Well after deciding that Madrid is the worst place I have ever been to I was fairly down and wanting to come home for a few days. We flew to Porto this morning though and thanks to this city I am once again having a fabulous time! The minute we walked out of the airport to the train station there a worker greeted us with a smile, helped us buy our train tickets and explained how to get to our hotel. The hotel staff are really friendly and then the people at the soccer shop (we bought tickets for the champions league match tomorrow night) were lovely as well! Still some dodgy people around but nowhere near as many and the city is much cleaner and prettier. Yay!
We had a look at the square next to our hotel called liberty square. Then we went up the Clerigos Tower and enjoyed pretty views in the sunshine! We went into a library called Livraria Lello which has beautiful architecture (wasn't allowed to take pics sorry!!) and where JK Rowling used to come to read and eat in the cafe! Billy went outside while I bought a bookmark and I came outside 10 seconds later to find him signing something. I forget sometimes he hasn't been here before and doesn't know about all the con artists. These two women had come up to him saying they wanted a petition signed for some good cause. Once you sign it though they flick to the back page where it says by signing you have to donate x amount of money. So I dragged him away from them and felt completely freaked out like I did the other day. I had all our things locked in my bag, he knows not to trust anyone at all now. Phew.
Then we had a look at a couple of churches and Sao Bento train station which all had beautiful tiled walls with pictures showing the history of Portugal. We then had lunch at Cafe Majestic, a cute little 1920s cafe. We got the funicular down to the port area and saw the famous Ponte d Luis bridge! We went for a boat cruise for about an hour on the Douro River which was nice and relaxing! Then we walked around the port area. There are sooo many Malaga supporters here for the soccer tomorrow! The news were filming them here.
We went to the winery called Ramos Pinto which we had a free wine taste Voucher for From the boat. We tried ruby and white port wines. I'm not a big wine fan but as far as wines go they were ok!!
We did a tour of the Ferreira Port Winery which is over 200 years old and the only port winery in Porto still in Portuguese hands and that has been its entire history. We saw lots of different types of port, was funny seeing a barrel of port.as old as me haha! The oldest port they have is from 1815. Apparently once opened you have 48 hours to drink and costs $1500 - eek! And port wine is made the same way as regular wine but after 3 days of fermentation instead of being left to continue to ferment, port wine has brandy added to it which stops this process. It's about 20% alcoholic.
We then got the cable car to the top of the bridge and walked back to our hotel.
Oh my god. We are watching the news and they just showed a huge protest at Madrid airport at midday today involving police beating people up etc etc. Thank god our flight left at 7am and was fine. So scary. I am so glad to be out of that horrible place and would never recommend it to anyone.
By the way, we are now 11 hours behind you all (same time zone as UK).
Love to all and glad to not be in Madrid!
Claire
Xoxoxox
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