Our travel to Portugal was fairly uneventful, only one flight delay of 90 minutes and our luggage arrived with us. We joined our group of friends at a delightful hotel in Porto where we are spending a few days before our cruise on the Douro River.

We started our day today with a walk by the Douro, both sides. To get to the river we walked through cobblestone streets, admired local goods in stores, not buying but promising we will come back before we leave. We also dodged construction as a new metro line is being installed. We noticed that Porto is a colourful city. There were murals on the several buildings as well as a ton of graffiti.

The buildings were beautiful as we made our way to the river. Many are covered in decorative ceramic tiles.

We strolled down the river walk and enjoyed a view of the boats and the walls by the harbour. For example, this tunnel through the harbour wall is the last remaining portal to the river pier built in 1386.

We enjoyed the colourful buildings, noticing the laundry and satellite dishes augmenting these older homes.

I noticed the Barcelos Rooster peering down on us as we walked. This rooster is the unofficial symbol of Portugal, symbolizing the Portuguese love of life. It arises from a 15th century legend where a poor pilgrim passing through Barcelona was arrested and sentenced to death. He swore his innocence to the judge who was eating his dinner during that plea. The judge lost his appetite after hearing from the man but still upheld the death sentence. Just as the hanging was to occur, the judge’s roasted rooster apparently stood up and crowed. The judge realized he had made a mistake and saved the pilgrim at the last moment. There are several permutations of this legend but the rooster is everywhere.

We crossed the river from Porto to Villa Nova de Gaia on the lower deck of the Pont Luis I bridge. This 2 deck bridge took 7 years to build and was finished in 1888. The engineer responsible for the bridge was a student of Gustav Eiffel. It replaced an older suspension bridge.

We strolled down from the bridge and had our first glass of Portuguese wine of the day at Quintado Nova. This vineyard has been in production since 1715. It was delicious. It was 27 degrees today and a cool glass went down nicely. We wandered further and encountered the Portuguese Experience. We were served a fried breaded cod cake filled with a delicious cheese and a glass of port wine. While we happily indulged, the organist preformed songs from Queen and Rihanna. It was delightful if not a bit odd. We got to keep our port glasses as souvenirs.

As we made our way to the cable car that would take us up to the high deck of the bridge for our walk home, we encountered a group of university students getting initiated into their first year. the first years are in yellow. The upper year students are in black suits with black wool capes. This is an annual ritual that is about bonding/mentoring more than hazing. They looked like they were having fun.

It was good to have the option of the Telefericode de Gaia (cable car gondola ride) to start the journey back to the hotel.

We finished our day with a delightful cocktail at our hotel bar (tawny port, strawberry, basil and tonic water with a dash of lime). It was a refreshing beverage at the end of a long, satisfying walk. We had incredible seafood for dinner, planned our walking tour for tomorrow and have called it a night.