After the lovely Duoro valley, we headed towards Porto on the coast. First of all we visited Aveiro, which is just south of Porto, and was the furthest south that we went on the trip.
The Atlantic coast here (Costa Nova) had beautiful beaches – which made Michelle happy – and wild waves (which makes the surfers happy).
Aveiro is described as “the Venice of Portugal”. It’s not quite Venice, but has the similarities of the old town and canals. The name is based on the Celtic word “aber” which means river-mouth, and is used in many place names in Britain. e.g. Aberystwyth.
Of course they do boat trips on the canals. The boats here are called “Moliceros”, and they were originally used to harvest algae from the lagoon for use as fertiliser.
There are many colourful cafés, where we just had to stop for drinks (coffee, beer, wine, …)
Back to Costa Nova, which as well as the beaches, is famous for its colourful Art Nouveau and Art Deco buildings.
After Aveiro, it was finally time to visit Porto.
View of the road, rail, and pedestrian bridges
We rejoined the Duoro river here before it reaches the Atlantic.
A walking tour was a great way to learn more about the city.
Porto lays claim to Harry Potter as J.K. Rowling spent a few years here at University where she began writing the books before moving to Edinburgh to continue.
There is a bookshop which features in the films which attracts many visitors. The owners have to sell tickets as the visitors weren’t coming to buy books. There is a sophisticated queue management system in place.
To avoid pigeons harassing customers at the McDonald’s, they employ a bird of prey (and handler).
Of course, we didn’t actually go to McDonald’s. Instead we had the local ‘speciality’ of Francesinha. It’s made with layers of toasted bread and assorted hot meats such as roast, steak, wet-cured ham, linguica, or chipolata over which sliced cheese is melted by the ladling of a near-boiling tomato-and-beer sauce called molho de francesinha. It’s probably about a week’s worth of calories. I’m not sure that it is healthier than McDonald’s either.
Fabulous murals in one of the train stations
We finished the walking tour at the cathedral. There are many interesting old buildings around the plaza there.
We crossed the pedestrian bridge to the south side of the river on our way to our Port tour and tasting. The port cellars are mostly on the south side.
We then went for our port tour and tasting at the Cálem cellar.
Traditionally there were three types of port: White, Ruby, and Tawny. They have recently introduced a Rosé port to appeal to the younger customer. The Rosé is served chilled.
Diagram showing the process for the different types of port
Some barrels
Our sample bottles
Ready to taste
The port tasting done, it was time to work our way back north.
