Last day in Porto

The tickets we bought yesterday for the Blue Bus included a trip on the Rio Douro on the Blue Boat. We walked over to the riverside dock where we were soon on a boat. Once again, it was interesting and the 45 minutes we spent on board showed us things we would not otherwise have seen. Most of the traffic on the river was tourist boats such as ours, with one going past every couple of minutes.

Our next planned event for the day was to visit the Offley Port House. We had read a good report about it in the SMH six months ago so we bypassed the ones closer to the tourist area. On arrival, at 1 pm, we were told that the next tour was at 3pm. Not to be deterred we went for a long walk, with gelato, and were back in time for the tour.

Sophie, our guide, gave a good presentation of the history of Port Wine, how and where it is made, and so forth. I believe that this is not one of the larger port houses, but they certainly had a lot of wine maturing away in French oak barrels. At the end of the tour we were taken to the tasting room where tables had been set up to reflect each ticket. Robyn had bought a two glass tasting, and of course I had to have a three glass ticket. It was all very nicely set out, and we were talked through the various types. Obviously doing two port house sessions in one day would take an effort.

On our return we showered and changed and went out for a pre-dinner drink. This was a pleasant way of ending our time in Porto, as tomorrow we head to Lisbon for three days.Read more