Second day in Porto

After a lifetime of never using open top buses, the hop-on and hop-off type, we are now convinced they have value. We lined up for the Blue Bus circuit (which is probably the same as the Red Bus circuit and the Yellow Bus circuit) and caught it at stop 11, just around the corner from our apartment. It was quite interesting and took us to places we would not otherwise have gone, but when it reached the ocean we hopped off because we had the opportunity to walk for some kilometres along the beach, such as it was. There were a few people brave enough to go into the water, but most were just sunbaking.

We missed the bus two stops on so had to go to the third one along, and then waited and waited while Red and Yellow buses drove past. At least we had a good walk along the Rio Douro.

While walking around the centre of the old town, we noticed many tram tracks but no trams. Today we saw a few of them out and about, all packed to the rafters with hot passengers. We weren’t even slightly tempted to hop on. They looked more like the ones you seen in third world countries where they are piled high with people and their belongings.

Naturally we are trying a broad range of local wines, including some “Port” left by our hosts. Mostly they have been okay, picked as they were at random because we could not understand the labels. However, this evening we opened a bottle of sparkling and had to pour it down the sink, after a heroic effort to convince ourselves it was okay! Cork bottle closures are still the standard here. We did not see one screw cap anywhere, so it was just as well there was a corkscrew in the drawer.Read more