5-16-11 Porto

          Breakfast was again excellent, although I could only look at most of the goodies and taste just a few because of all we have eaten so far.  I invented a new food – chocopacino, or capulat or whatever.  The restaurant had a machine that dispensed various hot drinks, so I made a cup of cappuccino and a cup of hot chocolate and then combined them for a mocha drink. 

          After breakfast a local guide showed us Porto, and finished with a boat ride on the Douro River that runs by Porto.  One thing we noticed is that many buildings feature beautiful blue tile mosaics, particularly in the train station.  We also visited Lello’s, which is one of the world’s most beautiful bookshops,  It has ceilings and walls with intricately carved wood, which is really plaster made to look like wood.

After the boat ride, lunch was on our own, so Marge and I joined Ann and Joe for lunch in an outdoor café along the river.   

Lunch in Porto along the river

 We shared a couple orders of mixed salad, an order of sautéed peppers, and several orders of fried sardines, which Ann has been looking forward to the whole trip.  They had a bottle of local wine, and we had a carafe of sangria.  While we were eating, we started talking to a young man sitting at the table next to ours.  He was dining with his parents and spoke excellent English.  It is always fun to talk to locals, and our conversation with him was no exception.

A friendly local

          We walked around Porto’s shopping district for a while before returning to the hotel to rest.

          Dinner started with a tour of the Taylor’s / Tres Seculos Port Wine Lodge & port tasting with appetizers, on the other side of the Douro River, followed by dinner at the restaurant at the wine lodge.  The tour was like many winery tours we have taken.  The restaurant has a very nice setting, on a hill looking across the river at the historic part of Porto and also with a view of several bridges.  We started with a port tasting on the patio with appetizers with shirt sleeve weather, then had dinner inside.

The first course was a soup of pureed veggies which we couldn’t figure out, but which was so good that it took a bit of will power not to finish it and lick the bowl.  My entrée was pork with a dark sauce with zucchini and sun dried tomatoes and a potato au gratin.  I only had enough to taste it since I was almost full from the soup.  Marge had hake with some sort of veggies.  Dessert was an excellent crème brulee, which I did finish.