Porto

Woke up to beautiful blue sky here this morning, as opposed to what we are seeing in the NB weather forecast of heavy snowfall warning.

Decided to do the hop on hop off bus tour to start the day. They have double decker buses here that do a loop of the city that you get on and off as many times as you like for 2 days. We started off by staying on the bus for the entire route to get more of a feeling for what we wanted to see in the city later. The full tour without getting off took us 2 hours, and parts of the city we never would have seen had we not been on the bus tour. Really a fun way to get a bit of history.  Along the way, we saw many churches, parks, 2 fortress, theatre, residential areas, the riverfront, some of Porto amazing bridges and squares.

View from apartment window in Porto

Shopping/pedestrian street in Porto

For Auntie Mary, this square had all birds and accessories for sale

We drove through an upperclass neighbourhood, beautiful homes!

View of Porto from bridge

View of Porto from other side of river

Casks of port

Riverfront Cafes

We did eventually get off the bus on the other side of the river from where we are staying, this is the side where all the port cellars are. It took a while but we eventually found the cellar that gave free tours, but the next English tour wasn't for a couple of hours so decided we would come back later in the afternoon. Walked along the water, beautiful scenery looking across the river to the old town. The port boats were tied to shore.  They are no longer used but are there for show.  Lots of tehm are given 1 hour tours. Lots of vendors out along the riverfront walkway selling their things, really a very pretty day. Walked back across the bridge and went home to make a salad for lunch before heading out for the afternoon.

This afternoon we caught the bus again to get us to the top of the hill. This city is crazy it is so hilly, steep hills everywhere. Basically you leave the waterfront and you have to walk uphill to anything else. This makes Albufeira look like the prairies, that is how hilly it is! This afternoon we spent just walking the streets, taking our time revisiting some of the spots we had seen earlier in the day on the tour. Really a pretty city, lots of historical buildings, but so many abandoned buildings as well, kind of sad to see. The main square here where the city hall is is especially beautiful. 

Hop on Hop Off bus tour we just got off

City Hall

For Liam

Statue in square in front of our apartment

Walked back downhill, much easier than uphill, back to the riverfront and crossed the bridge again to find a port tour. Ended up back at the free tour and had to wait 40 minutes for the English tour. Andre sampled a few different types of port while we were waiting, fun to try them all out. The port tour itself was very interesting, and ended with more samples. The guide told us a bit of the Croft family history and then how the different types of port is made and how long you can keep them once open. Inside the caves (storage shed) we saw the many casks of port.  Tomorrow on our boat tour we will be going to the region where the grapes are grown, looking forward to seeing that, the pictures we have seen are beautiful. 

Port Tasting

Port cellar tour

Port Purchases

Following our port tour we walked back across the river “again” to the old town where we are staying. Andre had purchased 2 bottles of port so dropped those off at the apartment then decided to pick up something for supper, which meant another 30 minute walk uphill to the grocery store. Picked up some chicken for supper, still hoping to find the final day of the Masters on TV, but not holding our breathes.

Next had to go back to the car to pick up a couple of things for tomorrow. Found out it is 20 Euro a day to park, ouch, that is at the cheap place, the price of the apartment has just gone up significantly!

Back at the apartment now. Just spoke to Ron and Nancy on Skype, sounds like we sure got lots of snow in NB. Also got an email from Church that the service was canceled today because of the weather, sorry to hear Easter service was canceled.I guess we did not miss church afterall this week.

Andre is now making chicken for supper, I'm still desperately trying to find a live stream of the Masters on line, but so far it doesn't look good because we are outside North America, how maddening is that!

I think it will be an early night tonight. Tomorrows tour starts at 8:30 and we don't get back until 9PM tomorrow night, it is going to be a long day, but really looking forward to it.