Paço Episcopal

What do you do on a rest day? Take a walking tour of the city of course - only a few miles, seeing the major sights, and learning some history. There were at least 8 countries represented in the group of 25 on our tour.

While visiting the Se Cathedral, we heard music. The Penn State Glee Club was having a rehearsal in the church. They were performing there in the evening and then three other places in Portugal this week. What a surprise!

Across the bridge from Porto is Gaia, a town where port wine is aged. We did port wine tasting in two different places. The first was a larger company called Taylor's. The setting was a rose garden with peacocks and a friendly rooster. It was very peaceful and you easily forgot where you were. The second was a family run place called Quevedo with a neighborhood home feeling. Both had good port wine.

Porto is built in a hill along the river. Gaia is along the river on the other side. There is a lot of walking up hills or taking Ubers which we did to go to dinner and back to our guest house.

There are two dishes that Porto is known for. Francesinha is a bread with steak, two kinds of sausage, cheese, another slice of bread, covered with a slightly spicy sauce and then can be topped with a fried egg. Jeff has had this twice. The other is tripe stew, yet to be tasted. Otherwise, there is a lot of fish on the menus.Read more