Porto

We arrived at Porto last night, and had a full day today to explore. We started off with a walking tour of the old town with our guide Maurina. Unfortunately, she has a knack of making everywhere seem very dull and boring, whilst walking very slowly and frequently repeating herself.

She took us to a railway station to enjoy the tiles, and then down a street called Flower Street, but then explained that nowadays the locals don't bother to grow flowers in their large window boxes.

We were feeling a bit underwhelmed, but then we got to the harbour for a boat trip.

This was nice and we cruised up and down the river for an hour enjoying the sights.

Then it got much more interesting as we went on a tour of a port wine warehouse called Calem. This is the biggest Portuguese port producer, and they store it enormous oak barrels.

The one that I am standing in front of had enough port in it to fill 17,235 full sized bottles, and it appeared to have a tap on the front. Fortunately I didn't l turn it, although I was tempted.

Then we had a tasting, and it was absolutely lovely. On the way out we bought a bottle and admired the boats bobbing about on the waterfront.

In the olden days the barrels of port used to be floated down the river to the warehouses, but nowadays they just use big lorries.

On the way back to the hotel we did our own walking tour and walked across this amazing bridge on the low level, then climbed dozens of steps,then walked back on the high route with brilliant views.