Porto!

Apartment problem is over! Thankfully we have extremely good landlords.

Our first stop in Portugal was Porto. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we were greeted with strong winds and heavy rains. I've never experienced anything like the weather during that first day. I thought our trip was going to be a disaster. Luckily the weather was amazing the next day and we managed to dodge bad weather for the rest of our trip.

Comfort food is what is needed when you are soaking wet and mad that you spent 15 euros on an umbrella that broke in three seconds. This is comfort food Portuguese style:

Porto is a great city to visit. Being a port town, it has a gritty side, but the hills and colours make it beautiful.

If you only have a day in Porto, the best thing to do is walk around. Head to the Ribeira to get a great view from the riverside.

These are the boats that used to carry Port from the Douro Valley to  Porto.

If you are scared of hills or stairs you may want to skip the trip down to the river.

I think every city in Europe has a church, and most of the churches have a tower. It's always a good idea go to the top of one of these towers to get a good view.

But the highlight of Porto is the Port! Port is a fortified wine, and it can only be called Port if it comes from Porto! Port starts out the same as wine but the fermentation process is stopped early when wine spirits are added to the wine. This kills the yeast which is why Port is so sweet. Now you know!

There are dozens of Port cellars that you can visit. They provide tours and cheap samples. Do this later in the day because Port has about 20% alcohol so you might get drunk! 

You can get to the area with all the Port cellars by taking a tram thing, it's worth the price (it comes with a free Port tasting).

Cheers to Porto!