Our trip began with a short rainy walk to the station and then an easy train ride from Braga to Porto. The train station in Porto is beautiful with painted and tiled murals throughout. Lovely tiles are all around Porto, decorating many of the building facades.
It was misty when we arrived, but not raining. After we located our Air BnB for these two nights, Emily & Van took us through town, down along the riverside. Across the river, still looking like part of the same city, is Vila Nova de Gaia, where all the wineries and port houses are. We found a restaurant for dinner, after which we headed across to the Calem port house for a combined winery tour, port tasting, and Fado Music concert. We learned about the Douro Valley, the source of all port grapes, and about the process of making port. The concert included a classical guitar, and Portuguese guitar, and two singers, a woman and a man. Of course, the songs were all in Portuguese; nevertheless, we enjoyed the music. The tasting included just two, a white port (we did not know there was such a thing) and a nice tawny port. Although it was new to us, we learned that the Calem brand is widely available and relatively inexpensive.
The next day was misty as well, but we found a recommended breakfast and began our walk around the town with mist and occasional rain. We had intended to visit the “Harry Potter Book Store,” that provided some of the inspiration for J. K. Rowling who lived in Porto when writing the first of book of her series. The store is so popular that you must now purchase a ticket just to enter; thus they have some control over crowds that may just wish to gawk without buying any books. But it was a cool, wet day, and a holiday, in a town filled with tourists anxious to do the same. By the time we got there, still mid-morning, the slow-moving line stretched down two long blocks. We walked by the entrance briefly to steal a glance at the interior but decided not to spend a whole morning just to enter. We did, however, have coffee and tea at The Majestic Café where Ms. Rowling was wont to procure her caffeine, and write on the napkins, while in Porto.
Emily and Van are not so fond of wine tasting as we are, so we split up. We walked the town some more, crossed the high bridge, and made our way over to Vila Nova de Gaia for some more port. We had a great experience at one of the smaller port houses, Quinto do Noval. We sat at a table looking directly out at the walkways and the river, with Porto beyond. Our server was wonderful, explaining our choices and answering our questions. Each tasting would include five wines, each one poured as a glass, not a skimping small taste, so we could easily share a single tasting. We opted for the most expensive option hoping to understand why anyone would pay big bucks for one port when another one costs just 10 €. This included one wine, two ruby ports, a 10 year tawny port and a 40 year tawny port. A single glass of that 40 year port regularly sells by the glass for 25€. We took our time, enjoyed the “Port Lesson” with our server, and savored our five glasses of port. When we finally compared the 40 year tawny port with the others, we agreed that the taste was outstanding, rich, dark, and complex – the very best port we have ever tasted.
After our port tasting, we met Van & Emily again for dinner. We found another great place along the river, on the Porto side.
On Saturday morning we said our goodbyes to Emily and Van. Van would head back by train to Braga while Emily stayed a little longer in Porto for her art class. We headed off to the airport to catch our plane to England.
While waiting to board the plane, we chatted with a woman who approached us asking if we had just walked the Camino. Was it that obvious? Our backpacks were checked, and we wore no scallop shells. We were wearing the best of our two wardrobe choices. Surely, we weren’t close enough that folks could smell us. Did we really look that bad?
