Day eight saw us leave Lisbon and take the train north to Porto. Porto is Portugal’s second largest city and it is right on the Douro River. It is also home to Port wine, which I’ll talk about tomorrow.
Our hotel was in the historic Ribeira district, a UNESCO World Heritage Site Heritage site with amazing old buildings, cobblestone streets and located right on the river.
We arrived around lunch time and had the rest of the day free to explore areas of the city. We made our way through narrow streets, which we were now accustomed to and to a Saturday evening mass at the Catedral do Porto.
After the mass, we made our way to a largely pedestrian street with cafes and street musicians. This particular man was an ex pat from Brazil. He was very good on the soprano saxophone.
We sat and listened, had some drinks and generally just chilled. When dinner time rolled around (which in Portugal is late, 7:00 to 8:00), we decided to try the restaurant right next to us. They had wonderful salad and soup. The salmon was curry spiced and very good. Overall, our food had been average (not much variety), but this one was excellent.
We Ubered back to the hotel. Tomorrow would be a tour of the Douro River valley, Port wine tastings and a river tour. The weather had been mid to high 70s our entire time in Portugal and tomorrow looked like it would continue that trend.