One of the nicest things about our set-up was that every morning, I was able to get up a little bit before Justine and sit on our balcony overlooking Porto and just enjoy the relative quiet of the morning. It was really nice. Similarly, as the sun set each night, it was great to watch the sun go down, lighting up the amazing iron bridge.

Sunday, our original plan had been to take the car and drive out to the wineries of the Douro valley. But we had discovered that we barely scratched the surface of the city, so we decided to stay put. Plus we hadn’t done any port tastings yet! It’s another thing to tack onto the list of things that we need to come back and do.

Before we headed out, we got to witness a fairly unique annual event in Porto. We were watching the city from the balcony and noted a lot of unusual boat traffic, as well as some new markers buoys on the river. It wasn’t clear what was going on at first, then all of a sudden a whole lot of people in bright green swim caps jumped in the river on the Porto side.

After some digging online, we discovered that this was the annual Douro Bridges - Porto & Gaia Open Water endurance swimming race! It’s a 4 km (who swims 4 km ?!?) race, and the starting point was right in front of us. We were able to watch for a while - a small group of 2-3 people quickly separated themselves from the rest, but eventually we lost them as they headed down river and out of sight. It was an interesting one for sure!

Looking down on the start of the race, just before the swimmers jumped in the river.

I found the course map online - it’s a long way, and we were soon to do it ourselves - more sensibly in a boat.

We had a decent sleep in and a bit of a slow start to the day, watching the swimmers and all. We then headed down towards the waterfront. We decided to take one of the many boat cruises that are on offer that take you up and down the river a little ways. They are only 45 minutes long and priced very reasonably, so it seemed like a good thing to try and do today. We had another spectacular day for weather, so we wanted to squeeze in as much as possible.

There was a tour office on the road down to the riverfront, so we stopped in and booked a noon tour. That gave us a little bit of time to explore, but the area was so busy! There was some sort of motorcycle event going on - there were hundreds of bikes, all hanging out in the area. So we turned around and headed back, and before long it was time to get in line for the boat tour.

They use these replicas of the boats that they used to use to run casks of port from the wineries u-river to the port warehouses in Porto. The tour lasted just under an hour, and we got to see "6 Bridges" along the way. We covered a total distance of about 10 km, first headed up river, then back down and out towards the Douro enters the Atlantic. It was nice to get a slightly different view of things and see the city from river level.

These boats are replicas of the ships that were used to shuttle wine casks up and down the river from the wineries in the Douro Valley.

As we were waiting for the tour to start. one of the many river cruises headed up river.

Ready for the tour!

On the river, under the bridge we’d been admiring so much.

This was most fo the way up river…

And this was the furthest we went towards the ocean. I had hoped they might head all the way out, but sadly did not.

After getting off the boat, we headed back up along to where the port warehouses are. I picked the first one - Quinta do Noval - and we ordered a flight and a charcuterie board, and enjoyed sitting on the patio with our wines. Michael and Maureen were not interested in doing a bunch of port houses (and the extensive walking that was likely to go along with it), so Justine and I took off on our own.

This was a properly done tasting - they brought out the bottles, explained everything and then poured a decent amount of each.

I believe that this was the first time that I had tried white port. It wasn’t my favorite.

We had a nice little tasting board to go along with our wine.

We decided that we wanted to head up the hill to some of the port producers sitting up high on the hill. It seemed ot make sense to start at the top of the hill, and then work our way back down to the river.

We worked our way through the World of Wine (a huge set of exhibits that we did not have time to explore), and made our first stop at Taylor’s. We could see their main sign from our patio and they were definitely a brand we recognized and had had previously.

We made our way inside to discover that they had a really lovely seating area, a large tree-filled patio inside their courtyard. We ordered a couple of glasses to sample and enjoyed the surroundings.

I have been confused by Taylor’s since we arrived. We know them as Taylor Fladgate in North America, but they are just “Taylor’s” here. We discovered, in talking to one of the people in the shops, that another winery had registered “Taylor’s” in North America before them, so they needed something different. Super interesting.

Walking up to the port houses, we were on streets like this, narrow and steep.

The inside courtyard at Taylor’s - it was such a beautiful place, we needed to stop and have a tasting.

We had a glass of port and some bread and olivies, and it was lovely.

This originally went into one of their wine cellars. Love the old train tracks - it must have been something to see.

A little reflecting pool in the inner courtyard.

We were up pretty high with amazing views down to the river.

We enjoyed their wines a lot and ended up purchasing a couple of bottles to take home. From there we went a bit further up the hill, as we had noticed an overpass that looked like it had great views over the city.

Looking down on where we had our second tatsing, from the overpass high above the city.

From there, we started working our way back down the hill. We stopped at Cockburn’s, but there wasn’t a great option for tasting, so we just briefly checked out their store before continuing our journey. A but further down the hill we saw the Ferreira tasting room. This was one of the nicest we had seen, but sadly they were booked up and did not do separate tastings. That was too bad - I had wanted to try their wines.

Warre’s has been my favorite for a long time. Sadly they are not open to the public, sdo I couldn’t try anything in their winery.

This was the store at another winery that we stopped in. Again, we didn’t have the option to do any testings, so it was more just looking around.

We were trying to get to Graham’s, and as it turned out we needed to work our way back up the hill again. It was a bit of a walk, but eventually we made it!

They had what was probably the most impressive overall facility. We first stopped in the room where they do the tours and tastings, but again, as expected if you hadn’t booked in advance you were out of luck. So we walked around to the restaurant/shop/tasting room, and were able to get a seat in the tasting room and have a sample of a couple of ports. It was an interesting room - large and open, but they had laid out a section with big chairs and couches that was quite comfortable. So we sat fo a bit and had a glass, which was quite nice.

To get to the shop and tasting room we had to walk through the restaurant. The restaurant looked amazing - very upscale, full of dark wood and huge wine racks displaying all of their wines. We would have needed to plan in advance, but I certainly feel like it would be worth trying out if we come back to Porto another time.

The entrance to the tour and tasting area.

The tasting room was set-up to support large groups.

Outside, Justine found a huge bush of her favorite flowers.

After that, we worked our way back down to the river, eventually catching up with Michael and Maureen back at the apartment. It was our last night in Porto, so we spent a little time on the balcony watching the sun set over the city and enjoying the past of the soft, evening light.

The sun started to set on our last night in Porto.

We never got spectacular colour in the evening sky, but the sun setting behind the hills was always nice.

After watching the sunset, it was getting late. We needed to find a new place for dinner and were out of recommendations from Jose! So I guess we needed to explore. We did think about trying one of the places we had already been to, but we thought we should find something new.

So we headed back down to the Gaia riverfront and walked along it for a while, looking at the various options available to us and checking out the scene. It was still quite busy, with lots of people coming and going. There were still some market stalls open from the Sunday market and people were having a lovely night.

I am a little disappointed that we never made it into Sandeman’s while we were in Porto.

Right near the street up to the apartment, we had noticed a small restaurant that was run by the same people that had the much bigger restaurant that we had eaten in the night before. It seemed like a slight different, more casual atmosphere. It was in a good spot with some small cafe tables in the river overlooking the bridge. It was quite lovely. And a great way to wrap up our last night in Porto.

We ordered some drinks and I decided to finally try the traditional Portuguese sandwich that had eluded me so far. It always looked like too much food, but I figured that this might be my last chance.

The Francesinha is a Portuguese sandwich, originally from Porto, made with layers of toasted bread and assorted hot meats such as roast, steak, wet-cured ham, linguiça, or chipolata over which sliced cheese is melted by the ladling of a near-boiling tomato-and-beer sauce called molho de francesinha.

I figured I should go big, so I ordered a litre of beer with it, which came in a delightful ceramic jug. I managed to finish the sandwich, but I wasn’t sure if I was going to regret it the next day.

It was time for a beer!

A look back over to the main part of Porto, across the river.

Looking down the river from the apartment.

One last look at the bridge at night.

Monday, we had to pack up and be in our way again. Our next stop was Ericeira, a beach town about an hour west of Lisbon, right on the coast. We were going to be there for the next four days (including Michael’s actual birthday), and the hope was for this to be a more relaxing stretch of the trip.

One last panoramic view of Porto - such a beautiful city!

I promised lots of view of the bridge - one last look as we said goodbye to Porto.

We got checked out of the apartment in Porto around 10 a.m. We managed to cram everything back into the car and make our way out through the narrow streets of Gaia, and onto the highway south. Once again we were impressed with the state of the roads - well maintained, smooth and light traffic. It was a breeze!

As we headed south, we had decided to stop in the town of Aveiro. We had heard that it was quite picturesque, and they have a very famous train station. We parked quite close to the train station and spent some time checking it out. Unlike Porto, where the tiles are on the inside, in Aveiro, the tile work is on the outside. It’s equally spectacular.

The opposite of the train station in Porto, this one had all the spectacular tile work on the outside of the building.You can actaully see the new train station next door off to the right; this one they rightfully converted into a visitor center.

A bit more detail on the tile work. The larger square depict scenes from the area and tell quite an amazing story.

We explored a bit then made a short stop in a cafe across the road. Everyone (except me) had coffee and we all shared some pastries which were excellent. From there, we headed into the centre of town to check out the canals. They call it the “Venice of Portugal", which is a bit of an overstatement, but they do play it up with some gondolas for the tourists.

After briefly exploring the town centre, we continued our journey. Just south of Aveiro they have a very famous old lighthouse. So we stopped there quickly to check out it and the beach. You could feel the power of the Atlantic.

It’s a pretty great lighthouse, and we had a pretty amazing day for weather!

The beach behind the lighthouse - lots of sand and only a few people braving the (I assume anyway) frigid waters of the Atlantic.

A short 10 minute drive further south and we were on the Costa Nova. Another stretch of beach that also has a series of very distinctive beach houses along it. We found a great spot on the beach for lunch and enjoyed more seafood. The food was good, not as good as on our trip up, but still very enjoyable. The location was better as we had a table inside that overlooked the broad stretch of beach. It was a great day, but there was not a lot of activity on the beach. You could imagine how busy it must be in the summer, as it is a beautiful spot.

After lunch, we hopped back in the car to continue our drive south. Before heading back to the highway, we made our way into the town to find the stripped houses the area is known for. There are quite a lot of them, lining the main street. They looked quite nice and provided a very cohesive feel to the town. We didn’t stay long, took a few pictures and soon continued our journey south.

This gives a great perspective on the different sizes, shapes and colours of the houses.

A pretty typical example of the cool little beach houses.

The last stop before getting to our destination in Ericeira was Nazare, a very famous surf spot on the Portuguese coast. The town has a view point, sitting high above the ocean where in the winter, when the surf is big, people sit and watch the surfers try and tackle the monster waves. The world record is held here, with some crazy person having surfed a wave more than 100’ tall. Just Google “Nazare huge waves” or something similar and have a look at the image search - you’ll see them. There were no waves even close to that on this day, but it was still an impressive place to stop and have a look.

Looking down on Nazare. Sadly, no huge waves!

After a relatively short stop, we got back in the car and finished our drive south. It was about an hour further, and soon we were winding through the narrow streets of Ericeira to our apartment. It was in the old section of town, right near the ocean. Quite spectacular and more than we needed. But it was lovely. We met the owner and he showed us around and gave some recommendations for our stay. He seemed nice.

We got settled in, picking rooms and checking out all three floors. Michael and Maureen took the bedroom with the lovely patio (since Jus and I took the patio in Porto, it only seemed fair); we had a nice bedroom at the front of the house and we left 2 bedrooms mostly empty! Like I said, more than we needed! There was also a nice lounge on the third floor.

We made some drinks and snacks and had a lovely sundowner on the second floor patio. We had a perfect view of the sunset, as the sun went down into the ocean. Such a perfect end of the day.