Harbor

My evening comment that it would be interesting in the fishing port in the morning caused Della to get out of bed shortly after seven. I used the cool morning hour for a jog when Della sat on her bike to the port.

On my way back past the fishermen, I discovered him quite fascinated with a handful of other people on a fishing boat that had just returned from the tour. The fishermen stood next to the boat in the sand and freed their catch meter by meter from the net. In addition to sardines, they also caught larger fish and small sharks from the net. The fisherman's wife appeared with a cart, the already released parts of the catch were loaded onto the cart in plastic boxes and she drove it to her fisherman's house. There she stood barefoot at a table and began to gut and sell the fish with scissors and knife.

In the meantime, the next fishing boat arrived, the fishermen got out and while one stayed with the boat, the other jumped onto a tractor on the beach, drove to the boat, tied it up and pulled it up the beach with the help of a winch. As soon as the boat was parked, people went up to it and looked at the catch of these fishermen. In contrast to the other boat, this one had already taken the fish out of the net and packed them in the plastic boxes at sea. Everyone was amazed at every single box that was unloaded and full of fish.

This hustle and bustle went on, the caught squids, which arrived in closed barrels, were particularly impressive. When the fisherman's wife opened the lid, the squid arms immediately tried to get back to freedom. They didn't succeed, because the fisherman's wife lifted them one by one out of the barrel and, according to their weight, threw them into different vats while shouting "ohhhh and ahhhhh".

After a good 1.5 hours of amazement, we left the hustle and bustle, although fishermen's wives were still waiting for their fishermen. The early morning hour was definitely a great decision to enjoy the hustle and bustle with just a few people.

After a coffee, a visit to the local market hall and buying a summer dress from a street vendor, we went back to the campsite. Shower, pack up and continue towards Porto.

There we needed three attempts until we got the very last place on a campsite. It wasn't a nice place, but parking the car in a public parking lot was out of the question for us in the city.

In the late afternoon we went with the bikes on a very nice bike path first to the sea, then along the Douro to the center of Porto. On the way there we passed a public wash house; the laundry is still scrubbed by hand and then dried by the wind using bold constructions.

What a lively city Porto is, you don't even know where to look first: The bridge Ponte Luis I, all the port wine cellars, the cable car, the cathedral, the boats on the Douro... We first walked over the bridge and went up to the second level of the bridge and on to Sao Bento train station, known for its tile art. Through the pedestrian zones past the many restaurants and shops gradually down towards the Douro. For dinner we chose a very small restaurant away from the crowds of tourists. The chef obviously mastered his craft, the service was super friendly, but we were almost the only guests. It could have been due to the inconspicuousness, the furnishings or the wonderfully fragrant bacalaho that was in the entrance area...

On the way back we discovered a sardine shop, just huge, hundreds of sardine cans with countless different designs. Right next to it, organ music sounded, a high, stylishly designed room, the organ halfway up and at the back of the room a sales counter for a porto cover: a glass of port wine with a boleo de bacalaho (fried pastry with cod, optionally with cheese). We were full from the food, that had to wait for the next day.

The next morning we headed back into town early. Dense sea fog lay over the sea, as we cycled around the corner along the Douro, the fog loosened and Porto appeared in the sun. The destination was the market hall. On the way there we had to go into various shops, they know how to market themselves very well here! The market hall has been redesigned in recent years, with an entrance in each direction, each on one of the three levels, as the hall is on a slope. The stands are arranged thematically, flowers, fruits, meat, fish, cheese, sweets. There are restaurants on the upper floors, all very nice and welcoming.

The walk through the city continued and relatively soon it was noticed that obviously only the front facade of many houses in the city was preserved and everything behind it is in ruins, often you can even see the sky by looking through the windows from the outside.

After we had already tried the Boleo di Bacalaho with cheese in the market hall, it was now time for a Caldo Verde (green soup) and a Francesinha (toast with meat, ham, fat cheese on top and a spicy sauce is poured over everything). Everything tasted very good!

In the afternoon we happened to walk to a terminus of an old tram when one pulled in. Since we also happened to be standing at the front door, we decided to take a ride on the historic train. One way or round trip the conductor asked when we got on. One way trip, can then go the way back. The train drove and drove and drove, never ever do we walk it all back...at the final stop all passengers were allowed to get off, the seats were folded down for the journey in the other direction and we got on again. The conductor gave us a puzzled look, shrugged his shoulders and sold us another one-way ticket.

We walked to the Ribeira district, from there to the bikes and with them to a wine cellar for a port wine tasting. The sample included four whites, one rosé and four reds. Port wine is just not my thing, you don't have to like everything! ;-)

Exhausted from the whole day, but with an incredible number of impressions of a great city, we went to bed.