Fun Day In Porto

 It was a nice morning in Porto.  We were slugs and stayed in bed late.  We just made breakfast before it closed.  Breakfast was a nice spread like most hotel’s we have stayed at.  We packed a small bag and headed out to see the sights of Porto.  We began at the Catedral which is on top of the hill.  We walked past it the day before but decided to go directly to our hotel instead of stopping.  

We took our Compostela’s to get them stamped at the Catedral.  There was a group ahead of us in line that was spending a long time learning about walking the camino.  The man at the desk was happy to give them a ton of time explaining all the steps of becoming Camino Pilgrims while Dianne and I patiently waited to get stamped.  It was funny to hear about all the things we already knew.  

We continued our tour going from church to church as we climbed up and down the small streets of Porto.  It’s a VERY hilly town.  At one church we were only a block from our hotel but didn’t know it.  One stop was a bookstore named Lalao and Irmao who h was famous because JR Rowling had a book signing there for her first Harry Potter book.  You have to pay an entrance fee to a bookstore and the line was LONG.  

We continued our tour from place to place.  We stopped at a small  cafe for lunch - sitting at a very small table looking out onto a series of cobblestone streets too narrow for cars.  There was a ton of foot traffic and we enjoyed watching all the different kinds of people.  One couple was dragging two box suitcases headed for their hotel - and the husband wasn’t happy because he couldn’t figure out the streets/. The wife patiently waited as he tried to figure things out.  Finally he came back from looking around and said something and then she became mad as well.  They both stalked off up the steep street dragging their bags. 

We had a TripAdvisor tour made up of tastings of port wine along with traditional food.  It was fun to learn alot about the city of Porto from Benjamin who was the tour guide.  We had two other young ladies from Germany on the tour and we all had fun.  

The final part of the tour was thru an area where the students of Porto University were having a celebration of their graduation.  It was huge throngs of young adults dressed up like Hogwart students and big top hats of different color.  Each color meant a different school - for example orange was engineering.  The crowds were huge and raucous and students and friends and family celebrates.  The celebrations last a full week!

We headed home after our last tasting and took it easy at our hotel.  It was a nice first day in Porto.  


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