May 1st, 2024

We woke up to rain and cold. The rain was supposed to pass over by afternoon and we had no plans so we took our time getting off the boat and took the shuttle into Porto since where we dock is about 30 to 45 minutes outside of town. Porto lies on the Douro river and a lot of river cruises pass through here. We were here on the 21/22 world cruise and thought we knew our way around so we opted for no tour.

The ride is was very scenic and ran along the coast road for several miles. We passed tons of beaches and saw a lot of surfers. The other thing we saw a lot of was people with walking poles and backpacks with covers on them due to the rain. We would see 2 and then 4 and then another 2 all along the coast. I thought it was strange and then Kathy said she wondered if they were all on the Camino trail which finishes in Santiago de Compostela in Spain. I looked it up and while it is not the route it has become a more popular route to walk the coast line. It is a 10 day walk from Porto to Santiago and finches at the cathedral in the middle of Santiago de Compostela.

One of the beaches we were docked close to.

As we headed to Porto we started following the river bank.

The Douro river

A close-up of the colored buildings on the river bank

Where the shuttle dropped us off was not where we remember but it was still easy to walk around town. We saw a huge line waiting to get into a place called Livraria Chardron. I thought it was an eating establishment but when I googled it we found it was listed as the “most beautiful bookstore in the world” and you need tickets to enter and the tickets cost 8 euros. The bookstore dates to 1881. Next time we are in Porto we will ahve to get tickets in advance.

Porto has become more popular in the last few years and definitely more touristy

They Have beautiful buildings

Lots of angled buildings and tiled buildings just like Lisbon

The rain came and went and the high today was 57 degrees and when the wind blew it was quite chilly. We found a nice cafe to eat at and also people watch while we ate.

I had a fried chicken sandwich and Kathy had an egg and cheese sandwich.

At this point of the cruise we are trying to eat off the ship as much as we can. After lunch we walked the town some more and enjoyed all the pretty buildings.

They had lots of squares and green areas.

We loved the color of this fountain

The streets were narrow and steep and cobblestones. They had lovely paths through the green spaces.

There were several river ships in town so there were lots of walking tours.

On our way back to the port they had this large net sculpture to celebrate the Portuguese fisherman.

The net sculpture from the water side. It was huge.

A light house on one of the points we went past. We had all on board by 3pm but the last tour did not make it back to the ship until 4:30 so we sailed shortly after that.

A panoramic of the lighthouse point.

We are now done with Portugal and headed to our last stop in Spain, A Corona. One week from today we will be on a plane headed home.