July 30th, 2024

This was our 3rd time to Porto and we were just here 3 months ago. It is a nice town and easy to walk around. It is on the Douro river and is popular with the river cruises. The boat docks on the coast about 30 minutes away from Porto and we booked a Porto on your own tour so we could get a ride into town.

Our ship next to the very modern terminal building.

There is a nice beach very close to the port and it has several sculptures along the coast. The coast has nice walking paths and is part of the El Camino walk which is a very popular multi day hike.

The bus dropped us off in the center of town which is up on a hill overlooking the Douro river.

Several bridges cross over the Douro river

Most of their houses have tiles decorating them

We walked around town for aa few hours and got some lunch and our favorite pastries to take back to the boat. The boat was not leaving until 5 and all on board was 4:30 but we had to be back to catch the bus at 2pm. Not sure why but we were running out of things to do in town and it was getting hit especially with the full sunshine.

On the ride back the beaches were now packed with beach goers.

You could see the beach from the boat and tons of people in the water.

You could also see this light house from the boat

This is another sculpture on the waterfront that celebrates the Portuguese fisherman who some still fish using the old net style.

Sailing away

Where the Douro river meets the Atlantic

They have been showing the Olympics on the boat. The big screen by the pool shows the Olympics 24/7 and you ahve 2 channels in your room devoted to the Olympics so we have been keeping up with it.

Next port is Lisbon, Portugal on Wednesday