Every tourist must take a boat tour in Porto; it’s the unwritten rule. No need to book too far in advance. All the boats that used to transport goods and barrels of port wine, are now in the business of transporting tourists.
We chose Porto Boating (highly recommend), a motorboat company that moors at the end of the last bridge. Our companions on board were two French twins, a Portuguese couple, and a trilingual French couple, one of whom was born in Portugal. The French/Portuguese couple translated for the French sisters, our guides spoke in English and we were all happy.
Over two hours, we languidly worked our way to the Atlantic, where we were greeted with a fine mist. Our guide put on a heavy coat at this point and worried that I was cold despite my wool cardigan! Porto is known for its heat, so an understandable reaction from a local. Along the way, we tasted three types of port – blanc (white), tawny, and ruby. Blanc port is hard to get in the U.S. and the taste was new to me. I liked it the best and told my new French/Portuguese friend in fractured French the same: Je prefere le blanc aussi!
Well-fortified, we then set off to explore the older parts of Porto – Ribeira and Gaia – along the Douro riverbank. It was a Monday but packed with tourists and vendors. It was if everyone had taken the day off.
Portugal was never invaded during WWII, and Porto has a tenderly worn look to it. Buildings date back to the 14th century and are distinguished by narrow cobbled lanes and bright tiles in pink, yellow, blue, red, and green.
Not to mention the purple church.
Even McDonald’s was tiled.
We walked with the masses looking for the perfect restaurant along the waterfront. We were advised by our boating crew to try a Freschnina (check spelling), a sandwich stuffed with a variety of meat and then covered in tomato sauce. It would be better in Porto than Lisbon, we were assured. But in the end, we elected to have a custard tart and Sangria near the base of Pont de Luiz I. The port wine and snacks on our boat tour had filled us up.
Then we walked across that same bridge to Gaia. This side contains the caves and wine shops of the most known port companies, especially Sandeman. As we’d already had our port tasting for the day, we just admired the colorful buildings and traditional boats lining the riverbank.
Our evening was completed with a five-star traditional Portuguese meal in our very own Hotel des Virtudes.
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