A quick scoff of cornflakes and it was off to the city again.
The bus trip into town is an experience in itself. The route from the camp ground to the city, took us through some little villages with incredibly narrow cobbled streets. No sweat for the bus drivers of this route though - they charge through as if the road is as wide as a rugby field! Maybe they just do its scare the tourists, but they charge through so fast that the sides of the bus slide close enough to the solid stonewalls to strip a coating of paint off the bus! Wing mirrors on parked cars are shown no mercy!
Some of the streets are so narrow that pedestrians have to shelter in doorways and wait for the bus to hurtle pass. God help anyone who steps out of a doorway or a side lane.
Nearing town, the road the bus goes down narrows again to one lane. It twists and turns so sharply the bus driver has to honk his horn all the way down the road to make sure any oncoming vehicles know we're coming. At one point the bus came to a screeching stop due to a car coming up the road - there's definitely not enough room for two vehicles!!
We finally make it to Porto unscathed - whew!!!
Porto sits on the northern side of the Rio Douro. On the southern side of the river is the town of Gaia, the name of which is commonly ignored, with the whole area generally referred to as Porto.
Since we enjoyed the bus tours in Lisbon so much, we decided to do the same in Porto. We stuck with the Yellow Bus company and bought a ticket that would give us a two day pass to complete two bus tours, a wine tour and a river cruise for €24 each. I reckon that's a bargain!
We immediately jumped on the first bus for the two hour Historic Porto tour. It was such a good tour, showing off the many highlights the city has to offer. Taking in the central city and then out the suburbs, we got to see a good cross section of the city.
At the end of the tour we jumped off the bus at the Rio Douro wharf with the intention of going on the river cruise. I say intention, because we never actually got there. There was a 30 minute wait for the cruise and I thought it would be good to have quick drink (it was after midday at this stage). As the boat stated to fill we decided to flag the cruise and just sit and watch the river happenings - and of course sample a few more beers and wines.
The river is remarkably clean and decent sized fish can easily be seen swimming in amongst the fishing boats and jetties. There were kids jumping off the wharf into the river, doing backflips and other elaborate diving techniques. Great fun to watch - they certainly know how to enjoy themselves!
After sitting for an hour or so, we headed to Gaia on the other side of the river - a two minute walk across the bridge - to do the wine tour. This turned out not to be a tour of the wineries, but a tour of the Calem winery only. The only wine they produce is white and red port.
Some facts we learn about about port
- Port comes from Gaia not Porto
- they only use the name Porto because it's good for marketing purposes
- grapes are still grown and harvested in the traditional tiered manner on the sides of the surrounding hills
- originally it was only men who carried the grapes
- back in the day, men would carry bags weighing up to 75kgs. Now, due to health and safety regulations and for insurance purposes, the maximum anyone can carry is 25 kg
- reserve wine means single harvest. All others are blended.
- reserve is determined by a controlling body that covers all growers and they will determine if it is a good year or not - grapes must reach a certain standard before a 'reserve' year can be confirmed
- sail boats used to transport the port up and down the river - whilst the barrels can still be seen in many of the boats on the riverside, these days all port is transpired by truck (the barrels in the boats are purely decorative).
Our tour was through the Calem winery. We really enjoyed the tour and did manage to learn a few things (as above). Their biggest barrel can hold an incredible 60,000 litres of port, with the port being pumped into the bottom of the barrel and the finished product being taken from the top.
The smell in the cellars is so good- delicious. The oldest big barrel in the winery is 86 years old. They will keep them in use for a maximum of 100 years. The smaller barrels are kept for much less, with all old barrels (large and small) being sold to Scotland for making whiskey.
There are two types of red ports - Ruby and Tawny. The simple way to tell the difference is by holding a finger on one side of a glass and looking at it through the other side of the glass. If you can see your finger you're drinking a ruby and if you can't you're drinking a tawny.
If you ever buy a Port and it says that it's a 10 year old, then by law, it must be at least that - but it can be older.
As a port matures it will change in it's taste
10 year - Chocolate flavours
20 year - Spice comes through
30 year - Tobacco
40 year - Vanilla
10 year - Chocolate flavours
20 year - Spice comes through
30 year - Tobacco
40 year - Vanilla
And lastly, the best thing about the tour, was when it finished we got to sample some of the white and red ports that are currently on offer. Very nice and at less than €20 a bottle, a couple found their way into my bag!!
After the tour we decided to stay and enjoy the less hectic southern side of the river. We sat at a bar on the riverbank, mojito and beer in hand, enjoying the evening and setting sun. It's the perfect spot to watch the sunset over Porto.
We had dinner on the riverside in Gaia at a small winebar & kitchen called Dovrvm. We had stopped there while waiting for our bus the previous night and befriended the manager. He was such a nice guy, we decided to give dinner a go there, and we certainly weren't disappointed. The food was fantastic and the service was brilliant. I would definitely recommend this place any travellers to Porto.
Following dinner it was back on the bus and out to the campground for the night.
Not sure if I've mentioned it before, but everywhere we've gone on this trip - London, Paris, Barcelona, Morocco and now Portugal - everyone has adopted wifi and it's just expected to be available - quite often not even password protected.
We found free wifi on the yellow bus company tour buses in Lisbon and Porto and also found that both cities are trialling free wifi on public buses. I think we could learn from Europe (and North Africa)!!!!
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