got of the bus around the corner from the station and popped in for a quick look, we thought the tile work was amazing.

We went to the Tourist Info office to see if they had a self-guided walking tour of the city.  No, but we did get some good maps.  We headed over the Bridge to Vila Gaia.

This is where all the port houses are.  We had decided to do two tours and tastings.  We had to do Taylors – Ralf’s and my Dad’s favourite port and then we choose an older Portuguese Port lodge (Ferrereia).  After the tastings, we preferred the port from Taylors.  We discovered that the port grapes are still stomped on to extract the juice – really.

It was fun wandering around the streets and along the waterfront on both sides.  There were small market stalls along the harbor front.

As we walked towards the Ferreria Port Lodge we noticed a boat building area.

We caught the bus back without any problems and had a lovely dinner in the hostel.

Tomorrow we are heading to the old city and the historic side of Porto.

Sunday September 21, 2014

I got an email from John (my brother-in-law) Joy is obviously in a lot of pain, but the surgery went well.  She will be “celebrating” her 55^th birthday tomorrow without a tumour.  I wonder if the Doctor will give it to her as a birthday present ugh.

After another breakfast at the Hostel we headed back into downtown Porto.  It is quite a densely populated city with houses and apartments crammed into a small space.

The houses/apartments are very narrow, and along the waterfront there are archways to go through and explore.

Throughout the city we saw evidence of the poverty mixed with the wealth.

The Municipal Offices were stunning, but on the same Avenue there were buildings that were completely abandoned, including two banks.  Portugal has been very badly affected by the crisis.

It got rather warm during the day, so Ralf began to strip off!

We also found time to  stop and have a drink and watch people.

As we walked we noticed the poverty, with people rolling up their bedding from doorways.

Before leaving downtown Porto we stopped in a shop that were selling items made from cork.  They have a process that mixes the cork with fibres and can make bags, shoes and even umbrellas from the cork, it looked really nice.  The lady in the store told us that the cork trees are first cut when they are 42 years old and can then be cut again about ten years later.  She had this lovely cork bark in her store.

We caught the bus back, other people got free rides on the tram.

It is now very humid and there has been a thunderstorm rolling around the area for the last hour.  Tomorrow we are leaving Porto and heading south.  I hope it doesn\’t rain.