Having taken a day of rest to try to shake a virus that had invaded the team, we were ready to return to Porto for the day. No one was in a great hurry to get going so we spent some time chatting with our Danish neighbors and watching the husband work on the brake on his caravan. After a while with a good sense of humor he told us he was going to charge us a Euro entertainment fee if we kept watching so we decided to head into town.
Today our tour was to the non-Porto side of the river. The south bank of the river is called Gaia and it is most famous as the home of the Port Wine Industry of Portugal.
The water front is lined with Port producers and the old warehouses that store the wine. The Port industry was founded in Porto in the early 1700’s by British investors, and a great number of the famous producers have distinctly British sounding names such as Sandemans, Cockburn’s, and Taylors. The British dominated the industry for decades, but eventually Portuguese families began to get involved also.
Initially we just strolled along the river enjoying the views and the shopping. One of the other industries that Portugal is famous for is canned Sardines. The Portuguese take this very seriously and canned Sardines are considered a delicacy. Ton and Kit spent quite a bit of time shopping one of the stores while Stephen and I waited outside.
It was a busy day on the Gaia side of the river with lots of tourists about. But we went along with the flow and continued down the waterfront. There is a small Mercado on the river that has now been turned into a food hall. We had our lunch there.
Coming out of the food hall we decided to revisit a Port winery we had visited on our last trip. We had really enjoyed the Ramos Pinto winery. The Port is tremendous, and Ton loves the turn of the 20th century advertising that decorates the interior. It would be racy today.
We were lucky to have the tasting area almost to ourselves. We received an in-depth presentation of the wine from a nice young lady, and then were welcomed to explore the tasting area. and look at the art.
After our tasting we hooked back up with Kit and Stephen and began working our way back to the bridge. By this time a lot of street vendors had set up and Ton and Kit enjoyed window shopping the wares.
After 3 hours exploring Gaia we crossed the lower deck of the bridge and reentered Porto. The view from the Riverfront in Porto is not as spectacular as from Gaia as the bluffs down to the river in Gaia are not as steep as Porto. That is probably why the Gaia side was the working side of the river and the Porto side was the living side of the river.
By the time we had covered the riverfront in Porto we decided it was time to head back to the campground. The last 45 minutes of our walk was all uphill to the metro stop for our ride home. But with frequent stops to look in shop windows we made it easily.
We arrived back to the campground just in time for a quick dinner. The days have been really good on this trip, but as soon as the sun drops the temperatures do also. We were having a nice chat when we all realized it was getting quite windy and cold so we turned in for the night.
