We headed North to Porto

Our friend from Portugal, Margarita, had told us about a cool trip that included going fromPorto, up the Douro river on a riverboat and then coming back by train to Porto. So we booked a tour and packed our bags for the two night trip. The tour was to include an overnight in Regua which is half way up the river. We got to Porto around two in the afternoon, checked into our hotel in Porto and headed out to see the city sites. There are many Port Winery tours in the city. We walked around town a bit, got our bearings, and headed for the first tour since it was about closing time. The first one over the bridge was Calem. It was very interesting to learn about harvesting and bottling Port. You get to taste a few different kinds after the tour and then you can buy your choice if you please. Port is always very sweet so I like most of it, John doesn't care for it much. We did purchase a good Vintage Port from the year 2000 which was a very good year for Port according to the Port Wine Industry that grades every kind of port from that years harvest. We figure if we keep it for our 50th wedding anniversary, it will be a good investment (some Vintage ports go for $1500 or more) or a lot of fun drinking it. They are supposed to last in the bottle for over 100 years. We walked through town some more and found a great Indian restaurant and enjoyed the sauces (see photo) and John had HOT CURRY so he was happy.

When we returned from the cruise, we had to spend another night in Porto because the last train to Lisbon had already departed. We found a hotel near the Sao Benton train station. This train station is famous for the tiles covering the walls inside of it. The next day as we were touring the city some more we found a church with the tiles covering the whole outside (I have included photos of both locations). It is very beautiful how they use tiles on the outside of their homes and buildings. The first rain we've had in two weeks came today so we went "shopping" for umbrellas because being new at leaving the boat behind, we also left our umbrellas and rain slickers behind. We didn't let the rain stop us though and we muddled through but the umbrellas didn't last the whole day...the wind got the best of them. They have the cool Trolleys here in Porto as well as Lisbon, must be a Portuguese thing.

We also had to visit the Imperial McDonalds. Apparently, the old Imperial restaurant was located here and McDonalds hasn't remodeled to the usual McDonalds standard so there are crystal chandeliers and modern furniture, etc ., quite the site.