Tag 114: Leixoes/Porto - Home of Port Wine

The Iberian Peninsula greets you with culture, tradition, and Vino Verde. Saúde! This is how people toast in Portugal. Here's to an unforgettable day! You will definitely experience it in Porto, the home of Port wine. The city on the banks of the Douro River is our excursion tip for you. The charming old town of Ribeira is just as worth seeing as the cathedral with its splendidly gilded main altar or the baroque Clérigos Church. Its bell tower, with a height of 76 meters, is Portugal's tallest church tower and offers you a dream view of the city. From up there, you can also see the traditional boats of the Port wine cellars, called barcos rabelos, which are dreamily drifting on the Douro. For hundreds of years, these wooden boats transported the Port wine barrels from the vineyards to the cellars in Porto. Today, a small fleet of restored boats serves as excursion boats.

Porto is located about 20 kilometers inland from its port city Leixoes on the banks of the Douro. We are currently considering whether to take a taxi when a young woman approaches us.

"Tours 4 Cruisers" offers a 3 1/2-hour bus tour with three stops under German tour guidance for €20 per person. Since everyone must be back on board by 2:30 PM today, we see this offer as a good option. But the challenges of a group tour with 45 participants quickly become apparent. First, we have to wait for two people who booked and paid online but were scheduled for 10 AM instead of 9:30 AM. Then, the bus was overbooked with two guests, and volunteers were sought who would give up their seats for a small fee.

The tour takes you along the Douro to the old town of Porto, called Ribeira. Picturesque, rich in history, and built steeply up the hill, it is simply worth seeing. There are 30 minutes to enjoy the view and take photos. Meanwhile, Tommy, the tour guide, reports that for several decades, all the Port wine cellars have relocated from Porto to the city on the opposite bank. From here, we go to the city center to Praca da Liberdade square and the Igreja dos Clerigos church with the tallest bell tower in the city (76 meters). Nearby, there are small bars and cafes with sweet treats, and in between, there is a shop whose walls and shelves are covered with sardine cans. To be honest, I'm not exactly sure what you could actually buy there. The third stop is above the old town on Pena Ventos Hill, at the romantic cathedral "Se". A bit downhill from here is the São Bento train station, famous for its large hall adorned with thousands of mosaic tiles called Azulejos. 45 minutes later, the bus returns to Leixoes, taking a route through Porto and driving along the 6.2-kilometer-long straight road Avenida da Boavista. One of many things that the residents of Porto are proud of.