Home of Port wine

Porto or Oporto is home to Port Wine. The city centre is very much a Paris-wannabe like Buenos Aires and Montevideo … with wide boulevards and beautiful classy buildings on both sides.

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: Street in the centre of Porto.

: Around Porto.

: Around Porto.

: The rather Parisian style in the centre of Porto.

: Red Bull Air Race is in town.

: At Porto’s railway station.

: Around Porto.

: Around Porto.

The old city or Ribeiro is located slightly downhill on the river bank. It is rundown but charming with bits of graffiti here and there. Ribeiro overlooks the Gaia on the other bank which houses the Port wine warehouses (eg. Taylor’s, Graham’s … which may be familiar to some of you).

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: Porto’s Douro River.

: Iconic bridge over the Douro River in Porto.

: Port wine boats with the Ribeiro in the background.

: The old town, Ribeiro on the Douro river, with the boats transporting Port wine down the river.

: The old town, Ribeiro on the Douro river, with the boats transporting Port wine down the river.

The church of San Francisco near the Stock Exchange in Ribeiro has to most ornate I’ve ever seen for the amount of wallspace they have. You can hardly find any wallspace that isn’t decorated with ornate gilded carvings and statues. Unfortunately no photos are permitted.

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: Church of San Francisco.

: Crypt at Church of San Francisco.

: At a kiosk.

In the afternoon, we headed up to a Port warehouse (Taylor’s) for some tasting and to tour the facilities … to our surprise, Port can be white or red (various shades). White Port is produced in small quantities and are not exported … it is served before dinner while the redder variety is the well-known after dinner drink.

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: Taylor’s Port warehouse.

: View from near Taylor’s.

: Setup for Red Bull Air Race.

: View walking back to Ribeiro.

: View walking back to Ribeiro.

: Iconic bridge over the Douro River in Porto.

: Around Porto.

: Around Porto.

: Around Porto; City Hall.

: I love these shop fronts.

: Azulejo; blue tiles.

One great thing about Portugal is that it isn’t overrun with McDonald’s or Starbucks. But we have a McDonald’s near our hotel … it is a good cheap place to have a beer (Yes! This is Europe) or tea. While having our cuppa we got chatting to some Aussie girls … one of them recognised us from a year ago during our only night out in Cuba in Vinales! Wow!