Free day 2 in Porto Saturday 9/10/22

11:11 AM shot of the day

  

Today we decided to explore Porto by foot. We left the hotel around  9AM and didn’t get back til after 6PM. Our route took us down to and along the Douro River.  It is always fun seeing a city as it begins to wake up. In addition to seeing many runners/joggers doing their morning workouts, we saw fishermen setting up and casting multiple lines and crews of  rowers gliding up and down the Douro River. 

 One focus of the day was to to find a Riverboat cruise company that had space available tomorrow to take a ride up river to see  the worlds oldest wine appellation.  We searched both sides of the river,  but we were unsuccessful with that. Fortunately, we were successful in our other quests:  barbecued sardines,  tawny port tasting and dark chocolate gelato (for Tim sweet tooth). Additionally we happened on a few fun things… farmers markets and crafters stands, a communal place to wash and hang laundry (we didn’t take advantage of this opportunity), a parade of traditionally dressed Portuguese working class people, and the anniversary of Real Companhia Velha. It was founded on September 10, 1756 and to celebrate their 266th year of uninterrupted port production, free museum tours and tawny port tasting were provided on this day only.  We were happy to partake. 😄

We were given a coupon for a free port tasting by one of the River boat agencies and enjoyed that, along with a flight of tawny ports and a wonderful (and too huge) cheese platter. 

We sought out gelato which provided us the boost we need to get back to the hotel.   All said and done, we enjoyed the gorgeous warm and sunny day, walked 11 miles with plenty of hills and filled our bellies. It was a good day.