Harbor

Mileage: unchanged

After our morning routine, we were headed to Porto today. Ines had already looked up the bus connections yesterday, and Sebb had gone through the list of sights, deciding what would be essential and what would be optional.

We drove directly from the campsite to the 'Ponte Louis I', from the viewpoint at the 'Mosteiro da Serra do Pillar' we got a first impression of Porto and a view of the bridge and the old town 'Ribeira'.

Then we walked across the grey steel structure that spanned the 'Rio Douro' on two levels.

On the other side, after just a few meters, we came to Porto São Bento station at Praça de Almeida Garrett. The station impressed us with its abundance of blue tile paintings, for which the city was known and which we would encounter again and again throughout the day.

Sebb picked up a map in English from the tourist information office, and we considered booking a guided tuk-tuk tour of the city. However, these were either fully booked until late afternoon or simply too expensive for our travel budget.

So we continued on foot. A few meters further on stood Porto Cathedral. While Sebb paid the entrance fee and went to explore the building, Ines avoided the crowds, sat in the shade in the church's forecourt, and listened to a cellist playing the same two songs over and over again.

Then we continued through the old town, past the official pilgrim office and the Igreja de São Lourenço. The next destination was the Torre dos Clérigos, which belonged to the church.

With the tower in view, the 'Centro Português de Fotografia' - the Museum of Photography - behind us and the university to our left, we took a break.

We only wanted a coffee and something refreshing, but when we spotted the café with the 'Pastel de Bacalhau', our curiosity got the better of us. Cod pasty?

We took a seat in the outdoor seating area, and Sebb went inside to order. The menu was very short. He ordered a cappuccino and a soft drink, as well as a pastel. The friendly waitress said that all we needed now was wine to complete our meal. We were already in Porto and hadn't even had any wine yet, so Sebb ordered port wine, the red one (!), and we enjoyed it. When Ines returned from the restroom, she insisted that Sebb come with her to the second floor of the pastelerie; there was a library there that he absolutely had to see. He obediently followed her advice and couldn't agree more—someone had clearly put a lot of thought into the interior design.

Well-rested and with our feet refreshed, we set off on the last leg of our city tour. A few steps away was the Fonte dos Leões, where Ines refreshed her hands and the Sebb (our dog). Around the next corner, we could see the queue outside the Livraria Lello bookstore, but we didn't join it. We would have stood out quite a bit among all the people dressed as Hermione Granger or Harry Potter.

Then we turned back. We crossed the city again towards the river and this time took the lower level of the familiar bridge instead of the upper one.

Along the banks of the Douro, we passed the wine cellars of the port wine producers. However, in the 33-degree heat, we decided against another tasting. Unfortunately, all the cellar tours we might have liked to take were already fully booked.

The bus brought us back to our campervan, Gary, where, after a short break, we had our supper of cheese, olives, salami, and bread with aioli. We didn't cook today.