Porto

A lovely day to be a tourist in Porto! Porto means "port" and Oporto simply means "the port".  The Rio Douro means "river of gold". This morning, I started off at the railway station, Sao Bento, which is famous for its murals made of tiles, depicting various historical events.

Then I booked a river cruise "Six Bridges Tour", just less than an hour up and down the river going within sight of the sea. My sun hat got its first airing of the entire holiday and I have to say it had got very squashed with being folded up inside my backpack for 3 weeks. There was lots to see and photograph on both sides of the river.

A rare photo of me enjoying the sun:

This afternoon's visit to the Sandemans Cellars on the opposite side of the river was fascinating.  Their vineyards are 100 kms upstream and the riverside cellars are simply used for storage in enormous oak vats. The Sandemans logo "the Don" was one of the world's earliest trademarks from 1928.

We got to try 2 types of port at the end of the tour:

This is their tasting room:

The place In previous times: