Tuesday – 31 July 2018

Our guest Teresa had indicated that she wanted to see more of Portugal and so we started with a sightseeing day in Porto.  It was not a very prompt start, as we had been late the night before and then had the grocery delivery and the laundry to unload and put away.  While this was going on we had also found out where the local fish market was, and I had got out one of the bikes and ridden a couple of kilometres in the pursuit of fresh fish.  The markets here seem to be municipally owned and this one was huge, with 10 or 12 fish stalls and similar numbers of meat, fruit and veg and clothing stalls.  A phone call later to check that what I was about to buy was in order, I made my way back to the boat.

We took the metro into Porto again and then retraced some of our steps from the previous visit.  It is a stunning city. Small and compact enough to be able to walk around easily, but with a variety of things to do and see in addition to the array of Port houses.  We lunched on a variety of typically Portuguese dishes, in many ways quite different from the Spanish food we had in Galicia. After this Teresa took a trip on the river and Tricia and I walked along the Gaia bank. 

The plan was for Teresa to visit one of the Port houses, and we had been told that there was one which did not make a charge for the visit, but it was a little way away.  We set off up the maze of side streets and climbed steadily up the steep valley side.  Eventually we found the place, The Royal Port House, and surprise, surprise, the tour was not free.  Teresa chose to go for it and Tricia and I waited in the salubrious reception and tasting area.  It was apparently a very interesting tour and Teresa was 1 to 1 with the tour guide, so probably got more information than it she had been part of a bigger party.

We wanted (?) to take the bus for the journey back as it was meant to be a lot more picturesque that the metro, so given the hour, we took a taxi to the railway station which is where we would catch the bus.  As we had just missed one, there was time to go into the station and look again at the spectacular tiles that cover the walls.  The bus, when it came, followed the coast round to the marina, and we got a very different view of the suburbs.  On the coastal route these were considerably more affluent that the inland areas that the metro passed through.

Distance covered today		0 nautical miles
Trip distance covered	902.7	nautical miles
Distance covered 2018	1623	nautical miles

Steve (and Tricia and Teresa)