Last Porto of the Trip

The sun was shining this morning as we left the idyllic Douro Valley for Porto, our last stop on this tour of Portugal. We needed to be on the road at 8 am because of traffic restrictions in the historic center that restricts larger vehicles from entering after 11am would prevent delivery of our luggage to the hotel. As soon as we exited from the 3.5 mile tunnel in the mountain range between the Douro Valley and Porto, we entered a fog bank that persisted until we entered Vila Nova de Gaia, the city directly across the Douro River from Porto.

As the luggage was unloaded from the bus into a van, we had an opportunity to take in the view overlooking Porto.

We boarded the bus for the very last time for a 90 minute drive around the city and to the mouth of the Douro River at the Atlantic Ocean. Remnants of the June 23-24 festivities for the feast of St. John could be seen in the form of closed booths and amusement rides. At our rest stop, we saw a mini golf and a Camino de Santiago pilgrim.

We bid goodbye to Alex, our amazing bus driver, who dropped us off at the top of this hilly town for the start of our food tour. Porto is reminiscent of San Francisco – lots of hilly streets, morning fog, cool weather, and trolley cars! Rua Santa Catarina, the pedestrian-only shopping street was where our group of 28 was divided, with a half hour difference in departure time. Our guide from Tasting Porto Food Tours was Celia, a very engaging and energetic former textile industry representative, started us off with a tour of the temporary central food market that was located in a former parking garage as the original market is undergoing a major renovation. The market is clean, bright and full of vendors.

Our first tasting was a vinho verde from the region north of Porto. This light and crisp white wine was accompanied by a cured ham, sheep cheese, olives and a dense moist brown bread made with wheat, rye and corn flours.

Our next stop was Tasco, one of the trendiest restaurants in town, that serves petiscos (Portuguese tapas). We had baccalao fritters, a type of chorizo made with chicken, duck and quail and a rice cooked in tomato sauce, accompanied by a white wine from the Douro valley.

Two pastries, an almond tart and a chocolate truffle-like sweet, were purchased from Padaria Ribeiro, the oldest pastry shop in Porto (1878).

Our last stop was another wine tasting of a vinho verde and a red wine from Sintra, accompanied by a pork sandwich (befina) and an anchovy on toast.

During the tour, Celia gave us a little history lesson am pointed out some important sites along the way.

Main square -Praça of the Aliados

Clerigos Tower

Fun sign

Modern tile work

Old Jewish Quarter

Street art

At the end of the food tour, we walked down to the riverfront for a 45 minute boat cruise on the Douro.

The remnants of the 14th century wall can be seen from the river.

At the end of the cruise, we checked into our boutique hotel located just one street away from the riverfront. The Descobertas Hotel has a quirky modernist/ eclectic African art vibe.

We were pretty tired of eating, so we opted to walk over the Luís I Bridge to Gaia for a glass of port wine at one of the port wine houses. A gelado topped off our early evening. No late night meal tonight! Tomorrow is our last day of the Rick Steves tour, but we will be staying two more days before we catch our plane back home.