Day 37 Sunday 22 September

The rain was gone this morning as forecast, so we set off on our RS self guided walk around the older part of the city.  Porto is not Medieval but does have a lot of old buildings compared to  Lisbon as it was not devastated by a large earthquake.  It doesn’t have a lot of individually spectacular monuments or buildings, is not flashy or super old historic (bar the port area) but somehow it has buckets of charm and a relaxed vibe – the homeless, drunks and graffiti included.  At night we see a van pull up at our square and a team feed them and spend time chatting – kind of not used to that view where we normally choose to stay….

The city is built around the steep and dramatic banks of the Douro river and has several attractive bridges spanning the water connecting the two sides. Of note is one built by the same designer of the Eiffel Tower, and another by one of his Belgium students – both beautiful. At the heart of the city on one side of the river is Villa Nova de Gaia where the famous port cellars are.  Nestled against the banks, the other side nestled lies the postcard  picture perfect area called the Ribeira, with its narrow coloured houses leaning against each other.   Peeps of old locals living in them amongst the B&B’s hanging their washing and viewing the sea of tourists below complete the charming scene.

Prepared for a few hills and building our stamina we set off on our walk, coming to the famous century old book shop to find a long queue so we gave that a miss and will try it another day rather than loose an hour of precious touring time. The general scenery is a bit shabby chic, with steep undulations and some tiled buildings but nothing as quaint as Aveiro. 

Following the bookshop we stopped at a bakery for a pastry and coffee including a custard filled doughnut and a sweet yeast bread with fruit and nuts.   The whole lot was a bit unremarkable – it seems that Portuguese sweets centre around eggs, sugar, and flour with the addition of coconut for a change.  All horribly sweet and some things downright eggy. One treat is a sweetened egg yolk cooked and set and a bit of wafer around it. Yuk, the thought makes me a bit squeamish.  Given all this is a bit sweet and bland for me, it is easy to resist which is not a bad thing.

We continued our walk down to Ribeira finding a path between the many tourists and street performers of which there are some unusual ones, like a man with a windy music box and a stand with 5 silky bantams on a perch, or another man dancing with a life sized black puppet. At the river we took a water taxi €3 each for a very short trip to the other side to have some lunch before visiting a port cellar.  

It is very touristy on this side, with restaurants galore and market stands selling souvenirs.  After a good wander we found a food hall set back a bit which had around 20 different stands ranging from suckling pig sandwiches to cod cakes.  It also has toilets which is an important consideration!  We settled on a green soup and a cheese board to share – both tasty before finding just the right cellar to have the quintessential Porto experience.

 

The one we chose called Ramos Pinto was established in 1880 by an innovative young man with a great marketing strategy that included his three passions – women, art and port.  At the cellars you have to do a tour before you can taste – verses a wine shop where you can just do tastings for a small fee €5.  Tours cost around €15 and take about an hour.  Our tour was informative and interesting as it took us through their museum which was also the original offices and building. There was original furniture, advertising posters, artworks, gifts, wine bottles, order books to name a few items. It was very grand for its day including a tiled floral painted flushable toilet and cistern and a literal throne room where they entertained the customers from around the world.  

Following the museum, we went down into the cellars for the highlight of wandering around the sweet oaky barrels before tasting two reserve (over 8year old) Ports – a tawny and a red.  As we entered the ‘tasting’ room and shop area the smell was amazing like a mix between a nice caramel and oak wood with a smooth hint of spice.  Not an alcohol smell per see, just a hint flavouring the atmosphere of the old ‘cave’ with its dark twisted timber supported ceiling and polished floors. Vern is not a drinker by any means and came along for the support as it where, however, the aroma tickled his nostrils and he managed the port no problem, becoming a convert.

 

The glasses were a decent wine glass size and we really didn’t think we could walk home after two of them each, so we tipped the dark port into an empty water bottle to have later, and just enjoyed the tawny.  And enjoy we certainly did. At our table was an English couple a bit younger than us and they initiated an easy conversation.  This is the second time recently and we love it that the English are so ready to chat – especially over a beverage – regardless of whether you are known to them or they are at their local or not.

It was after 6pm by the time we exited and the light was starting to dip behind the hill so we decided not to take the chair lift up to the top level of the bridge to walk home as the sun was in the wrong place for photo’s, instead we walked the bottom rung and made our way up the hill towards home – hunting out a place to eat.  

The first recommended place we chose didn’t have that great a menu so we continued on and not far past that we saw a vegan restaurant with a buffet for €10. Wow the sight of all those colourful vegetables was extremely attractive so we went inside and had a very enjoyable meal.  It was a first for Vernon and I eating a kind of mushroom and something else pie.  There were also some very interesting tofu and tempeh dishes one with a creamy passion fruit sauce that was so nice.  We bought a vegan cheesecake (desserts were extra)  to share at home with our other port later.  It was delicious and a very different texture from what we expected.  This was not a cashew based one, but very light and fluffy almost like aqua fava. Must do some research on that.

 

Fortified and not over full we stopped on the way at Sao Bento to get our train tickets for Lisbon before we finally made it to our nice big room hotel with its big bed.  This is the first hotel with a bath since I left home and I am thoroughly enjoying it.  So much so I wallow in it at night instead of doing my blogs and have written this some time later from brief notes. Ah seize the opportunity I say, well earned after our number of steps – totalling over 20,000 today. Even the last stint of steep uphill would have been about 2KM at least so very pleased with ourselves.